PPIAF

Outreach and communication programs can be among the most important management tools in implementing sustainable infrastructure reform. Two-way communication programs that engage stakeholders—ensuring that they are heard as well as informed—are critical to build support for change.

Successful reform is not just about commercial, financial, and regulatory solutions. When governments make strategic communications part of their reform program, they are more likely to win public buy-in and support for new policies.

PPIAF supports a range of outreach and communication tools in all its activities, to improve transparency and help governments communicate their objectives for reform. These tools include stakeholder workshops, public opinion research, education and awareness programs, strategic communication campaigns, and educational meetings and conferences.

Global and Regional Knowledge Development

PPIAF staff, from the field offices as well as headquarters, together attended more than 100 workshops, conferences, and outreach events during fiscal 2008.

In the first half of fiscal 2009, PPIAF staff attended the African Union Heads of State conference in Addis Ababa and organized a small but targeted workshop as the first rollout of the study on the lessons learned from water PPPs.

PPIAF also includes sections on outreach and communication activities in its global toolkits.  

Technical Assistance

• In Malawi PPIAF is supporting opinion research to help the government strengthen its outreach and stakeholder consultations around reform in the water sector.
• In India PPIAF support to the Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), a grassroots consumer protection NGO, is helping to develop a comprehensive plan to educate stakeholder groups about issues of regulation and competition. The aim is to help them better understand the process of reform and ensure that it incorporates their concerns.
• In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia PPIAF assistance is helping the government develop a stakeholder consultation program to aid in evaluating options for reform, including public-private partnerships.