The 2020 Anticorruption Day video, released at the end of the campaign, incorporated all SMC avatars to promote integrity and social accountability.
2nd Social Media Campaign Comes to a Close
Between the end of September and the beginning of December, P4D ran our second social media campaign to promote the four key social accountability tools (SATs). The objective of this campaign was to increase engagement and awareness of SATs by explaining what each tool is, how it works, and why it is important, share human impact stories demonstrating how these tools can positively impact people's lives, and increase R.E.C.A. (reach, engagement, conversion, advocacy) of P4D on social media.
The fall campaign was more successful than our spring campaign, ultimately resulting in a large reach of 5.7 million individual accounts and a higher-than-average engagement (443K+ individual engagements with our content). The content we created was designed to be entertaining while also informative. This ‘edutainment’ approach included the introduction of 4 SAT characters and one genie character to help promote our message. Each character was designed to represent different demographics in Bangladesh, and the genie character was created to provoke conversations about the utility of the SATs.
During the campaign, we took note of the most successful types of posts based on the R.E.C.A. of each post. Overall, photo graphics, infographics, and video posts with our newly adapted method of character/avatar marketing were the most engaging. The videos and infographics were created with our newly designed characters, and in each video, the SAT character helped citizens understand and learn how to use the policies. The storylines were simple and accessible for all viewers, as we focused on commonly requested public services. Additionally, the genie character made the storylines funny and light, so viewers would remain engaged with the content.
The 2021 Anti-Corruption Day video
The overall R.E.C.A. results were far more than we expected. People advocated and shared the content on their own social media pages, resulting in 4x the amount of advocacy compared to the spring campaign. With an estimated 34 million Facebook users in Bangladesh, posting educational and entertaining content to the platform can help more citizens understand what these tools can be used for and how to access them. Utilising Facebook and other social media platforms to promote SATs will also increase the overall impact of the project. As in-person and locally based events are limited in size, especially in the near future with physical distancing protocols in place, this approach has been particularly effective.
Overall, the goal of reaching more citizens who will actively use these tools and advocate for their use in their community is essential to the campaign's success. SATs can effectively be promoted online, and increasing widespread understanding and use of the tools will lead to more proactive and informed citizens once the project concludes.
Field Visits on District Policy Forum Discussions
As P4D moves into the next project phase, one of the main activities will be the formation of District Policy Forums (DPFs) in 12 districts. These forums will be designed as independent platforms for dialogue where policymakers can discuss and improve policy implementation with a focus on citizen interests.
In December, the identification of DPF members from the project districts began. As part of this identification process, P4D field staff conducted district visits between the end of December 2020 and mid-January 2021. During the visits, the project staff met with several local NGO representatives, civil society members, and local government representatives.
After meeting with the potential DPF members and consultations with P4D CSO partners, a long list of potential members has been prepared. Before the finalisation of the forum members, the list will be reviewed by P4D senior management to ensure compliance and eligibility.
CSO Quality Standards Workshops
In Year 3 of project implementation, P4D piloted CSO Quality Standards with 60 CSOs in our 21 districts. In November 2020, the project commissioned an evaluation of the application of CSO quality standards. This exercise was originally planned in March 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2020, the project made the decision to do the exercise remotely.
As part of the assessment, the evaluation consisted of a desk-based programme document review, remote Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with Regional Coordinators (RCs) and District Facilitators (DFs), one-on-one interviews with the P4D senior management team, and hosted a virtual workshop with P4D CSO leaders. The virtual workshop held on 22 November 2020 with 12 CSO representatives.
P4D Launches New Website
In December, P4D launched its new website. The redesigned page better details the work P4D has completed up to this point in time. There are also several interactive elements included on the website, including a resource hub with policy documents, brochures, stickers, videos and posters all available to view or download. The site also includes the recently developed Map for MAPs (M4M), which is an interactive map via Google Maps that allows visitors to see where our CSO partners are based and where their associated MAP groups are located. The M4M also highlights Social Action Projects and includes a few images of the work being done. The new website also highlights an impact section where news and success stories will be regularly updated. For more or to sign up for the quarterly e-newsletter, visit www.p4dbd.org.
2021 P4D Calendar
As 2020 came to a close, we designed a new desk calendar for 2021. The new calendar highlights the four social accountability tools and features the 4 SAT characters from the social media campaign this fall. Calendars were printed and distributed to our CSO partners, government officials in our project districts, institutional partners, and members of the Cabinet Division, EU Delegation, and British Council HQ in Dhaka. The calendar is meant to serve as a reminder to foster good governance and continue our collective work to promote social accountability tools for both the public and public servants.
