Resilience and Humanitarian Response: Helping People Deal with Risk, Respond to Change and Cope with Emergencies

"At BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development charity, we believe that media and communication can help people become more resilient and recover more swiftly from disaster."

In this document, BBC Media Action seeks to explain how communication supports resilience and humanitarian response and what approaches the organisation uses for its programmes and audience research. Their work is based upon the following: "Timely and reliable information helps people to anticipate set-backs, learn skills, boost their livelihoods and gain a better understanding of their rights. Person-to-person discussion, media debates and compelling human stories bring issues to life and give people the chance to hold decision-makers to account." In 28 countries, they develop mass media interventions, some of them described here as examples, to build resilience and support emergency response.

The projects are developed based upon research including:

1. Formative research to understand complex situations;
2. Pre-testing and piloting to ensure that media and communication outputs meet audience needs;
3. Monitoring audience responses;
4. Evaluating  to measure impact and shape future approaches;
5. Sharing findings.

Skill and tool building is designed to support partners, including: local media organisations; government, development, and aid agencies; and civil society organisations.

Reaching audiences, particularly vulnerable and marginalised people, involves such media as radio, television, print, and social media, as well as mobile technology, street theatre, and group and one-to-one discussion. "Media production is our most visible area of work but we know its impact is greater when audiences can talk about the issues raised. We choose media formats - from discussion programming and public service announcements to comedy, drama and reality television - based on their relevance to our audiences as well as their power to communicate the subject in hand....At BBC Media Action we:

• Select platforms and formats that appeal to audiences and meet project objectives
• Ensure programmes are interactive to encourage audience involvement and local ownership as well as to elicit feedback 
• Work in partnership with local civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, governments and others to develop activities that prompt discussion and support change."

Designing activities that suit both community influencers and those at risk, vulnerable, and/or marginalised can extend to social networks, carrying to work further through, for example:  rural farmers, small business owners and entrepreneurs, urban migrants, families living in areas at risk of hazards, or individuals affected by crisis; practitioners, including media professionals, civil society workers, agricultural extension workers, business people, government officials, and staff in international agencies; organisations - media, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, universities, and government agencies, as well as influencing social norms, public policy, and public services.

"10 ways media and communication can strengthen resilience 

1. Provide information and build knowledge: people need information to make informed choices about risk, adversity and how to respond to disaster.
2. Improve confidence and motivation: to solve collective problems people often need to feel part of a wave of change. Media and communication activities can share positive examples of how people have taken action in their lives to inspire and reassure others.
3. Build skills: media and communication can help audiences to develop life skills, make decisions and solve problems. It can also point people towards local opportunities as well as helping people build hands-on technical skills.
4. Spark innovation: media can share innovative approaches with millions of people at a time, while media and communication activities can spark new ideas among individuals.
5. Explore social norms: communication can support people to challenge traditional practices. For example, in some societies, women can only leave their home if accompanied by a male or elder; this can stop them seeking shelter in a disaster. Community-wide discussion can help people make decisions that may at first feel strange or counter-intuitive.
6. Alter risk perception: how people feel about risk and what they expect to happen as a result of taking action can influence the extent to which they embrace new approaches, consider opportunities and mitigate potential disasters. Media and communication can help broach sensitive topics and can present issues in accessible ways.
7. Strengthen social networks: resilience to shocks and stresses can be strengthened by social, political, economic and cultural networks. Media and communication can play a role in connecting people and practitioners.
8. Prompt person-to-person discussion: communities, individuals and practitioners need platforms to discuss existing problems, share ideas, and seek solutions. Media platforms and communication activities can convene and amplify community discussions.
9. Expand public dialogue: public meetings with high-level decision-makers are often inaccessible to rural, time-pressed and resource-poor people. Media can broker discussion on issues such as land rights, urban development, or the ability of public infrastructure to support economic development or manage risk.
10. Enhance accountability: media and communication can help people hold leaders to account, facilitate participation and encourage transparency."