Institutional Review of the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Egypt

5. Improving communication efforts to raise awareness around the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Egypt

Abstract

This chapter presents the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development’s important efforts to expand its communications capacities and activities. It then identifies opportunities for the Institute to further foster a strategic use of communication by defining coherent and strategic communication principles and tools to more effectively reach its key audience across all sectors of the society.

Communication has a central role to play as an instrument of policymaking, service design and delivery to support and promote the overall mission, impact and goals of the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (NIGSD) at the national and international level and in reporting on performance and the achievement of results. Indeed, public communication, that is understood as the government function to deliver information, listen and respond to citizens in the service of the common good, can contribute to strengthening transparency and participation, thereby supporting more inclusive and responsive policies (OECD, 2021[1]). This role has been enshrined in the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Open Government (2017[2]).

Among its most important functions, communication is a primary vehicle through which stakeholders and citizens learn about policies and initiatives, who can also participate and input on matters of public interest (OECD, 2021[1]). When used effectively, communication can ensure optimal flows of data and information in a coherent manner; it also enables to reach out to an amplified audience among and across governmental institutions, other key stakeholders and in the general population to raise awareness on the importance of strategic priorities and key issues and to create alignment with, and buy-in for, such efforts (OECD, 2021[1]). Communications can also support increasing the impact of analytical work and research on the activities of public and private actors, including by influencing policymaking and business activities.

The National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development has been strengthening its capacities for communication

In line with the reorganisation and expansion of their activities since 2018, the NIGSD has undertaken significant efforts to expand its communication activities, with the aim of both reaching out to stakeholders to generate partnerships and activities, and raising awareness among the general public about the Institute and the topics of governance and sustainable development. The NIGSD has a Communication and Awareness Unit (Box 5.1) with a media officer and other staff members. It also outsources some activities to a media/Public Relations company. It furthermore dedicates a part of its budget for communication activities.

Box 5.1. The NIGSD’s Communication & Awareness Unit

The Communication & Awareness Unit of the NIGSD aims to be a leading centre for communication and awareness-raising on governance, sustainable development and competitiveness at the local, regional, national and international levels.

Its mission is to raise awareness and promote the values of governance, competitiveness and sustainability at the societal and institutional level; to enhance partnerships and support the integration of efforts between the public, private and civil society sectors in relation to transparency, participation, and accountability; to achieve consensus on the public interest; and to provide channels for monitoring and evaluation to raise awareness of governance competencies.

More specifically, the Unit focuses on four strategic objectives:

• Raise public awareness of the importance of governance, competitiveness and sustainable development.

• Communicate and cooperate with regional and international governance and competitiveness institutions.

• Develop a comprehensive strategy aimed at systematic promotion regionally and internationally of Egypt's efforts in the field of governance, competitiveness and sustainable development.

• Support partnerships between the public, private and civil society sectors concerned with formulating governance, competitiveness and sustainable development policies.

To achieve these objectives, the Unit uses different channels for communication and promotion activities, such as the training platform of the NIGSD and events (workshops, conferences, seminars, lectures, personal interviews, round tables, committees and working groups, and expert meetings). Regarding the format of the communication, the Unit shares mostly specialised studies, as well as statistics and data analysis.

The communication developed targets a diversity of national and international stakeholders, notably the public sector, civil society organisations, investors and private sector, media, international institutions, and more broadly citizens.

Source: Information provided by the NIGSD.

The NIGSD’s communication focuses mainly on reaching out to current and potential partners and clients. The Institute relies largely on traditional press releases that are published on the Institute’s and the Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation’s (MPEDIC) websites1. Available in Arabic and English, the websites provide general information about events which have been held and announcements related to new programmes and initiatives, upcoming training opportunities and learning events, and key takeaways from roundtables and sessions held in the domains of governance, competitiveness and sustainable development (NIGSD, 2023[3]). The websites also feature information on services offered and programmes led by the NIGSD. A number of publications developed in the framework of research activities, as well as the NIGSD’s annual reports, are also available. As part of its efforts to strengthen its communication activities, the NIGSD is currently in the process of developing a new version of their website with the support of GIZ. The objective is to develop a one-stop shop presenting comprehensive information on all activities offered by the Institute both in Arabic and in English. The website will moreover provide key data on audience’s engagement and NIGSD’s outreach. The NIGSD furthermore sends formal letters to its key partners across governmental institutions to inform them about their activities. It also communicates through WhatsApp with the NIGSD’s Alumni Association.

