C-Capacity Sustainability Plan Survey Results

C-Capacity Sustainability Plan Survey Results

Findings:
1. Social and Behaviour Change Communication capacity strengthening is highly valued amongst organizations working in non-OECD countries (especially though not exclusively amongst NGOs and CBOs).
2. Senior management, technical experts and those in direct implementing roles also see the value of improved SBCC capacity.
3. The C-Capacity website has been well utilized with significant numbers of respondents reporting active engagement through the use and forwarding of resources.
4. The newsletter was found to be useful and used actively by significant numbers of respondents who reported recommending and forwarding it to others on multiple occasions.
5. The most important sections of the website are those providing access to core SBCC resources and those related to training materials and support.
6. Respondents felt the C-Capacity Online Resource Center and newsletter should continue but with a greater focus on core resources and training with relevance across a range of development issues.
7. There is room to streamline the website by removing a few of the less utilized sections and to make the newsletter more useful by keeping it short and simplifying its design.

Executive Summary:

There were 444 respondents with the majority (74%) coming from non-OECD countries. Nearly 27% were in senior management positions, 38% described themselves as technical experts, academics or consultants and 20% said they were in implementing positions such as programme officers. 24% said they worked for an International NGO and 19% for national NGO’s or CBO’s. 18% worked for an academic institution, 11% for the private sector and a further 11% for government. Overall this represents a good balance in terms of geo-location, job type and while organizationally it is weighted somewhat towards NGO’s and CBO’s these are critical organizations to reach with SBCC capacity building.

It is also important to note that of this group 72% described building SBCC capacity as very or extremely important for their organization. Nearly 77% felt a website providing access to a range of resources is very or extremely useful. 75% felt an email based newsletter would also be very or extremely useful and 77% felt on-line training resources were very or extremely useful. This indicates that SBCC capacity strengthening is valued in non-OECD countries, across a range of positions and amongst important types of organizations and that the basic tools of online resources, an e-mail newsletter to aid knowledge dissemination and access to training resources are considered fundamental.

Use of the website amongst respondents was significant with nearly 20% describing themselves as daily or ‘a few times a week’ users and over 35% saying they used the website ‘a few times a month’. When asked about their engagement with the website more than 50% had used resources for their own SBCC capacity strengthening activities and research. Slightly higher numbers had referred colleagues to C-Capacity and/or sent them links to C-Capacity resources. While fewer respondents shared C-Capacity resources via social media such as Facebook or Twitter or established links between C-Capacity and their own organization’s website the numbers were still significant at nearly 15% and over 10% respectively. As social media grows in use and popularity it can be assumed that these numbers will increase providing new avenues for sharing resources.

Considering which of the sections on the website were most useful, core resources on implementation, monitoring and evaluation, strategy and materials and message development were rated highest, followed closely by other resource materials on formative research, news and training. The least important sections were the newsletter archives, worksharing, networks and links where more than 50% rated usefulness at neutral or lower. 70% found the site easy to navigate. This finding means there is some room for dropping some sections of the website allowing for greater focus on resources and training sections which would make site navigation even easier.

When asked if they found the C-Capacity newsletter useful for SBCC capacity strengthening over 16% strongly agreed and a further 56% agreed. A further indicator of the usefulness of the newsletter can be found in the actions respondents took to share the newsletter. 22% had forwarded and recommended the newsletter to colleagues 3 or more times, 23% had referred others to resources 3 or more times, and approximately 16% had encouraged others to subscribe 3 or more times. The lowest area of action was in sharing the newsletter via social media such as Facebook but even here 13.5% had taken this action at least once. The relatively higher number of respondents who actively share the newsletter points to its relevance and the role it plays as a simple tool for sharing resources. While there is also some indication from the open ended comments in the final question that the design could be simplified and the length shortened it is clear that it is a useful and used tool for knowledge dissemination.

In the open ended question “Do you have any further ideas that would make C-Capacity more useful to you or your organization?” there were 118 responses of which 68 (58%) were judged to be neutral in tone, 34 (29%) were positive and 16 (14%) were negative. There were a total of 80 recommendations which were organized into the following categories:

• Adding new resource types
• Training
• Expanding the range of topics and issues covered
• Improvements to the newsletter
• Adding features to the website and/or knowledge sharing services

While these recommendations vary in substance and relevance they demonstrate an interest in being able to access resources relevant to strengthening SBCC capacity across a range of development issues, the provision of online training resources and courses and to a lesser extent simplifying the newsletter.

