AR and NAFAKA comms. joint meeting June2017

Minutes of the AR-NAFAKA project communication teams meeting
5 June 2017
Virtual (Skype)

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Participants

1. Jonathan Odhong’ – Research Communication Specialist/Africa RISING West, East and Southern Africa projects
2. Nassoro Ally – Behavior Change & Communication Specialist/NAFAKA project
3. Gloriana Ndibalema –Research Communication Assistant/Africa RISING projects (Secretary)
4. Julius Mtemahanji – Public Relations & Communication specialist/NAFAKA project
5. Catherine Njuguna – Regional Corporate Communication Officer/IITA

Agenda

1. Follow-up on progress of the action points of the first comm. Skype call meeting
2. Communication and facilitation support for Upcoming AR – NAFAKA project review and planning meeting

Introduction

• The second group Skype call meeting of the AR-NAFAKA project communication team was held on Monday 5 June, 2017. It began at 09:00 Nigeria time / 11:00 Tanzania time.
• The main agenda of the meeting as it was earlier communicated to the participants through email was Communication and facilitation support for the upcoming AR – NAFAKA project review and planning meeting. But before it was discussed, the participants agreed to discuss on the progress of the action points of agenda that were agreed on the previous meeting.

1. Follow-up on progress of the action points of the first comm. Skype call meeting agenda Preparation of cropping calendars for 2017/2018 season

• Jonathan informed the team that he was aware that the current phase of the project was coming to an end and this could have implications for this activity. He advised that it may be best to hold off this activity and get further clarity from Haroon and Silvanus whether the cropping calendars will be necessary for all themes in the new phase.

Production of a project brochure

• Gloriana has worked on the first draft of the brochure and shared with the team for their inputs. Further work on the brochure also to be done once there is clarity on the next phase of the project.

Sharing of success stories

• NAFAKA and AR comm. teams agreed to cross-post all materials published under the collaboration project.

Exchange of experiences/cross-learning

• Nassoro informed the team that he has not communicated with the leader of AR Zambia, Felistus Chipungu concerning the exchange of experience about the behavior change approaches used by the AR Zambia team. He noted that Tom Carr had requested for them to discuss more about the matter over before contacting the AR team.

Publication of stories in the NAFAKA Newsletter

• Julius explained that the stories will be used on the next edition because the current worked on newsletter has no space to accommodate the stories.
• He also noted that Haroon promised to work with Jonathan and prepare AR profile that will be featured in the upcoming newsletter edition.

Participation in the NAFAKA annual photo contest

• Julius explained that currently the photo contest is mainly for NAFAKA team, but he noted that the administration has received Africa RISING request for inclusion. A final decision will be communicated at a later date.
• Julius informed the team that NAFAKA /ACDI-VOCA photo sharing policies is strictly limited to closed access with permission. But the photos can be partner projects when needed to be used.

2. Communication and facilitation support for Upcoming AR – NAFAKA project review and planning meeting Jonathan briefed members about the allocation of responsibilities during the meeting and each member concurred with the tasks assigned to them. The communication team will support the event through the following functions:

• Event facilitation- Jonathan and Catherine
• Taking notes during the meeting/documenting discussions on the wiki- Jonathan and Catherine
• Taking event photos - Gloriana
• Providing training on an aspect of project communication – Julius and Nassoro
• Writing an overall story about the event afterwards - Julius
• Conducting interviews/gathering profiles of key project personnel – The whole team each with selected personnel

The team discussed on how they will conduct the interviews for both print and film production. They also discussed on how the communication session would be carried out.

Action

• Jonathan to prepare interview guidelines that the team will use for conducting interviews with the key project personnel.
• Nassoro and Julius to prepare a presentation and organize on how the session will be carried out. Julius to take lead and share an outline/plan for the session which will be 50 minutes long.
• A physical communications team meeting to take place on the sidelines of the event.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 Nigeria time / 12:30 Tanzania time. The next meeting will be held physically during the meeting in Dar es Salaam.