Report on Communication, September 2016: Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity (SURGE) Project

Agency for International Development (USAID) to the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The project's purpose is to support the USAID/Philippines' Cities Development Initiative (CDI) by assisting up to 12 potential partner cities to promote balanced and resilient urban growth. The SURGE Project was designed to address two Development Objectives from the U.S. Mission's Country Development Cooperation Strategy: Development Objective 1, Broad-Based and Inclusive Growth Accelerated and Sustained, and Development Objective 3, Environmental Resiliency Improved. The project's goal is to promote resilient secondary cities as engines of sustainable, equitable economic growth. The project has four objectives: improve urban development and planning, promote low-emission local economic development, facilitate greater connectivity and access between urban and rural areas, and promote social inclusion. As part of its technical assistance to the six CDI partner cities, SURGE is implementing communication and information strategies that support project interventions towards the accomplishment of SURGE objectives. The project's communication objectives are to increase awareness of USAID's work to foster inclusive and resilient economic growth and to encourage buy-in of stakeholders and beneficiaries to support work to promote inclusive and resilient growth. The project used a mix of communication channels to reach out to different target audiences, including online, above-the-line, below-the-line, and stakeholder relations. In Year 1, a set of preliminary communication activities supported both national and city-level interventions. These focused on providing communication assistance in establishing institutional support in each CDI, assessing initial conditions in relation to the three main components of the project (planning, growth, and linkages), and initiating partnerships to ensure broad-based acceptance of the advocated reforms. Major accomplishments of the year include the publication of the monthly CDI Newsletter, increased media mileage for USAID and the SURGE Project, production of information materials such as infographics, fact sheets, and short animations about the project, the CDI partner cities, and their work on land tenure, and support to strategic SURGE activities such as the 2016 International Urban Development Conference, Stakeholders' Forums, technical workshops, and U.S. Government and USAID visits. The project also developed city-level Economic Growth Action Plans, which were envisioned to identify targeted actions to address constraints and enable cities to develop strategic steps to promote inclusive and resilient growth. While the action plans did not materialize in the first year of the project, high-resolution photos of economic activities, infrastructure, basic services, tourism, and governance of the six cities were collected from the city governments and freelance photographers in anticipation of the content development and layout work of the action plans. The project's communication work involved the development, packaging, and production of materials such as PowerPoint presentations, booklets, infographics, brochures, and videos that communicated the project's interventions depending on the target audience. The project employed the services of Manila-based graphics firm Braveworks Graphics Studio to develop and package appropriate and high-quality information and communication tools and products in support of SURGE interventions at the national and city levels. The project was able to increase its audience reach through news stories published by the project, USAID, and the CDI partner cities, resulting in 111 media placements online and in print. The project also submitted a total of 14 bullet stories to USAID for the Manila Environment Weekly Update, which resulted in the publication of these stories in the weekly newsletter circulated within the USAID Environment Office. A total of 35 news bits describing project component activities in the six cities were also produced in Year 1 as part of its internal information dissemination to USAID and ICMA. The project coordinated top-level visits and events of U.S. Government officials, including the 2016 International Urban Development Conference, which was attended by over 1,000 participants from around the world. The project also provided communication assistance to two CDI partner cities, namely Tagbilaran and Puerto Princesa, in packaging investment promotion materials.