A good communications strategy is absolutely critical to the communications work of any project in international development cooperation. It is essential for your project to achieve all those results it is supposed to achieve. 

How does a good communications strategy work? 

Well, first of all, its central function is that it translates certain key overall goals of your project into communications goals. 

Then it provides clear guidance on how to best get your messages to your, audience ensuring that your messages are understood, remembered and move people into action. 

And finally, it helps you sufficiently plan all your activities. Planning requires considering which information you want to be conveyed, who it is said to and what you want people to do once they heard you. 

If you have some experience in development cooperation already, you probably think now: "Wait a minute Pascal! What about all the work that goes into our fancy annual reports and all the infos we send to our clients every month. According to your definition, this kind of communication doesn't qualify to be included in a good communications strategy. " 

Yes, this a main point of what we're going to talk about here. Make your project's communication strategic. De-clutter your strategy of non-strategic activity.

Hi, I'm Pascal Corbé, founder of Corbecoms and LearnDevelopmentComunications, and lecturer at Fresenius University. I have worked in communications within international development cooperation for over 20 years. 

In this course on communications strategy for development projects, you'll learn how to proactively plan for excellent communication outcomes. You'll see what goes into a great communication strategy and how to carry out effective activity that helps your project reach its goals. 

We will cover all the basics beginners on a communications job in a development cooperation project should know to excel.