Pakistan Outreach and Communication Activity (POCA) Annual Report

Agency for International Development's (USAID) Mission to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The project's primary objective is to build public support for achieving the objectives of U.S. foreign assistance programming in Pakistan. The POCA project continues previous efforts to move Pakistanis along the scale from raising awareness about USAID/Pakistan's development projects to increasing support for USAID programmatic objectives. The project's two main components are a Comprehensive Nationwide Media Campaign and Communication and Outreach Support. The six development objectives for this project are: 1. To sustain and increase the awareness of USAID/Pakistan activities and projects implemented in Pakistan, including the significant results achieved, by communicating the benefits of USAID's work in Pakistan to Pakistanis at the "people level." 2. To increase the public perception of the USG and its development interventions as implemented by USAID/Pakistan. This will include raising the Pakistani level of confidence in the goals and implementation of USAID projects and activities. 3. To Increase Pakistanis' knowledge and understanding that USAID/Pakistan is a USG entity. 4. To provide support to the Development Outreach and Communication (DOC) Office of USAID/Pakistan. This will include the development and implementation of outreach events and the utilization of social media as a platform for communication, engagement, and exposure for USAID's work in Pakistan. 5. To provide outreach and communication guidance/support to USAID/Pakistan's implementing partners. 6. To apply a deep knowledge of all aspects of Pakistani society to gain visibility for U.S. development assistance programs. A Formative Citizen's consultation and research were executed to understand and analyze sentiment towards USG among the Pakistani public, awareness of the work undertaken by USAID, barriers to adoption, and ways to drive re-appraisal. The research comprised 32 focus groups covering all key regions and demographics, with an even gender and urban/rural split. The emphasis of the POCA contract objectives was towards increasing public perception and knowledge, as opposed to lowering intense negativity. The Formative Consultation Groups had three main objectives: a. To understand the Pakistani public's perception of the US b. To gain insight into the relationship and linkage between US and USG c. To identify the barriers and strategies to inform a strategy towards a major perception change The national program comprised of 32 Focus Group Discussions (FGD's) of 120-minute duration with recruitment weighted to provide a representative national cross-section. The key strategic outputs derived from the Formative Citizen Consultation Groups were definitions of the target audience, which were based on attitudes towards the US, age, and Socio Economic Groups. The POCA team developed a new strategy that provided a basis for a robust communication strategy, which led to the development of a media campaign that successfully ran during the first year. The campaign's tagline, "Aao Kur Dikhain" or "Together We Can," encompassed a partnership approach. The POCA tagline was formally launched through the first media campaign of Heritage. The POCA project is being implemented by M&C Saatchi World Services, and the contract was signed between USAID and M&C SAATCHI WORLD SERVICES on September 08, 2015, with a completion date of September 7, 2018.