Public Awareness for Resource Mobilization

A multifaceted & collaborative effort

Edith Hesse & the CCC Team

May 18, 2009

Agriculture in the LimelightAn opportunity - too good to be missed!

• World Development Report 2008, World Bank• Food Prize Crisis• Climate Change• Financial crisis and its effect on the poor

CIAT Media Coverage – Reaching New Highs

2007– Crop Wild Relatives & Climate Change (CIAT/Bioversity; Andy Jarvis)

2008– CGIAR Seed Shipment to Svalbard (multi-center; Daniel Debouck)– Towards more Effective Seed Aid (Louise Sperling)– Enola Bean Patent Rejection (Daniel Debouck)

2009: – African Soil Information Service (AfSIS) (Nteranja Sanginga, Peter Okoth)

Worldwide Media Impact – Reaching over 50 millions*

Story Title / Researcher Selected Media Coverage & Estimated Reach

Crop Wild Relatives & Climate Change, Andy Jarvis

Financial Times, Scientific American, Reuters, USA Today. 2.2 mio readers

CGIAR Seed Shipment to Svalbard, Daniel Debouck

Agence France-Presse, Agencia EFE (Spain), TV & Radio. 3.4 mio listeners & readers

Towards More Effective Seed Aid, Louise Sperling

BBC World Service – Network Africa; Nature.

27.2 mio listeners and readers

Enola Bean Patent Rejection, Daniel Debouck

BBC Mundo, Nature, EFE (Spain), Agencia Reforma (Mexico), blogs, web sites. 1.2 mio readers

African Soil Information Service (AfSIS) Launch

N. Sanginga

BBC News, Time, Nature, Science, Radio France International. News coverage in 8 languages.

44.6 mio listeners and readers

* Burness Communications. Media Impact of CGIAR Promotions. March 2009

Story Media Outreach

30 Anniversary – Genetic Resource Unit

Combined with “Open House for Journalists”

Rich coverage in LAC media: press, radio, TV

Latin American Rice Revolution – a Response to the Food Crisis

Wide dissemination in LAC media; TV and radio interiews

“CIAT entre las 100 empresas más emprendedoras del Valle”

Local magazine with wide distribution

Nutritious beans in Colombian fields Local news papers; radio, TV

Successful LAC – Media OutreachPromoting CIAT with immediate constituencies

CIAT -> Cali -> Valle -> Colombia -> LAC -> Worldwide

Worldwide Media Outreach – What works?

News worthy story• New and/or counter-intuitive• Relates to:

– Event – Article or book – Award – Grant – CGIAR 2009/2010 campaign topics & includes more than one CG center:

• Climate Change

• International Year of Biodiversity

• Food Price volatility

– Hot topic in the media

Media Outreach - Lessons Learned

Joint promotion• CGIAR Secretariat • Burness Communications• Researcher• Communications Staff

Proved effective at different stages• Preparatory stage• Immediately before/after launch• After launch

Lessons learned 1. Preparatory Stage

• Media Plan (best timing, place, people)• Re-writing of the press release• Adjusting story title• Reviewing• Handling institutional partners• Handling of quotes • Managing inter-institutional partner relationships• Reviewing & fact checking

Preparatory stage can take up to two months

2. Immediately before/after launch

• Ensure managers and researchers are available for media interviews– On call at the right time– Who answers what?

3. After the launch

Insure availability of good press room on the web– Press materials (photos, background materials, etc. –

multilingual where needed) – Audio, videos specially prepared for the launch– Audio, video interviews related to the story promotion– Media coverage reports

• Immediately after publications• Full report after a few weeks (Melcrum database)

Public Awareness will thrive with …

• Good communications strategy in place• Decisive support by the DG and the Management Team• Researchers willing to serve as media champions

• Good Web site and well managed institutional repositories • Intelligent use of social media • Excellent team work:

– Researchers– Resource Mobilization – Impact Assessment– Communications

• A well coordinated and highly motivated communications team

Looking forward to making important contributions to CIAT’s mission!

Library TrainingVisitors/Conferences

Communications Graphic Design

Head CCC

Mariano Mejía

Olga LucíaGonzález

Marleny Sáenz

Carlos Saa

Eleonora Izquierdo

Patricia Fajardo

Oscar Chaparro

César Otero

Rommel Durán

Gladys Rodríguez

María FernandaMejía

Andrea Carvajal

Neil Palmer

Julio Martínez

Óscar Idárraga

Camilo Oliveros

Corporate Communications and Capacity Strengthening (CCC) Team

Olive WahuraThiong’o

AdrianaIsabelGiraldo

LinaMaríaSatizábal

Communications Interns

EdithHesse

DG Communications Assistant

Lynn Menéndez

EduardoFigueroa

CCC – Ongoing Work behind the Scenes

Training, Visitors & Conferences 195 Visiting researchers (thesis research,

specialization) 124 Participants in specialized courses 2 Open Houses for Colombian Universities

(240 participants)1400 Visitors overall

Library1500 Books, reports, articles cataloged

4400 Reference questions answered

325 User orientation in-house

1700 Items on loan/consulted in-house

1720 Documents delivered (electronic & print)

Communications & Graphic Arts 140 Items designed; 2 multimedia produced 1800 Pages translated; 750 pages edited 100 Articles, reports written and published on the Intranet; plus daily web and intranet updates