Effective communications draw partnership for UN interventions

Communications play a significant role in informing and engaging people. Effective communication stimulates action and can help build relationships and boost partnership.  This was evidently demonstrated when the United Nations Development Programme Ghana office capitalized on their social media platforms and media relations to disseminate findings from a research they carried out, in partnership with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the World Bank, on the impact of COVID-19 on businesses. 

UNDP supports Ghana to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities and exclusion, to accelerate sustainable development.  Supporting Ghana’s COVID-19 national response to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on businesses is therefore at the core of its activities.

A major intervention in this regard is the COVID-19 Business Tracker, launched in August 2020 in partnership with the GSS and the World Bank.  The Business Tracker identified and measured the impact of COVID-19 on business performance (profit and growth), innovative actions being taken by businesses to mitigate the impact, and actions being taken to prepare for post COVID-19. This initiative, led by the UNDP Economic Advisor, Dr. Frederick Mugisha, aims to help policy makers understand the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and inform mitigation and recovery measures. “Businesses are the lifeline of many economies in developing countries. Unfortunately, the business sector has been hard hit by the pandemic.  As the UN agency with expertise in economic development, understanding the impact of the pandemic on the sector, will help us provide the needed strategic advice to help Ghana respond to the sector’s needs” says Dr. Mugisha. The UNDP thus initiated this project with great expectation and excitement.

The UNDP Communications Team proactively developed a COVID-19 Business Tracker communication strategy to effectively communicate about the survey and disseminate the findings to inform policy decision. The strategy was to do three simple things: 1) create awareness and encourage businesses to participate in the survey, leveraging social, online and traditional media; 2) share the results of the study with stakeholders to influence policy directions; and 3) engage local journalists to better understand and interpret the data.

The communications lead Praise Nutakor, a seasoned communications expert with Public Relations background noted. “All we wanted was to disseminate information on the research and share the findings with key stakeholders, to inform policies.  We also leveraged technology using our social media platforms and made sure we hit the airwaves with information on the survey and the results of the Business Tracker”.

It was not long after the promotion that the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) reached out to the UNDP Ghana office to seek partnership. How did they get to know about the project?  According to the Programme Manager of the Governance for Inclusive Development (GovID) of GIZ, Mr. Raphael Victor Frerking, “we first learned about the Business Tracker on your Twitter page”. He added that the GIZ recognizes the great importance of the study on the impact of COVID-19 on Agribusiness to promote strong local economies and on revenue mobilization for development.  These are key focus areas of the Agricultural Business Dialogue component of GIZ’s GovID Unit. GIZ therefore decided to partner with UNDP and GSS to extend the COVID-19 Business Tracker survey to focus solely on agribusinesses.  With their commitment of 240,000 Euro, a good example of a tripartite cooperation began between UNDP, GSS and GIZ/GovID.

With this tripartite agreement  in progress, it is expected that the results from the study will support all stakeholders to identify the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on agribusinesses and therefore formulate appropriate measures to mitigate the impact and cushion the sector from future crisis.

Besides the impact of the communications on partnerships, effective dissemination of the results has also informed the Government of Ghana’s measures to protect jobs and livelihoods. This was revealed by the President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Akuffo-Addo, in his first State of the Nation Address in Parliament on March 9, 2021.

This is yet another example of how communications can play an integral role in the process and pursuit of development and if prioritized with the right investments, strategic communications can attract more partnerships to advance the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.