It’s true. Getting a masters degree in Public Relations and Communications doesn’t sound like a logical step for an International Development Policy Professional, but hear me out on this one.
I moved to Washington DC in 2005 after completing my bachelors degree in International Development, with the hopes of learning the political side of the international response (or lack there of) to the situation in Darfur. While living in Los Angeles some friends and I had started organizing events to increase public awareness about what had been described as genocide. A few events turned into a divestment movement and a larger public outcry against the situation. What started as four friends in a living room soon grew into what one professor called the largest student movement since the anti-apartheid campaigns in the 80’s. But it still wasn’t enough.
It’s About Policy Change
In Washington I had the opportunity to work for a leading human rights group and for the U.S. Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, a subset of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. The committee staff would meet with numerous groups each week– all presenting urgent matters that required immediate legislative or political response. After leaving the Subcommittee, I worked as a policy advisor for a leading relief and development organization– now in turn taking my urgent messages to members of the Administration and Congress. Sometimes our message was heard, other times it fell on deaf ears or the lack of political will allowed it to fall by the wayside.
As I considered graduate school, I looked into all the best programs for international relations, public policy and development policy- Harvard, Columbia, Tufts, the London School of Economics, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and a few others. These are the institutions that teach leaders how to address the complex issues of our time with fresh thinking and brilliant policy and programming solutions.
However working as a policy advisor for humanitarian response, I have seen firsthand how policy without effective messaging is useless.
Changing the Status Quo: Creating Movements
Seeking to support effective policies and increase public awareness of social justice issues, I have a growing interest in the link between communications and the creation of social movements and behavior change. For this reason, I decided to pursue a less traditional route and study the best practices of communications, marketing and global campaigning in order to be better equipped to promote the causes and policies that are important to me.
It is not about writing a great elevator pitch, although that can be part of sharing your message with a target audience– it’s about changing behaviors, perceptions, beliefs and ultimately changing the status quo of a given situation to move a person or a group of people towards practices that are better for them and for their community as a whole.
If you think about major watershed moments in modern history, most of them were carried out by a large civil participation campaign – the abolition of slavery, the women’s suffrage movement, the anti-apartheid campaign, Indian independence from Britain, and the civil rights movements in the United States. I believe that in order to see major shifts in our society towards healthier living, more sustainable communities, a global perspective in education and financial choices that reflect the real cost of consumerism, we will need a new wave of civil participation that begins with individuals changing their beliefs and behaviors. I want to participate in making the environment possible for people to make and sustain the necessary changes to see a better world.
It’s about Doing Good, Well – International Development
If you go to any bookstore in Washington DC, you will see several bestsellers proclaiming the failures of international aid or the need for further investment in developing economies. The stories of former child soldiers and women who are changing their communities inspire us. The questions about the effectiveness of our foreign assistance in places life Africa, gives reason for pause. Having studied international development and followed the aid debate for years, I believe we must continue in our work, but do it better and with more creative strategies. We have much to learn from the efficiency of the private sector and much more to learn from the communities that we aim to assist.
Social Marketing is defined by Alan Andreasen, a leading expert on the topic, as “the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behaviors of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society”. The word marketing brings up negative emotions in many of us, because we associate it with being manipulated by large corporations to engage in or purchase products that benefit the corporation, rather than the consumer. Social Marketing is built on the premise that effective change starts with understanding the needs, wants and perceptions of consumers– and applies these ideas to large social issues such as drug consumption, pollution, unsafe sex, domestic violence or overpopulation.
Social Marketing is not solely applicable in a developed society like the United States (although there are plenty of behavior modifications needed in the west). The ‘consumer’ in a health program in Ghana could be the mother who is weighing the cost and benefit of walking several hours to a clinic to vaccinate her child. The behavior change goal may be to get a community to start storing hay for the dry season, or burning animal carcasses rather then burying them. The ultimate objective could be local or could be aimed at an entire society, for example changing the general perception of women and addressing domestic violence.
Social Marketing is just one of the tools that I believe should be brought to bare on our current and future development initiatives, as it borrows from the private sector and starts with the needs and context of the communities we endeavor to serve. It is my hope to add the skill set of social marketing to international development programs, in order to enhance the effectiveness of these initiatives and change the shape of development for the next generation.