In parallel, the NIGSD has been increasing its presence on social media and publishes regular updates about its activities with the aim of targeting larger audiences. As of April 2024, the Facebook, Instagram, that are NIGSD’s main social media, but also LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, reach more than 69,000 followers altogether, a significant increase from 61,000 in September 2023. The NIGSD is moreover currently developing a podcast that will be launched in the coming months. Like-minded institutions, such as the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) in Canada, the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in France and the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) in Spain, use similar channels of communication, as presented in Box 5.2. The NIGSD is further working on the development of an interactive platform to communicate with citizens on topics related to sustainability, using the open-source system RapidPro. This tool allows for managing complex interactions with individuals, disseminating polls and questionnaires and collecting data, but also organising digital campaigns through multiple channels The tool, that can be adapted for different contexts and sectors and is used by international organisations such as UNICEF, will also be offered by the NIGSD as a service for public and private sector entities, providing the NIGSD with an additional source of revenue.

Box 5.2. Developing strong communication capacities and activities in Canada, France and Spain

The Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) in Canada employs a mix of traditional and modern media in its communication strategy to foster engagement

The IRPP has a dedicated communication team consisting of a director, a communications officer, an event planner, and a digital engagement manager. All publications of the Institute, including those from research programmes, the magazine, and the centre, are accessible from their respective websites.

Despite this being their primary channel for communication, the institute employs a mix of traditional and modern media in its communication strategy to foster engagement. Television is still an important channel for the IRPP, as was the case with the Cable Public Affairs Channel for broadcasting Policy Radar discussions, as well as weekly and monthly newsletters to inform the public about their activities. Social media plays a particularly important role as a communication channel for the Institute. Out of the 1.5 million website visits between April 2022 and March 2023, 200,000 were generated through social media. The institute is active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. On YouTube, they published a promotional video as part of their fiftieth-anniversary celebrations. Additionally, the Institute also uses the Apple News platform to promote its events and activities, where it had more than 170,000 views between April 2022 and March 2023.

The Policy Options magazine also releases a podcast every other Wednesday with the intention of making expert opinions on current political topics accessible to listeners. A podcast mini-series called "In/Equality" was launched in 2022 and deals with issues related to inequality in Canada. It is hosted by a political science professor from McGill University. The podcast has proven to be a successful format; 18 episodes were released in 2022-2023 and gathered over 40,000 listeners.

Finally, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the think tank, the communication team was deeply involved in organising a gala in Montreal, attended by political figures, academics, and members of civil society. As part of the communication strategy for the anniversary, the institute hired an external design company to develop a new logo and visual branding strategy.

The Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI, France) focuses mostly on social media and online presence

IDDRI has a communications officer who coordinates a team of four individuals dedicated exclusively to the Institute's communication. IDDRI's strategy is highly focused on its presence on social media to engage with the public. They maintain accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube, generating a significant number of visits to the website where all their publications can be accessed. Additionally, IDDRI uses the podcast format to summarise research and conclusions in projects related to its four different focus areas. This podcast, titled "Cap sur la transition," is published between two and three times a month on Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Podcasts, with episodes lasting around 10 minutes each. This format has been successful, with over 16,000 listeners over the period June 2022-June 2023 and more than 500 followers on Spotify.

Additionally, IDDRI also publishes a newsletter. Readers can sign up online and specify which of the institute's four research focus areas are of interest to them. This way, they receive only the content related to those topics, with the option to select all four and receive the complete newsletter. This format has also been receiving positive feedback. Between June 2022 and June 2023, there was an average of around 3,900 readers per week, representing a 28% increase compared to the previous year's figures.

The Spanish National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) actively uses its website and social media accounts to communicate on its learning activities and promote community-building

The INAP has recently undertaken efforts to improve its institutional communication, notably the communication relative to the calls for its learning activities. The annual training programmes and their corresponding calls are published on the INAP website and social networks. In addition, all activities and application forms to participate in INAP learning activities are available through a unique online Training Catalogue ("course finder"), where calls are opened as the activities become available. In order to improve the communication regarding future activities, the annual training programme also contains a forecast calendar for the call for activities corresponding to each programme and strategic axis. Public employees interested in receiving updated information on calls for proposals can moreover subscribe to the newsletter "La Administración al Día" and follow INAP's accounts on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Likewise, public employees who are registered in the INAP Alumni Portal can activate the alert system to receive information on future calls for activities of interest to them. Each of these alerts includes a contact email address.

INAP also organises a number of trainings and discussion events on public administration topics that are promoted on their website and social networks, and for which live broadcasts and recordings are available on their YouTube channel. Moreover, the Institute recently launched INAP Social, a social network to connect public employees with similar interests and professional experiences. Civil servants can create their own network of contacts and participate in any of the 29 different "communities”, such as the "document management" community or the one dedicated to "accessibility" for all people in public administration procedures. Through this network, public employees are also granted access to INAP’s “knowledge bank”, the biggest knowledge base on public administration matters in Spain.