Methodology:

The online survey was prepared and conducted by The Communication Initiative in consultation with C-Change who signed off on the final questions. It was designed to provide insight into:

• how the C-Capacity Online Resource Center (ORC) and newsletter have been utilized,
• how users ranked the utility of C-Capacity’s resources and tools,
• and which of those resources and tools will contribute most to social and behavior change capacity building over the long term.

The survey was promoted via the C-Capacity website and newsletter and through other relevant segments of the CI network. It was open for anyone to complete though effort was made to ensure relevant responses by sending invitation notes to identified segments of the CI network and providing a link to the survey from the main page of the C-Capacity website. The survey accepted responses between March 15 and May 10, 2012.

Survey Results:

Location:

The geographic location of the 444 who started the survey was weighted towards non-OECD countries (74%) with 41% coming from Africa as compared to 16% from North America and 5% from Western Europe.

Figure 1

Job title:

Respondents were asked for the title of their jobs which were then categorized into seven major job types. Figure 2 shows that nearly 50% of respondents described themselves as senior managers or programme officers but there were also significant numbers of technical experts, academics and consultants.

Figure 2

Organization type:

Nearly 45% of respondents came from NGOs or CBOs though there was also significant representation from academics, government and the private sector.

Figure 3

Use of the C-Capacity website:

Over half (55%) visited the website at least a few times per month with 20% visiting weekly or daily.

Figure 4

Engagement with the website:

When asked about their engagement with the website more than 50% had used resources for their own SBCC capacity strengthening activities and research. Slightly higher numbers had referred colleagues to C-Capacity and/or sent them links to C-Capacity resources. While fewer respondents shared C-Capacity resources via social media such as Facebook or Twitter or established links between C-Capacity and their own organization’s website the numbers were still significant at nearly 15% and over 10% respectively. As social media grow in use and popularity it can be assumed that these numbers will increase providing new avenues for sharing resources.

Figure 5

Usefulness of C-Capacity website sections:

The figure below lists the website sections in descending order of usefulness. The top 6 sections all contain core SBCC resources. It may be worth considering cutting some of the sections that are not as useful – especially the bottom four.

Figure 6

Clearness of navigation:

There is not much to say here. The site design is working for the majority of users. If some of the sections indicated in Figure 6 above were removed in the future it would further simplify the website and improve the ease of navigation.

Figure 7

Usefulness of C-Capacity newsletter:

The newsletter is considered to be a useful tool by nearly 73% of respondents with fewer than 5% disagreeing with the statement.

Figure 8

Actions taken with newsletter:

An important additional indicator to the usefulness measure in Figure 8 above is the levels at which respondents actively demonstrate their belief in the newsletter’s importance by forwarding it to colleagues, recommending that others subscribe, referring resources to others and/or sharing content via social media. 22% had forwarded and recommended the newsletter to colleagues 3 or more times, 23% had referred others to resources 3 or more times, and approximately 16% had encouraged others to subscribe 3 or more times. The lowest area of action was in sharing the newsletter via social media such as Facebook but even here 13.5% had taken this action at least once. The relatively higher number of respondents who actively share the newsletter points to its relevance and the role it plays as a simple tool for sharing resources. While there is also some indication from the open ended comments in the final question that the design could be simplified and the length shortened it is clear that it is a useful and used tool for knowledge dissemination.

Figure 9

Importance of SBCC to organizations/individuals responding:

Considering the balanced nature of the respondent sample in terms of geo-location, job type and even its organizational weighting towards NGO’s and CBO’s (critical organizations to reach with SBCC capacity building) it is important that 72% described building SBCC capacity as very or extremely important for their organization. Nearly 77% felt a website providing access to a range of resources is very or extremely useful. 75% felt an email based newsletter would also be very or extremely useful and 77% felt on-line training resources were very or extremely useful. This indicates that SBCC capacity strengthening is valued in non-OECD countries, across a range of positions and amongst important types of organizations and that the basic tools of online resources, an e-mail newsletter to aid knowledge dissemination and access to training resources are considered fundamental.

Figure 10

Usefulness of different types of resources:

Approximately 75% of all respondents found the key elements of web based resources, a supporting email based newsletter and access to online training resources to be very or extremely useful and these elements should be considered as critical elements of the process in the future.

