The Drum Beat 319 - Campaign Mojo

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This Drum Beat is one of a series of commentary and analysis pieces. In this issue, Thomas Scalway, Communication Consultant, speculates on the key ingredients for a global communication campaign, based on his current work with the new World AIDS Campaign. What follows is Thomas' perspective - NOT that of any organisation he works with or of the CI Partners collectively or individually.

We are interested in featuring a range of critical analysis commentaries of the communication for change field. These will appear regularly on the first Monday of each month and are meant to inspire dialogue throughout the month. Though we cannot guarantee to feature your commentary, as we have a limited number of issues to be published each year, if you wish to contribute please contact Deborah Heimann [email protected] Many thanks!

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Campaign Mojo

In this Drum Beat I would like to ask the question of what gives an international campaign its mojo or oomph (or more precisely, its self perpetuating and inclusive public mobilisation with exponential growth and impact)?

What makes a global campaign greater than the sum of its parts? Why do some campaigns seem to snowball into unstoppable forces for change, whereas others just seem like a short term public relations exercise that lives only as long as the budget line?

These questions are particularly relevant to a group of us right now brainstorming how best to support a World AIDS Campaign, within a reference group on country-level communication. To date, for most people, the World AIDS Campaign (click here for more information on the campaign) has been something run out of UNAIDS, Geneva. It has culminated in World AIDS Day, which was given a theme and a slogan and the requisite posters and materials for promotion. Last year the theme was on Women, and the slogan, for good or bad, was "Have you heard me today?" But now the campaign is changing. Beginning this year, it will be run by a small civil society body with a team of just three full time staff sharing a small office in Amsterdam.

Despite its size, its ambitions are big, and it will work mainly through linking and supporting the efforts of existing local and international partners. The World AIDS Campaign (WAC) from 2005 to 2010 is calling on individuals and groups to support the theme "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise" aimed at governments and policy makers. The intention is to support an international campaign to hold our leaders accountable for their promises and commitments and take the action necessary to deliver on them. 

"Stop AIDS. Make the Promise", launching in parallel with the Keep the Promise Campaign has also been developed by the WAC to provide that opportunity for individuals to get involved and make their voices heard. The idea is that everyone can contribute whether by privately making your promise to support the campaign and its work or by actively promoting the campaign with friends and colleagues. The communication challenges are enormous, and right now we are in need of creative thinking about how one actually might go about this. 

There is certain amount that we do know about successful campaigning. We know that it happens best within an environment where people can debate, share ideas, and articulate their views. We know that the media and new technologies, plus a range of traditional channels can help this happen. We know that some policy environments are more amenable than others. We know that with the right kinds of networks, the right kind of leadership, the right kinds of resources, a range of things can be done. 

Currently, I'm writing from a meeting on communication on TB in Mexico. Yesterday we were talking about the mother of all communication methods: social movements, and how they create real sustainable communication impact. How did one problem, breast cancer, get massive mobilisation with real changes in donor efforts and resources when another problem, prostate cancer, gets none? It is not due to the statistical impacts of those conditions. Women got organised, but more than this, they were working from an existing political platform of gender rights and reform. There is no such movement amongst men – there is no political platform for men’s health rights. Normally, there is just a sense of isolated embarrassment over the dangers within the prostate. The same kind of politicised platform existed for gay men in the early struggle against AIDS in northern countries. The channels, networks and overall savvy built up within the Gay Rights Movement were well placed to launch a fight against the new virus, GRID, Gay related immune disorder, later to be renamed AIDS. It has been the same for mobilisation on AIDS treatment in Latin America and South Africa, where human rights platforms and anti-apartheid platforms were used to launch strongly politicised anti-AIDS fights. 

But what else made these things work? And how does one create a campaign where there is not already a hotbed of political activism and engagement? What if those networks don’t exist - if you don’t have a Zachie Achmat, or a whole range of anti-apartheid tools or songs to adapt to the AIDS issue? Perhaps more importantly, should one even try? Where campaigns have worked, they were started by local people facing local problems. So why try and foist a campaign on people to whom it may not even be relevant? 

There are two obvious answers to this. Campaigns, even localised ones, have friends. Private foundations, international NGOs, a range of donors generally help things along. From fighting apartheid through to fighting for ARVs, there have been external partners helping to convene, support and resource local efforts. The campaign is for them. The other answer is that, as far as the WAC is concerned, there already are a large number of disparate civil society bodies fighting to hold their governments to account on their promises on AIDS, yet these efforts are often not connected. The campaign is to support these connections. 

But still, how does an organisation, with little capacity and fewer resources, help catalyse a global campaign to "Keep the Promise"? The ambition is that this year thousands of individuals will "Make the Promise". In 2006 the World AIDS Campaign will use these promises as an example to governments around the world. Individuals are thus encouraged to participate in the World AIDS Campaign through this act of setting an example, making sure that their national leaders know they have to keep their promises. But why should they? Why would they? 

There are clearly obvious role models, such as the Make Poverty History campaign, and some of the treatment initiatives which currently seem to rest across a number of networks, with obvious leadership centres around Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa, and Gay Men's Health Crisis, United States. The microbicide efforts might also be a case in point. But what are the key ingredients? 

Here are some of the things that I have found important while trying to work out what makes things work:

1. A sense of solidarity. People are moved to engage when they are responding to the situations of others they connect with. So from this we need to help people network and connect, the world over.
2. The enabling communication environments, in terms of liberalised media, the right to free speech, the technologies and channels for vibrant public debate. But how does a campaigning organisation improve the communication environment? Possibly by training people affected by the issues to raise their voices? Possibly by training people to listen to those most affected?
3. Leadership emerging from within the most affected communities, with responses shaped locally and with a passion and a sense of volunteerism that other kinds of institutions can only dream about.
4. A little bit of outside help, taking a back seat and remaining invisible where possible (think of the relationship between the MSF and Treatment Action Campaign, or the overseas support for the anti-apartheid struggle).
5. An existing politicised platform for action. Should WAC be functioning mainly where we know there are the kinds of networks and capacities to make things happen?

I am hoping that from this discussion we can hear about the successes and challenges of other campaigns. Are what I have listed above the key ingredients to give a campaign its mojo? Or are there other things that a small organisation with big ambitions for a World AIDS Campaign should consider? 

Thomas Scalway
World AIDS Campaign Communication Consultant
[email protected]

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Please participate in a Pulse Poll related to these issues: 

A global communication campaign will only be successful if there is already political activism and engagement on the issues being addressed.

Do you agree or disagree?

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RESULTS of past Pulse Poll

In 2015, people will look back and say that the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) were a major reason for reduced poverty levels.

Agree: 9.68 %
Disagree: 64.52 %
Unsure: 25.81 %

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This issue of The Drum Beat was meant to inspire dialogue and conversation among the Drum Beat network.

To read contributions please click here.

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This issue of The Drum Beat is an opinion piece and has been written and signed by the individual writer. The views expressed herein are the perspective of the writer and are not necessarily reflective of the views or opinions of The Communication Initiative or any of The Communication Initiative Partners.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners. 

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