Target Audiences

The overerall goal for the Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) sector in the 1990s is to increase sustainable and effectively used water and sanitation services, including healthful and environmentally-wise use. Effective communication enhances the possibility of achieving this goal. Chapter 1 explained that the communication strategy aims to promote sustained public awareness of the urgent need for WSS, to maximise the utilisation of resources, and, in due course, to meet unmet needs, by increasing efficiency, effectiveness and participation.

Specific, realistic, prioritised and measurable objectives evolve in the detailed planning and programming phase of the communication strategy. This stage is described in Chapter 7. Basic Steps for Preparation and Implementation, and the elements on which the messages for each segment of society will be based are described in Chapter 5.

Segmentation of audiences and their communication needs is essential for effective communication. Without understanding the differences among various segments, or sub-segments, it is difficult to design effective messages that call for change. While themes remain essentially the same, the fine-tuning of the message content, the choice of media mix, and the designing and packaging of the messages will vary. The variation will depend on the circumstances in each case.

The communication strategy should in the long run encompass all sections of society. In the short term, priority targets should be those who make and influence decisions: policy makers, sector professionals and users. It is the sector which has to take responsibility for action and play the leading role.

Sector professionals

The sector includes all those who work in the water and sanitation field, from planners to field implementers in voluntary agencies, governments and External Support Agencies (ESAs). More than the others, they must recognise the need for communication and apply it in their work. Hence, an intensive and persistent orientation and training effort is required. In order to face the challenges ahead, sector professionals must first internalize the lessons of the last decade and make the necessary changes in their outlook. They should also improve their ability to communicate effectively with other levels and beyond the sector. Everyone can and should play a role in communication on an interpersonal basis.

Sector leaders can be effective advocates for WSS at the highest policy level in their respective country or agency, and help persuade other sector staff to accept communication as a key component in their work. Managers should be able to articulate more forcefully, with valuable data, the benefits of their programmes and projects. Field workers must communicate with the communities they serve in order to provoke feedback and to bring about involvement and action. If a critical mass of concern and interest is generated within the sector, communication will become a new and powerful thrust.

Policy makers

Those who make policy decisions and influence development priorities include political leaders, legislators, top civil servants and economic planners. They are generally subject to pressure from all sides.

To mobilise them, it is important to have the data and information that they need to discharge their respective responsibilities.

They include data on why water and sanitation needs constitute:

• a politically viable priority with a broad base, supported electorally or otherwise,
• a sound investment in human development that is cost-effective and yields health and economic benefits,
• a social imperative that can no longer be ignored.

They also need to appreciate the importance of community involvement and decentralization and encourage such operational principles. Assigning the sector the necessary resources and obtaining the commitment to sustain it, require effective communication activities on a broad scale and on a continuing basis.

Included in this segment of audience are opinion makers and influential personages, and those in the mass media, who help set the agenda of the public and that of politicians and public servants.

The users

The people who use water and sanitation facilities are what this whole effort is about. Their needs and perspectives constitute the most important elements of programme communication. Their circumstances - economic, social and cultural - must be first taken into account in designing any intervention. Communication with the communities is needed for situation analysis, identification of issues and problems, mobilization of resources, specific message design and delivery, and constant feedback.

Having the wells and latrines located at the right places for convenient use and proper maintenance certainly requires a process of communication and consultation that leads to decisions shared by the community about the planning, building and management of these facilities. If field workers do not know how to communicate effectively with the community, they cannot ferret out the underlying causes that block community actions. Nor can they succeed in facilitating learning about bacteria in polluted water and human excreta for the villagers to adopt an informed choice of behaviour.

Community management represents an important involvement practice, leading to sustainability. Since many communities are new to their facilities, communication is needed to acquaint the people with their management. Cost recovery is new to many communities, and effective communication can help them understand the reasons for payment of services.

Other segments

There are many groups who can help the sector reach these three main targets. These groups, including mass media, health workers, traditional healers and religious leaders, are discussed in Chapter 6, Building Alliances. However, in order for these groups to become allies they must first be convinced, and they must therefore also be a target audience for the sector, with specific approaches and specific message components.