Figure 11

Further Ideas and Comments:

This was an open ended question. There were a total of 118 responses and 80 recommendations. For analysis, responses were categorized by tone (positive, negative and neutral) and recommendations were broken into the following 5 basic areas:

• Expanding the range of topics and issues covered
• Adding new resource types
• Adding features to the website and/or knowledge sharing services
• Improvements to the newsletter
• Training

This allowed for the tracking of comment tone and the grouping of comments into areas of improvement. The charts below provide a breakdown using these categories together with sample comments. A complete listing of comments is provided in the appendix.

Figure 12

Figure 13

Selected recommendations:
Adding new resource types:

• Consider the future to add methodological approaches as Theory of change, helping to strengthen the organizations without much stiffness in the planning and monitoring and evaluation.
• C-change to keep on sharing the information with our organisations that i can forward to our networks.

Training:

• We need are to train others (at quite a basic level), to advocate in general for SBCC through focused and convincing presentations o and pretty much to capacitate ourselves: training and other resources to support this would be invaluable

• The Online training which staff can be encouraged to be part of, is really necessary.

Expanding topics and issues covered:

• as a BC person that does not work in health or HIV, I would encourage c-capacity to make a concerted effort to seek out the literature in other areas. we are seeing it come up in WASH but there is now a recognition that BCC is not just for these areas but for all of us that do development. Because of my own background, I can make the transition between sectors but for those who might be trained in agric or business, it's harder for them to apply these principles because the literature is so strongly based in health related things. I have sent my agronomist on BC training - and he "gets it" - but now to support him with literature or tools that make sense to him - that's where the gap lies .... At this point there may not be much literature - but I would love for C-Capacity to broaden out because I think there is growing interest. I come from the health background so I understand that the bulk of the tools and research is in that area ... but let's see if we can push the boundaries!

Newsletter:

• The email newsletter represents a significant reminder to visit the website
• Keep newsletters simple and straightforward. We process an enormous amount of information and i at times find communications newsletters to by cryptic to the neophyte, which limits their appeal to those not completely embedded in that work.
• The pressure of work in the department of health means that most people (including myself) do not have enough time to use the resources properly. The area of work also is low on the priority list for the department and generally regarded as being low on evidence for outcomes. While I frequently forward the mails and links to colleagues I rarely get a response. This is why: email based info is more accessible than trawling a website; theme-based stuff is good; M & E and evidence-based SBCC is particularly useful

Adding features to the website:

• Opening an interactive section where questions can be forwarded and answered by the authors or experts in the mentioned field.
• program working on iPadiPhone

Appendix

Consider the future to add methodological approaches as Theory of change, helping to strengthen the organizations without much stiffness in the planning and monitoring and evaluation
upload resource materials in PDF
C-change to keep on sharing the information with our organisations that i can forward to our networks.
continuous partnership on long term
Could there (or is there) a link between C-Capacity and Alliance Impact? They seem to be doing the same thing as you,
Ask two simple questions every 6 months on the site. For me that is a strategy for monitoring (visit and useful) the site.
French / Français: Poser 2 questions tous les 6 moissur le site. Cela me sembleunebonnestratégie de suivi (visite et utilité) du site.
C-Change (out of Washington) activities and materials are probably leading SBCC currently and might be in post position for developing distance training opportunities. FAO also has an excellent series of modules on C4D for strengthening food security.
it should be easy to operate, plase change the font for typing
i would like to appreciate on capacity building materials from the website and if possible to have opportunities for motivation eg: small grants for improving and supporting our campaigns
The pressure of work in the department of health means that most people (including myself) do not have enough time to use the resources properly. The area of work also is low on the priority list for the department and generally regarded as being low on evidence for outcomes. While I frequently forward the mails and links to colleagues I rarely get a response. This is why: email based info is more accessible than trawling a website; theme-based stuff is good; M & E and evidence-based SBCC is particularly useful
We need are to train others (at quite a basic level), to advocate in general for SBCC through focussed and convincing presentations o and pretty much to capacitate ourselves: training and other resources to support this would be invaluable
Help the govermment for change the traditional comunication system focused only in TV an newspaper.
better easier layout for your newsletter
Have more training in conflict reporting and more insight on HIV/AIDS research
The email newsletter represents a significant reminder to visit the website
easier access to the online resources and training.
esimportanteconsiderarelementoshacia el desarrollo de competencias en personas y gruposresilientes
Online courses on SBCC and resource mobilisation support for SBCC.
Make a group about knowledgementgestion
Short dosage of information rather than volumunious amounts. Can be too much to digest.
I doubt that newsletters build capacity. Perhaps more training.
Simlifying the resources and sending in order of imortance might help. Thanks!