Sindh Basic Education Program Communication Strategy

The program covers seven districts in North Sindh and five towns in Karachi. The program is being implemented under Development Objective (DO) 4 of USAID/Pakistan's Mission Strategic Framework (MSF) through an Activity Agreement signed on September 21, 2011. The SBEP is being implemented in partnership with various partners, including the Education and Literacy Department (ELD), Government of Sindh (GoS), and USAID. The Program Management and Implementation Unit (PMIU) has been established within ELD to oversee the construction of schools affected by the 2010 floods and support GoS's policy reform to consolidate and upgrade schools. The SBEP has several communication objectives, including raising awareness of the program among target audiences in project districts and towns in Sindh, communicating the benefits of SBEP schools, and promoting opportunities and services for students and out-of-school children, particularly girls. The program also aims to inform and engage target audiences about project interventions, including improving reading skills for children in primary grades and providing ICT skills, teaching materials, and in-service training opportunities for teachers and teaching assistants. The SBEP is managed and implemented under a partnership arrangement, with various partners entrusted with implementing different components of the program. The partnership arrangement presents several challenges to achieving the communication objectives, including engaging staff members, talking to target audiences, prioritizing communication efforts, and promoting team work. The SBEP has identified several key messages to communicate to target audiences, including the benefits of SBEP schools, opportunities and services for students and out-of-school children, and the importance of improving reading skills for children in primary grades. The program also aims to promote and support the strengthening of School Management Committees (SMCs) and the public-private partnership (PPP)/Education Management Organization (EMO) within ELD. The SBEP has several communication channels and tools, including social media, print media, and electronic media, to reach target audiences and promote the program's goals and objectives. The program also aims to monitor and evaluate its communication efforts to ensure that they are effective in achieving the communication objectives. The SBEP is a live document that will be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect changing communication contexts, needs, and requirements. The designated person appointed by the Communication Working Group (CWG) will be responsible for reviewing and updating the document. The SBEP is closely aligned and linked to the main objectives and sub-objectives of the program, as stipulated under Development Objective (DO) 4 of USAID/Pakistan's Mission Strategic Framework (MSF). The program's communication strategy is designed to support the achievement of the program's goals and objectives, including increasing and sustaining student enrollment in primary, secondary, and secondary schools in target locations in Sindh. The SBEP has several key stakeholders, including the Education and Literacy Department (ELD), Government of Sindh (GoS), USAID, and various partners implementing different components of the program. The program's communication strategy is designed to engage and inform these stakeholders, as well as target audiences, about the program's goals, objectives, and achievements. The SBEP has several key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the program's progress and achievement of its communication objectives. The KPIs include the number of target audiences reached, the number of schools constructed, the number of students enrolled, and the number of teachers trained. The SBEP has several annexes that provide additional information on the program's communication strategy, including the minutes of the Communication Working Group (CWG) meetings, snapshots from the field visit to Sukkur and Sukkur, and the debriefing minutes of the meeting on January 26, 2016.