Sources: (IDDRI, n.d.[4]; IDDRI, 2021[5]; IDDRI, 2023[6]; IRPP, n.d.[7]; IRPP, 2023[8]; Policy Options, n.d.[9]; Centre of Excellence of the Canadian Federation, n.d.[10]; INAP, n.d.[11]).

Some departments of the NIGSD have moreover developed their own strategy and channels of communication to promote their activities. It is notably the case of the Egypt Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre (EEIC) that was created in 2023. The Centre uses Facebook and Instagram as its two main channels for communication. Between mid-July 2023 and mid-April 2024, the Facebook account has gathered over 5,000 followers; they are mostly young people, who are the main target audience for the Centre’s entrepreneurship programmes and activities. The EEIC also launched its own website in November 2023. The centre has moreover developed and launched at the beginning of 2024 an e-learning hub that provides a diverse range of workshops in Arabic and English related to entrepreneurship, innovation, and startup development.

Nevertheless, the NIGSD faces a number of challenges related to its communication and marketing. First, the existing limitation of the budget and fiscal constraints are identified by the NIGSD as one of the main challenges in implementing plans for awareness and communication campaigns. Moreover, the NIGSD’s engagement on social media remains limited, hampering opportunities awareness-raising among the Egyptian society and internationally. In-presence communication activities need more development.

Since the success of the Institute’s activities depends in a significant part on their ability to communicate effectively on their activities and impact, it is important that they envisage to develop a clear and coherent communication strategy. As of today, the NIGSD has started developing communication strategies for specific programmes and initiatives. This is for instance the case for the communication around Egypt Vision 2030 that is led by the Communication and Awareness Unit. The unit has developed a three-year plan for the period 2020-2023 that aimed at 1) Implementing 34 awareness campaigns to promote and strengthen the understanding of governance and Egypt Vision 2030; and 2) Carrying out public campaigns through visual and audio advertisements and talk programmes, with specific targets for each year. Moreover, the Institute is also considering the development of an overall communication strategy for the NIGSD.

More specifically, it is essential that this communication strategy is designed and implemented following an integrated approach. Communication objectives, target audiences, timelines, budgets and channels should be defined according to existing challenges, priorities and available resources internally but also external factors (such as competitors, etc.). They should be also aligned with the overall strategic objectives laid out in the NIGSD’s mandate and mission statement (OECD, 2021[1]). Moreover, it is essential that the NIGSD identifies the objectives and key messages it aims to convey, as well as the outcomes expected and evaluation indicators. It could consider objectives along the lines of promoting good governance, Sustainable Development Goals and competitiveness to civil society, private and public players to ensure they embed them in their work; displaying the impact of the NIGSD work on policymaking and business operations; reaching out to underserved parts of society to raise participation and echo the voice of civil society; or strengthening the credibility of the NIGSD to national and international partners. Finally, the NIGSD should also, from the design phase of the strategy, identify feedback and monitoring practices and mechanisms to ensure that the communication strategy can be revised and adapted throughout its implementation to ensure it achieves the objectives. This integrated approach to communication should also be promoted by the NIGSD in their training, research and consultancy activities for other institutions.

To serve their own communication strategy and to support other institutions, the NIGSD could furthermore develop practical tools - such guidelines, toolkits, checklists - on essential communication competencies that could be used by the NIGSD staff and other stakeholders to carry out communication in a more effective way. These could cover a number of topics such as audience analysis and insights; social listening and media monitoring; internal communication; campaign design and delivery, among others.

Developing social media and inclusive communications

Online communication and social media platforms are opening vast opportunities for the NIGSD to connect and engage with a large variety of target audiences. In addition to enabling a direct and more widespread access to information, they offer new means of communication that are more participative, innovative, agile and inclusive and that can be adapted to the needs of different groups of the population, such as young people or people with disabilities, to ensure that all citizens can engage (Bellantoni and Cazenave, 2022[12]).

Investing in social media and online therefore represents a key challenge for the NIGSD, especially in light of the importance given in the NIGSD’s mandate and missions to promoting inclusiveness and to reaching out to marginalised groups of society as part of good governance and sustainable development. This can support the NIGSD’s in expanding its outreach and connect with new potential partners and clients. In addition, the institute can also benefit from the two-way dialogue digital technologies and social media offer to inform their service offer and activities, and further tailor them to the priorities and needs of key stakeholders and the general public (OECD, 2021[1]).

A number of OECD Member and partner countries governments have started developing and implementing innovative practices and tools to improve the accessibility and inclusiveness of their public communication on social media, such as Canada and Norway (Box 5.3). The NIGSD could develop similar tools and practices to improve its communication.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that developing inclusive and accessible communication goes beyond designing more accessible digital websites and applications. The OECD identifies a range of practices and lessons learned about accessible and inclusive public communication in OECD Member and partner countries (Bellantoni and Cazenave, 2022[12]) the NIGSD could build on to develop its communication practices. Improving accessibility also requires institutions to better identify and understand the target audiences (through for instance audience and behavioural insights) and also engage them to support the accessibility of all communications by design, from the outset. Moreover, collaboration of public organisations with the private sector, civil society and the media, which are key partners in promoting accessibility, can also contribute to raising awareness and educating to enable the extension of accessible communication measures and initiatives to the whole of society.

