Implementing ground-breaking behavioural change communication initiatives at scale is only possible through harnessing public and private sector support, through the formation of effective partnerships. Establishing effective partnerships with government and the private sector, characterised by co-design, flexibility and capacity strengthening support has been essential to the success and sustainability of all our interventions.
A partnership approach allows BBC Media Action to focus on what it does best, while working with other organisations that are experts in their own fields. This bringing together of complementary skills and experience is leveraged in different ways, with partners playing a collaborative role in different stages of the design and development of communication solutions.
For our health work, we partnered with research agencies , domestic and international health experts and academic institutions to help better understand communities and develop communication strategies to help shift knowledge, attitudes, norms and practices. We also partnered with private sector organisations like mobile network operators, mobile technology solution providers and private sector marketing companies, to design and develop communication solutions for tricky public health challenges. Further, state and national governments as well as other NGOs played a key role in implementing and testing solutions at scale. And once they were proven, we handed them over to the partners we worked with to develop them, to ensure further scale and long-term sustainability.