Task 4 - Outreach and Promotion

The purpose of Task 4 is to build constituencies, especially in the focal countries, for the benchmarking system. As part of the overall work plan, the IRG team will develop a comprehensive communications/outreach plan that will coordinate and integrate toward outreach and promotional activities throughout the project. Every program activity will be geared to bringing target countries on board for this important project. For example, we will seek buy-in to the framework by soliciting target country participation in the Task 1 workshop, during which we will discuss and receive feedback on the draft framework. We will use the extensive interchanges with public and private sector interlocutors in target countries conducted under Task 2 to help generate support for the benchmarking system as well as to develop our team’s understanding of country water management practices. We will use the Task 3 projections built on alternative scenarios to highlight the significance of alternative water management practices in terms of sector performance in the medium to long term. A project website will be deployed to share project descriptive information, reports and analyses.

Throughout the project, the Team will use strategically selected events and communications interventions to complement and build upon work as part of Tasks 1 through 3, using a flexible approach that will enable us to capitalize on strategic opportunities as they occur. We will also work with regional organizations – especially the Arab Water Council (AWC) and the Arab Countries Water Utilities Association (ACWUA) – to identify how they can help generate support at the national and regional levels.

The specific activities are:

1. Develop communications section of work plan
2. Design and conduct one or more facilitated workshops to acquaint target country water management institutions with the governance benchmarking system and developed projections
3. Participation/presentation of project work at selected international and regional conferences
4. Submit articles to journals related to the project work
5. Produce media releases related to the project meetings and presentations.
6. Prepare/disseminate project materials for distribution to stakeholders and media