Swiftline provided overall communications direction for this campaign. Responsibilities included team management; strategic planning; creative content generation (writing, photography, design, video editing, and support for additional creative vendors); capacity building for staff; event management; oversight and maintenance of key platforms; and more. Close collaboration with E2A’s leadership, technical experts, donors, and partners was required—and essential to our success.

1,200 people from 80+ countries registered for a single virtual E2A event on adolescent-responsive health systems, where we highlighted this tool.

For this multi-year, multi-country campaign, we knew early strategic communications planning was critical. So was our commitment to staying flexible and adapting as opportunities and challenges—especially the emerging COVID-19 pandemic—compelled us to shift tactics worldwide. For example, we’d originally planned to feature TARP at numerous in-person events, seizing opportunities for users to try out the tool. As we quickly transitioned to safer, remote alternatives, we identified new creative solutions to ensure our virtual events were useful, hands-on, and inclusive.

Keep scrolling to see a snapshot of key milestones for developing and disseminating the tool, which was originally designed to help users assess the strength of governments’ costed-implementation plans (CIPs)—multi-year actionable roadmaps designed to help achieve national family planning goals—goals that when achieved will save millions of lives and improve the health and wellbeing of women, families and communities. In time, the tool evolved to cover all kinds of plans focused on improving adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health—enabling users to measure each plan’s strength against evidence-informed practices (EIPs). In response, we expanded our constellation of communications efforts to include new tactics, new partners, and new countries.

Our content centered dynamic youth advocates in Africa, whose perspectives and experiences were instrumental in creating the tool. We tapped into existing youth and government networks to remotely collect raw footage and stories—safely and at low cost. While the footage was sometimes low-resolution and hard to hear, this approach paid off. The stories were authentic. More youth were able to share their diverse perspectives. And our young partners felt like proud owners of the communications and, ultimately, the tool itself.

We reached target audiences through integrated tactics across priority channels, with a focus on email, web, social media, and events (virtual as well as in-person, socially distanced trainings). We leveraged powerful networks and global audiences of our valued partners to amplify our messages and resources. This collaborative dissemination proved to be one of the most valuable strategies of the campaign.

Youth advocates across Burkina Faso, the DRC, Kenya, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, and Togo used the tool. And that’s just the beginning.

Extending the reach of the tool, the world’s largest family planning bilateral donor—USAID—chose to amplify and promote TARP on social media and through international events of its own. Moreover, the tool was institutionalized and adopted by regional and global leaders, including the Family Planning 2020, Ouagadougou Partnership, and Pathfinder International, who are carrying TARP forward now that the E2A project has ended. This is proof of sustainable progress and a major success of the campaign.