A Step-by-Step Guide to Applying Communication for Development (C4D) to Counter-Trafficking Activities

Guided by other communication for development (C4D) tools in existence, IOM X - the International Organization for Migration (IOM)'s campaign to encourage safe migration and public action to stop exploitation and human trafficking - created its own toolkit for developing content and activities to aid counter trafficking. Produced in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), IOM X works closely with celebrities, private sector partners, government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and youth groups across Asia Pacific.

The toolkit is designed to help readers understand C4D and behaviour change communication (BCC), as well as develop a C4D strategy for counter-trafficking initiatives. The toolkit is a practical resource for programme managers and officers, research officers, and communication specialists working on information, awareness-raising, and/or BCC in the counter-trafficking sector. It is a capacity-building resource to strengthen research, analysis, conceptualisation, implementation, and impact assessment.

As explained here, in order to get its audience to practice positive behaviours to help prevent human trafficking and exploitation, IOM X follows C4D, a people-centred process that uses communication tools and activities to help to create social and behaviour change in a meaningful and sustained way. It uses a participatory process to understand people's knowledge, attitudes, and practices (behaviours) around a certain issue in order to be able to work with them to develop empowering messages and tools. C4D, within the realm of human trafficking prevention, can help to strengthen messages, and their dissemination, about the risks of human trafficking and exploitation in order to achieve the desired preventative/protective behaviour change for both migrant workers and consumers (such as aspirant migrants pursuing safe migration, seeking advice from migrant resource centres, and calling helplines, or employers respecting employees' rights, practicing responsible consumerism, etc.)

According to the toolkit, C4D within the context of a counter-trafficking campaign can:

1. Deliver information to raise awareness of human trafficking;
2. Facilitate access to counter-trafficking resources and services;
3. Reduce negative attitudes of stigma and discrimination;
4. Promote social action and empowerment;
5. Support advocacy to stimulate public dialogue;
6. Create an environment where positive behaviours can take place;
7. Increase understanding of the risks and consequences associated with behaviours; and
8. Improve messaging and effectiveness through gender analysis and participation.

The toolkit is organised around the 5 steps IOM X uses to develop evidence-based content and activities:

• Step 1: Analysis - Know your audience (includes problem analysis, audience analysis, behaviour analysis, and communication analysis).
• Step 2: Strategic Design - Know how to best reach your audience (includes setting SMART (Specific. Measurable w/Measurement. Achievable) objectives, analysing communication channels, designing the communication strategy, developing a creative brief, and drafting monitoring and evaluation plans).
• Step 3: Development and Testing - Does it work? (includes developing content, developing action-messages, and pre-testing)
• Step 4: Implementation - Getting your message out there! (includes partnership building and outreach)
• Step 5: Monitoring and Evaluation - How is it going? Will we do this again in the same way? (includes implementing monitoring and evaluation plans)

This process should help equip counter-trafficking prevention practitioners with the knowledge to address the following challenges associated with participatory C4D activities:

• "Voice: Does everyone have equal voice in the community meeting? For example, are some people not speaking because of others in the group, such as an imbalance of men and women, and/or intimidating government officials? It is very important to carefully consider who is invited to participate in particular activities.
• Timeframe: Participatory approaches can be time consuming.
• Power: Inclusion of intended audiences in all steps of development is a necessary element of C4D. Consider how you are inviting targeted audiences to be part of the process. Be sure that they are being positioned as speakers rather than listeners.
• Funding: Funders usually have a preference for quantitative data, but C4D monitoring and evaluation needs to have an appropriate combination of both qualitative and quantitative research.
• Impact: Behaviour change is a long and complex process and challenging to prove in short funded timeframes.
• Change: C4D is an approach developed to fit the situational context. The situation is constantly changing due to a variety of factors, thus a programme and its objectives need to be flexible enough to change with the moving baseline."

Case studies are included throughout - for example, one describing MTV EXIT's Battambang Roadshow Concert on December 12 2013, which took place on the National Anti-Trafficking Day in Cambodia and featured an educational drama performance by youth ambassadors alongside the screening of educational video content. "Evidence from C4D entertainment-based interventions that use a BCC approach suggests that consistent high-quality messaging and information (informed by effective research and learning structures) delivered through a mix of media channels increases impact exponentially and can lead to positive shifts in knowledge, attitudes and, ultimately, behaviours....For C4D approaches to be effective they need to be adopted into development initiatives as early as possible."