MAP Member Honoured with IVD Award
International Volunteer Day (IVD) is a celebration to honour volunteer efforts at the local level. This year, over 400 nominations came in from across the country for the 2020 IVD Bangladesh Award which focused on Covid-19 Response and Recovery. Among the top winners, a P4D Multi-Action Partnership (MAP) member, Fahim Sheikh, was awarded this prestigious honour.
A volunteer with the CSO Jagoroni Sangshad Kusumpur in Munshiganj, Fahim Sheikh was awarded 6th place in the IVD Bangladesh Volunteer Award 2020 for his outstanding achievements in helping his community and the local government reduce the spread of Covid-19. He and his fellow volunteers used digital tools and physical posters to promote accurate information and practices about health and hygiene in the community.
Before his efforts to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, he has worked since 2018 to raise awareness of social accountability tools such as the Right to Information, Citizen’s Charter, Grievance Redress System and National Integrity strategy in his community.
Programme Trainings for Government Officials
Strategic Communications Trainings for Journalists Continue under the NIMC
From January 9-13, the NIMC conducted 1 TOT course on Strategic Communication for Good Governance with 30 participants (most of whom were NIMC faculty). They also developed a manual for local journalists and conducted 9 in-person training courses in 9 districts with a total of 225 participants. Due to travel restrictions, they also conducted 10 online training courses at another 10 districts with 250 participants in total. To date, they have finished 19 Journalist training courses with 475 participants altogether. NIMC has almost completed their journalist trainings, with two remaining courses scheduled in February.
BPATC Completed Trainings for 600 Officials
BPATC has continued their work to improve government knowledge and sensitisation of key Social Accountability Tools (SATs). At the end of February 2020, they conducted a TOT course on Social Accountability Tools with 32 participants, most of whom were BPATC Faculty Members. The trainers then conducted 8 in-person APM training courses at BPATC with 401 GoB staff and 4 regional APM training courses at Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Chattogram with 200 GoB staff.
BPATC also conducted a study titled 'Assessing Civil Officers’ Knowledge and Capacity on APA, CC, GRS, NIS, and RTI to Ensure Good Governance for Better Public Service Delivery in Public Administration in Bangladesh’. The report was delivered in mid-January 2021 and showed that all the Social Accountability Tools (SATs) are highly interlinked and interdependent. The results of the study confirmed that measuring knowledge of the SATs is a valid metric for gauging the quality of public service delivery. A deeper assessment also showed that an increase in civil servants’ knowledge of SATs is required to further improve service delivery quality.
REVE Systems GRS Trainings
REVE Systems conducted a total of 6 courses during the last quarter to support P4D’s GRS activities: 1 TOT for the Cabinet Division with 11 CD representatives, 3 training courses for 21 District level GRS Officials with a total of 63 participants, and 2 refresher courses with 63 GoB staff. They also developed a training manual for the trainees to support learning efforts. In February, they will submit a final report on their work, and in the meantime, they will continue to provide software updates to support the Cabinet Division.
Special: Midline Report Shows Great Improvements
In November, P4D finalised the Mid-line Study Report which measured the changes and assessed the impact of P4D activities. A baseline study for the project was conducted in early 2018 to provide baseline values for the project’s Logical Framework (LogFrame) indicators, from which the improvements were measured. Despite methodology difficulties due to the pandemic, telephone interviews were conducted with 600 survey participants- 400 from Upazilas where P4D has active partners, and 200 from adjacent Upazilas. In total, 600 survey respondents (8% rejection rate), 48 civil society representatives for KIIs (5% rejection rate), and 63 CSO leaders were involved in the mid-line survey.
Overall, the indicators reflected a significant improvement since the baseline study. Many of the indicators related to people’s knowledge and understanding of the four social accountability tools which greatly increased, showing that P4D intervention was able to raise the level of awareness of SATs among community people and other civil society actors at the local level (Union). The targets set for forming and operating MAPs, for piloting of CSO standards, and the number of people who used CRCs were all met. The project exceeded the targets set for capacity building and sensitisation of government officials on accountability and responsiveness as well.
Percentage of community people aware of accountability tools CC, RTI, NIS & GRS
P4D has not started the formation of forums at regional and national levels, which is one of the major project indicators yet to be measured. The coming months will be focusing on the following efforts:
P4D will:
Concentrate more on forming and operationalising forums at the regional and national levels,
Review of its log frame. We will revise some targets for the remaining period, given that most output level targets have been reached.
Work at the district level on the already identified local issues and improve democratic governance in the entire P4D intervention districts through the dissemination of learnings.
Concentrate more on the regional-and national-level dialogues to address issues on which briefs are developed.
Document how CRCs function after the handover to community management to find out more about the mechanisms for ensuring sustainability.
Consider using districts where intervention on accountability tools is not carried out (as a normal test) to measure the actual impact of P4D intervention.
Goal:
Democratic ownership strengthened & accountability mechanisms improved in Bangladesh
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Platforms for Dialogue and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.