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Strengthening Public Relations in the EACSupport to the East African Community Integration Process

Background

The East African Community, with its different organs and insti-tutions, is the ‘Face’ of East African regional integration. There-fore, it is necessary for the EAC to develop a strong corporate identity and a consistent corporate image to ensure credibility and trust in the eyes of the public.

With an East African population of over 140 million and growing, the media play a critical role in communicating the EAC integra-tion agenda to the public. Factual reporting on EAC activities is essential for achieving successful regional integration in East Africa, ensuring much needed public debate, awareness and transparency.

Assignment

German International Coopera-tion (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development supports the EAC Secretariat in enhancing its internal and external corporate communica-tions. Capacity development and networking with the East African media are a focus of the assign-ment. Public relations are strengthened with EAC stakeholders, such as the citizenry, the private sector and development partners through various interactions in conferences and the media.

The EAC brand is revitalised through an EAC brand analysis to explore how EAC is perceived by its target audiences and whether EAC’s corporate identity and corporate image are consistent.

Approach

Partner East African Community (EAC)comprising Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda & Tanzania

Commissioned by Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany

Contact Support to the EAC Integration ProcessBernd MulthaupProgramme ManagerEAC Headquarters, Former State LodgeEAC Close, P.O. Box 13854, Arusha, TanzaniaT +255 27 20 50 288E eac-germancooperation@giz.deI www.giz.de; www.eacgermany.org

Duration 01.03.2013 - 29.02.2016

Interview for the Branding Survey

‘The East African Community, with

its different organs and institutions,

is the ‘Face’ of East African regional

integration.’

‘Within the EAC Secretariat,

GIZ supports the development of a

strong EAC brand.’

Together with the EAC Secretariat, GIZ provides capacity devel-opment for media through hands-on training. Target groups are:

§ Journalists§ Photographers§ Film Script Writers§ Radio Moderators So far, renowned media experts, mostly from the East African region, have transferred state-of-the-art technical skills to more than 150 media free lancers or staff of the East African media houses. The East African Film Network, supported by EAC and GIZ, introduced story-telling trainings on regional integration as part of each of the International Film Festivals in the five Partner States.

Lively interaction with EAC staff on integration topics ensures first-hand knowledge and a clear understanding of EAC develop-ments in the media. Specific journalist trainings were held on topics such as investment opportunities provided by the EAC Common Market Protocol, or conflict-sensitive reporting on political developments in the region.

Within the EAC Secretariat itself, GIZ supports the development of a revitalised EAC brand to strengthen the corporate identity. The percep-tion of the EAC as a brand deter-mines its credibility and strength through the eyes of East African citizens and other key stakeholders.

Results

So far, the more than 100 trained journalists from East Africa form a critical mass to engage East Africans in a public debate based on sound information and facts about the EAC regional integration. Continuous media monitoring shows a rise in qualita-tive and quantitative reporting on EAC in the five Partner States. Initiatives by the journalists have recently taken root in the form of an EAC networking forum of journalists where professional debate on EAC developments is taking place.

The first step of the branding project, the brand survey, was suc-cessfully completed in 2013. During a two-month journey across the five EAC Partner States, the EAC interviewed more than 1,500 East Africans and learned from their perceptions, hopes and fears of integration. In addition, over 2,000 responses to online ques-tionnaires provided insight into the views of EAC staff as well as the private sector and development partners.

These findings are now informing the next steps of the EAC Brand project: Where does the EAC want to go and how will it get there? A summary of the main results of the Brand Survey can be found at: www.eacgermany.org

Best Practices

A blended training approach is being used for all media training. Specialised training courses on selected topics of EAC integra-tion are combined with related major EAC events. This approach gives the journalists an opportunity to not only gain theoretical

The Branding Process Aim

Step 1Brand AnalysisWhere is the EAC today?

Assessment of EAC marketing and communication materials

Step 2Brand IdentityWhere does the EAC want to go?

Agreement on how EAC wants to be perceived, its visual expression and what it stands for

Step 3Brand StrategyHow will the EAC get there?

Development of a Corporate Design Guide for the EAC

Step 4Implementation and Monitoring

Implementation of the Design Guide

Photos: © GIZ; Hartmut Fiebig

The Branding Survey Team on its journey through the EAC Partner States

‘Specialised journalist training courses on

selected topics of EAC integration are

combined with related major EAC events.’

knowledge but also to make immediate practical use of the knowledge gained through interviews with EAC staff and subsequent feature stories delivered to their media houses. During a training on conflict-sensitive reporting, for example, the journalists were able to interact with experts attending the EAC Peace & Security Con-ference and to test their newly gained skills in covering current peace and security topics.

Volunteers comprising of trained journalists and EAC Youth Ambassadors joined the EAC team in collecting information and data for the branding survey. The volunteers had an opportunity to interview and interact directly with the citizens whom they represent in their various capacities as journalists and EAC repre-sentatives. This also gave them first-hand experience on how the EAC is perceived from the grassroots level thus enabling them to relate, interpret, represent and report from a realistic and factual point of view.

Additionally, the participation of volunteers already familiar with the EAC agenda enhanced the quality of the branding survey with their previous knowledge on the subject. Minimum resources were used to train these volunteers as they only required skills on the survey methodology and collection and not the EAC integra-tion agenda.