A strategy for CIP

Paul StapletonHead, Communications and Public Awareness Department (CPAD)

Communications – creating interest, achieving understanding

CIP

Boa

rd M

eeti

ng

2009

Why communicate?

■ Proactive and well-

targeted communications

ensure that the results of

research by CIP and its

partners have impact

Output

Outcome

Why impact?

■ Donors measure impact in terms of the benefit it brings or

the effect on beneficiaries

■

■ “… the ultimate goal is the increasing use of the development

results of individual projects as an important criterion for

channeling money … for future development work.”

■ “… impact assessed against the specific objectives for which the

donor had provided the funds … assessed also in relation to a

wider set of criteria, to try to judge how the lives of the

beneficiaries had been helped.”

What is impact?

■ Credible evidence

■ Facts

■ Improvements in status

Example of impact

■ Nearly 70,000 vine cuttings of orange-fleshed sweetpotato

have been distributed for planting in the farming

communities in Orissa, eastern Uttar Pradesh in the past 3

years

= output

■ In Orissa, 40,000 children suffer from eye disease brought on

by vitamin A deficiency. Most of them go blind in a year. The

orange-fleshed varieties developed by CIP are rich in vitamin

A, so blindness has been reduced by 60 percent

= outcome

What is our communications goal?

■ By 2018, CIP is recognized by all stakeholders as a

center of excellence and partner of choice in potato

and sweetpotato research for development

Who are our audiences?

■ CIP’s research scientists

■ Research and development partners

■ Policymakers

■ CIP’s community

■ [The CGIAR Consortium]

■ Donors and investors

■ Media and general public

What are our messages?

■ CIP achieves impact

■ CIP is a global center of excellence in research for

development

■ CIP is a partner of choice for donors

Medium-term Objective 1

■ By 2018, CIP will be communicating effectively to all its interested

audiences through a coordinated communications program based on

a clear understanding of the information needs of its primary

audiences

■ CPAD fully staffed

■ Corporate identity

■ Websites

■ Audiences surveyed

■ Staff supported

Medium-term Objective 2

■ By 2018, the potato and sweetpotato research community will be

fully aware of CIP’s scientific accomplishments through active, rapid

and widespread dissemination of all CIP’s research outputs to

interested research audiences

■ Dissemination CIP’s research outputs

■ Research material available

Medium-term Objective 3

■ By 2018, CIP’s community of donors, policymakers and investors will

be fully aware of the high impact of CIP’s scientific accomplishments

and its value as a partner of choice through a program of public

awareness activities coordinated closely with CIP’s Resources

Mobilization Department

■ Coordination with Resources Mobilization

■ Donor-specific products

Mapping products and skills

Research outputs

Working papersProject proposals

Annual ReportNewsletter

Grant writingReport writing

Press releasesMedia/WebArticlesVideoRadioSocial media

Journalistic skills

Readability

Scientific knowledge and editing skills

Scientific content

What are our products?

Website

Products

■ Insert images …

Key staff positions for CPAD

Head, CPAD

Spanish editor/writer

Science writer (English)

Executive assistant

Chief designer

Webmaster

Support staff

Conclusions

■ Communications

■ creating interest

■ achieving understanding

■ reaching goals