The 'Tejaswini' Socio-economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls & Young Women Programme is being implemented in Jharkhand with the aim to improve completion of secondary education and access to market-driven skills training for target groups in the state. The programme seeks to bring about change through two levels of interventions; first at the community level by developing community-based platforms for adolescent girls and young women to come together and second at the institution-level by working with partner institutions to deliver non-formal education and vocational training to adolescent girls and young women.
Sutra Consulting has been engaged to develop an Information Education Communication (IEC) strategy for the programme that would ensure effective communication of programme objectives and interventions and create awareness among primary, secondary and tertiary stakeholders which is vital for successful implementation. Our team of experts is providing consistent value through their work in the area of formative research including identifying communication needs of relevant stakeholder groups, disaggregated by gender, region and role. The IEC strategy would stem from the formative research, consultations with various groups of stakeholders and in-depth review of good practices which have potential for replication and scale-up.
The Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Program is a USD 286 Million programme of the Asian Development Bank aims to provide assistance to the project management unit of Kolkata Municipal Corporation in successfully communicating with the public about improving the quality and sustainability of water supply and sewerage operations in Kolkata Municipal Corporation area.
Sutra Consulting was engaged as Public Communication and Social Development Consultant for supporting this programme. Our team of experts were responsible for developing and providing information, education and communication materials in various paper and digital formats, provide strategic advice on public communication of the project, coordinate, organize and supervise various participation and consultation activities in accordance with the communication strategy and also developing public awareness in respect of the works and area concern. Since the program has been running in selected wards there were unique challenges involved. The communication strategy and related messages had to be very niche. At one hand there was a need of project branding targeted towards the entire city of Kolkata, on another hand, there was a need to communicate effectively to the local ward residents who were potentially affected due to the construction and repair work for the project. In addition, our team was also responsible for implementation of the effective gender mainstreaming initiative under the project following the Gender Action Plan. Our work has greatly helped in conceptualizing and implementing a 360' communication cycle. IEC materials developed and disseminated by our team included Newspapers Advertisements, Posters on various thematic components in Ward offices and construction sites, door to door distribution of Leaflets in selected wards, hoarding in prime locations, Unipole advertisements in important locations etc.
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) had established the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme which aimed at helping Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to assist people in the poorest and the most backward districts of India realise their entitlements more effectively and sustainably.
Sutra Consulting was appointed as an agency for documenting, learning and developing the knowledge products for various interventions of PACS in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh for the period of September 2005 to December 2007. The project addressed the thematic areas related to the local self-governance, women's empowerment, policy advocacy, self-help and social cohesion. Our experts were involved in supporting the Management Consultants by rendering developmental/professional support; organising, facilitating and participating in various events of PACS; hand holding at the individual project level for Civil Society Organisations; quarterly supportive supervision documentation and consolidation of project reports; and coordinating the peer review workshops and consolidation of learning for programme level aggregation by the Management Consultants.
