Background
In 2012, NRC launched a Humanitarian Access Communications project. The aim of this ECHO-funded project is to improve humanitarian access in Afghanistan, by apprising the general population of the humanitarian principles according to which humanitarian organizations work, in the process improving public perceptions of humanitarian organizations. For this purpose, the NRC Access Communications project has concluded agreements with major broadcasters in Afghanistan. In drama storylines the messages are designed to apprise the public of the role of humanitarian organizations in implementing humanitarian principles, and the aim of the Humanitarian Information Service (HIS) is to give an update and a summary on the activities of humanitarian organizations, again with a view to improving public perceptions, and with it access. As part of the project, a Project Support Group (PSG) is established, consisting of over twenty ECHO-funded NGOs. By meeting regularly, this PSG aims to feed the lessons learned from the Access Communications project back into the NGO community, encouraging the adoption of an approach that will be helpful in removing public misperceptions about the role of NGOs – again in the interests of improving humanitarian access to large swathes of the country where humanitarian needs are high, but humanitarian organizations do not currently work.
Purpose of the Evaluation
To provide an independent assessment of the effectiveness, impact and relevance of the past activities of the Humanitarian Access project – in particular the media campaign – since 2012.
Findings
The data shows that the media component of HACP has positively affected perception of the general public about humanitarian organizations. The radio programs designed by the project are listened to by a large proportion of the population and the messages aired by the broadcasters had a high recall rate among the listeners. The media component has contributed in bringing about changes in the awareness level of population regarding the humanitarian principles. The radio listenership has contributed to positive changes in trust of the general population of humanitarian organizations.
Recommendations
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The evaluation made some concrete recommendations to achieve greater impact:
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The media component can be strengthened to create the desired changes by introducing a community mobilization component and an interpersonal communication component to its mass media component.
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The project should introduce a number of motivational strategies to improve the coordination among the PSG members and promote the implementation of humanitarian principles by the PSG members.
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The project should strengthen the design media component, by developing a well mapped program framework for the media component with a strong monitoring component, to enhance the effect of the messages communicated to the target groups.
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They also recommended engagement with communities to identify needs and monitor the project and the need to increase awareness of humanitarian principles amongst NGO staff.