Strategy and approach

Public Awareness – Strategy and Approach

Strategy and approach of the communication and public awareness activities of the PAZA Project were developed in response to the arising needs and demands for communication by the beneficiary and considering the specifics of the Albanian media landscape and communication habits, especially in rural areas. This resulted in a specific approach which proved to be very efficient for communicating to the main target groups: the rural population in general, farming community and animal holders and veterinarians and veterinary technicians.

Regional information events and regional media coverage

Albanian society has a high preference for TV – and for direct communication. These two key elements were combined in all campaigns that were planned and carried out by the PAZA Project in collaboration with the main beneficiary, the Albanian State Veterinary Service. All campaigns were started up with regional field days, round tables and information meetings. These regional events were carried out during a short period of time during two to three weeks and covered by regional media. Regional media received pre-edited video material with focused information on the scope and activities of the respective campaign (brucellosis vaccination, rabies vaccination, transport ban of animals). They could combine this material with reports about the meetings and discussions taking place in their region.

National and regional TV

In addition short TV spots (30 to 60 sec) were broadcasted intensively during a short period (2 to 3 weeks) in regional and in main national TV channels.

Working with schools

As last and final element, an agreement with the Ministry of Education was reached and starting from 2014 on all major public awareness campaigns included collaboration with schools in different forms. Key pillar was to send an information package consisting of a letter from the Ministry of Education, special in-depth information fact sheets for teachers, leaflets and posters to each of the about 2000 primary and secondary schools in Albania. This resulted firstly in directly informing and raising awareness of students and secondly, equally important, in distributing efficiently hundreds of thousands of leaflets to rural and farm households.

So in a nutshell the following points summarise best the specific approach developed by the PAZA Project:

• Combining face to face communication with print products and TV
• Simultaneous communication on regional and national TV stations
• High density of communication on all channels during a short period of time
• Complementary collaboration with 2000 schools all over Albania since 2014