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Conclusions and recommendations for TRISP

In the absence of data on specific information needs and use from the e-mail questionnaire these conclusions and recommendations are rather general.  It will be possible to provide more specific recommendations once the study is complete.

Increasing demand for information

Awareness of the availability of information on transport and rural services from the World Bank, DFID and others is relatively low.  Increasing awareness will stimulate demand.  Mechanisms for TRISP to do this could include:

  • Introducing knowledge demand assessments and information components in all transport and rural services projects.
  • Awareness campaigns through personal contacts, and information distributed through in-country offices, by visiting staff and through local media.
  • Improved linkages between professional staff who travel overseas and meet potential users of information, and the staff who edit information products (e.g. newsletters) and manage the mailings lists (e.g. databases).
  • Systems to assess how satisfied users are with information already provided (e.g. semi-structured interviews, assisted with one-page questionnaire), as well as for profiling what kinds of information they would like to receive in the future.

 

Increasing availability of useful information

There is a lot of information available in printed and electronic form, but much of it is not accessible or in the right format for potential users.  There are also many useful initiatives seeking to improve information availability (e.g. WIN, SUSTRAN, PIARC, IFRTD and ILO-ASSIST) It may be better improve information sharing between these than new institutions. Mechanisms to do this could include:

  • To have in place interactive systems that continuously update information provider’s knowledge of users’ changing requirements for information. This includes not only monitoring systems that record the information being sought by users, but processes that communicate the nature of this demand to information providers, and those designing projects and commissioning research, i.e. that the data is analysed and acted upon.
  • Encouraging organisations to define their ‘niche’, and particularly their unique information products (which should be reflected in the research that they generate);
  • Ensuring organisations have the resources, capacity and systems to be able to respond quickly to changing information needs (content and form);
  • Improved systems and networks between organisations so they can share information, and re-package it to their specific audience’s needs.
  • Ensuring that funding organisations translate their rhetoric (e.g. about knowledge being the key to poverty alleviation) into activities and support for innovative communications approaches that meet people’s information needs.
  • Encouraging staff development and training within organisations involved in transport and other rural services to promote more effective internal and external communication.
  • Encouraging the translation of existing material rather then new material.

 

Packaging information to be appropriate to different users

TRISP could improve the packaging of information to make it more valuable to a wider audience by:

  • Building M&E and user satisfaction systems into information activities to assess how satisfied users are with the information provided and determine what kinds of information they would like to receive in the future.
  • Create the right balance between electronic and printed media.  This will be region and country specific.  Efficient subsidised outlets for printed material will be necessary in countries with poor internet connectivity.
  • Encouraging organisations and information provides involved in transport and rural service issues to link their work to other sectors & issues (PRSPs, Rights Based Approaches, Rural Livelihoods, Health etc, Participation, Environment) and take advantage of their information services.

 

Increasing impact of information

Information on transport and rural services could have more impact if:

  • More, more appropriate information is more widely available (see above).
  • Users and policy makers are involved in generating and sharing the information.
  • Information providers and brokers learn from communications and marketing specialists how to sell their information more effectively (see below)

 

Marketing information more strategically to priority users

Opportunities to market information more strategically include:

  • A specialised Search Engine for the Internet on transport (a suggestion from the Peru workshop).
  • Put hard copies of materials in decentralised locations near to users (i.e. the south) with clear procedures for access (Peru and Zimbabwe workshops).
  • Identify the networks that actively promote information to the desired target groups of each institution (e.g. professional engineering bodies etc.) in the ten priority countries (e.g. highest expenditure, largest on-the-ground presence that could act as enthusiasts/champions to follow-up information?) and target them as pilot. Track patterns of raised profile information products/increased uptake and evaluate after 24 months.
  • Feed information into general DFID publications to raise profile of contributions of transport to the broader aid effort, and to raise awareness of the strategic importance of increased mobility as a precursor to reaching other development goals (e.g. marketing products to generate income, increasing employment options, raising health profiles through reaching clinics etc.)
  • An ‘acquisitions policy’ which describes how new names will be added to mailing lists, and old ones edited out, is useful to ensure audiences are the right ones for information being produced (and vice versa).
  • Improved internal mechanisms to keep staff informed about what material is available.

 

Improving organisational learning and sharing systems

Mechanisms identified by the study to improve organisational learning and sharing in particular in the World Bank and DFID include:

  • Having programmes that interact with the target audience, and that actively solicit information about what information (e.g. from that programme) they would like to see as outputs, using what communications methods (e.g. policy briefs, web updates, joining communities of practice etc.) and implementing strategies that respond to the expressed information needs;
  • Advisory Groups that inform particular aspects of the organisation’s work (e.g. Editorial Committees for newsletters e.g. consultative forums for designing research work; invitations to tender for doing research with clear instructions and equal access to all to apply e.g. DFID KaR now that it’s untied; etc.)
  • An Acquisitions Policy that describes a system for staff ‘bringing back’ to the organisation names of contacts made during overseas workshops, conferences, training courses, research work that can be added to a Contacts Database which is used for mailing new information, seeking participation in research, ‘testing the water’ on new work, pre-testing materials etc. Incentives should be provided for bringing names back, and it should be enshrined in organisational procedures and job descriptions to build professional constituencies and service their information needs;

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