As part of its mandate to promote good governance practices at the national and international level, the NIGSD could promote more broadly their adoption across public administration to enhance inclusive and accessible communication at a whole-of-government level.

Box 5.3. Practices and tools to make content more accessible on social media: the examples of Norway and Canada

Norway

In Norway, a webpage on the digital accessibility website offers advice to communicators on creating accessible content on social media. In particular, it encourages taking into account the target audience to better choose the channel through which to communicate. These recommendations also require public officials to not just publish on social media platforms, recognising that it is important to include accessible alternatives for persons with a disability. The practical advice is accompanied by examples of detailed alternative texts for certain social media posts, such as PDF documents or images, to make them accessible to persons with a disability. The Norwegian guideline also stresses the importance of enabling citizens, including those with impairments, to participate in conversations and consultations that take place on social media platforms by relaying them on government websites. In this way, users can be aware of and access messages as well as interactions taking place on other communication channels, despite potential barriers to accessibility.

Canada

Accessibility Standards Canada, the entity responsible for creating and setting accessibility standards within the Canadian government, has developed several guidelines to communicate in a more accessible and inclusive manner during the COVID-19 pandemic and during other crises. These provide practical advice on the effective dissemination of information through various online and offline formats. In particular, one of the guides sets out the requirements for effective communication that does not create barriers to persons with a disability on social media. The document uses pictograms and easy to-read text to provide clear and concise information. It highlights the importance of recruiting sign language interpreters for Facebook lives so that all citizens can take part in conversations with the government. Other recommendations include the use of plain language and the inclusion of links to accessible versions of content where this is not included in the publication. Finally, the guide page itself includes an accessible sign language version and a short format.

Source: (Bellantoni and Cazenave, 2022[12]).

Overview of tailored and actionable recommendations to improve communication efforts

The following actionable recommendations could help the NIGSD improve its communication efforts by defining coherent and strategic communication principles and tools to more effectively reach its key audience across the government and non-government sectors.

Develop a clearly defined and integrated communication strategy to promote the NIGSD’s activities and role as a key actor on governance and sustainable development and engage with a variety of stakeholders:

• Define communication objectives, target audiences, timelines, budgets and channels according to existing challenges, priorities and available resources internally but also external factors, in line with the overall objectives laid out in the NIGSD’s mandate and mission statement; link those communications with the impact that the NIGSD would like to have on policymakers, businesses and civil society.

• Develop practical guidelines, toolkits and checklists on essential communication competencies to carry out communication in a more effective way.

• Foster the use of digital tools and social media to make information widely available in an accessible and inclusive way to citizens and current and future stakeholders.

• Develop tools and practices to make communication activities more accessible from the onset, in line with NIGSD’s mandate to promote inclusiveness as part of good governance practices.

• Promote more broadly the adoption of such tools and practices across public administration to enhance inclusive and accessible communication at a whole-of-government level.

References

[12] Bellantoni, A. and E. Cazenave (2022), Accessible and inclusive public communication: Panorama of practices from OECD countries, OECD, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2022/09/accessible-and-inclusive-public-communication_60c0dc6e/222b62d9-en.pdf.

[10] Centre of Excellence of the Canadian Federation (n.d.), About the Centre of Excellence of the Canadian Federation, https://centre.irpp.org/about/.

[6] IDDRI (2023), Annual Report 2022-2023, https://rapport-annuel.iddri.org/en/.

[5] IDDRI (2021), Annual Report 2020-2021, https://www.iddri.org/sites/default/files/RA/01_Iddri_RA2021_EN_27sept.pdf.

[4] IDDRI (n.d.), About IDDRI, https://www.iddri.org/en/about-iddri.

[11] INAP (n.d.), Who we are and what we do, https://www.inap.es/presentacion-ingles.

[8] IRPP (2023), Annual Report 2022-2023, https://irpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IRPP-Annual-Report-2022-23.pdf.

[7] IRPP (n.d.), About IRPP, https://irpp.org/.

[3] NIGSD (2023), Missions statement.

[1] OECD (2021), OECD Report on Public Communication: The Global Context and the Way Forward, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/22f8031c-en.

[2] OECD (2017), Recommendation of the Council on Open Government, https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0438.

[9] Policy Options (n.d.), Our commitment to readers, https://policyoptions.irpp.org/our-commitment-to-readers/.

Note

← 1.  Home - National Institute of Management (nigsd.gov.eg); Home (MPEDIC.gov.eg).