An International Research
Consortium to Maximise
Benefits & Equity of HIV
Treatment & Care Systems

Evidence for Action partners from Malawi, Uganda, UK and Zambia met in Brighton on 9-11th October 2007 to take part in a communications workshop. The first two days of the workshop took participants through the stages of designing a communications strategy. The final day looked at developing the writing skills of those present, and the Communications Community of Practice was launched. The workshop also included talks from staff of DFID, the Institute of Development Studies and the AIDS Alliance.

The aim of the workshop was to develop country-level communication strategies for the Evidence for Action programme, and to increase partner capacity to carry out communications activities. These strategies are now in the process of being finalised, and will feed into the overall communications strategy for the consortium.

Topics covered during the workshop include

• Identifying the audience (using Interest, Alignment and Influence Matrix)

• Identifying the changes in the audience (using ‘stories of change’)

• Forces for and against change (using Force Field Analysis)

• Developing a strategy

• The Message and the Messenger

• Knowledge and Learning

• Communities of Practice

• Writing for non-academic audiences

• Testing the tools

The workshop was facilitated by Enrique Mendizabal of ODI’s RAPID programme, and Laura Jarque, a communications officer at ODI. Tools used during the workshop can be found on the RAPID website.