Public support

Building public support for development is key to expand the insufficient political space and increase pressure on governments to enact change.

Public support is needed for sustainable lifestyle and behaviour changes to halt excessive consumption.

Without public support, the private sector will not operate in ways that improve impact on development.

A stronger base of public involvement in effective civil society organisations will help them provide and advocate solutions.

Bond aims to enable supporters, interested audiences and the wider public to understand, respond and take action to address the causes of global injustice and poverty.

An emerging programme on public engagement

During recent consultations and conversations with NGO leaders, maintaining and building support for international development emerged as a top priority for the Bond network.  Now, as the programme starts to take shape, some clear directions are emerging.  

1. Championing effective aid on the road to 0.7% in the media

Many recent credible surveys show that UK public support for development and for an increase in UK aid spending is falling. Despite - or because of - the ring-fencing of the UK aid budget there is increasing scepticism about aid. Media coverage is more hostile and oppositional voices are growing, exacerbated by an economic crisis and deep spending cuts elsewhere.  With Bond support, UK NGOs are working together to better champion aid and UK leadership on development to their supporters, the wider public, media commentators and influentials as the UK reaches the 0.7% aid target.

Messaging, facts and stories on aid will be available soon and regular updates based on new contexts and arguments playing well in the public domain, as well as workshops and peer exchanges on content and practice, will follow.

Alongside this, Bond and NGO media leaders are putting in place the first unified media relations service for the sector initially aimed at responding to negative aid and development stories. It will also monitor media coverage and improve coordination at key moments and on issues of importance to cause of development.

2. Resources and learning on UK public support and action

Bond is gathering a wide range of resources and learning on support for development as well as research on who takes action for development and why. For the first time there will be a one-stop shop and coherent community of interest and practice. 

An online resource will set out all available polling and segmentation of UK publics on international development. Private online and offline spaces will encourage the sharing of information on public engagement and learning about what motivates various parts of the population to support development.  

Gaining a wider and deeper understanding of polling and knowledge about audiences within the UK development community will help to identify gaps in evidence and knowledge and generate a greater understanding what inspires people to take action.

3. Demonstrating UK public support

Bond will help NGOs demonstrate the national depth and strength of support for aid and development beyond their own supporter base. Aggregate data is being researched and compiled. The findings will show the level of support for development, for instance, overall numbers and action metrics, visuals, quotes, testimony and stories that demonstrate a critical mass of public support for positive government action on development and how NGOs have huge public backing and are worthy of support.  

4. Improving practice for strategic public engagement

Last year Bond published the ground-breaking report Finding Frames: New Ways to Engage the UK Public in Global Poverty and shared the findings with NGO leaders.

In 2012, Bond will support NGOs to review their communications with their supporters and the wider public, using emerging evidence on values and frames on global issues as a base, in order to identify and implement the changes of practice needed to better tell the story of their work and international development more broadly. 

Workshops and resources will provide NGOs with the information they need to help their audiences understand, respond and take action to address the causes of global injustice and poverty. Fresh thinking and collaboration should provide imaginative new solutions to the perennial challenges and offer breakthrough possibilities for the years ahead.    

The evidence and debate generated from values and frames will provide one way to improve public engagement but the programme is very much open to whichever evidence and innovation will improve communication practice to ultimately help the British public play their full part in the fight against poverty and inequality.

5. Evaluating work with the public and improving effectiveness

Building public support for development is a ‘way of working’ in the Bond Effectiveness Programme's Im-Prove it framework that will enable NGOs to assess, manage and report their effectiveness confidently and consistently. Tools on how and what to assess and what to report to various stakeholders, including the public, will enable NGOs to assess their performance on public engagement.

A new development narrative

The directions outlined here will be enhanced further by work around building a powerful new narrative that includes the voices of people living in poverty, partnerships and allies as well as developing a common vision and shared ambition around the optimum level of support for international development in Britain and how we can best realise future support.   

For more information contact the Advocacy team.

Ten ways to build support

1. Create a wider and deeper understanding of polling within the development community; address gaps and deepen our knowledge of audiences.
2. Focus on what inspires people to take action to support development; build on approaches that enable citizens to act. Ultimately, actions in the real world create change, rather than what people say they think in polls.
3. Increase cooperation, sharing and leadership within civil society on maintaining and building public support for development.
4. Improve communication practice and skills within the development community to better influence decision-makers and enable supporters to understand, respond and take action to address the causes of poverty.
5. Use positive story-telling and put in place effective response and rebuttal to negative coverage. More proactive and reactive initiatives are needed to target the public and media to advance the cause of development. A powerful new narrative should include the voices of people living in poverty.
6. Explore and respond to the emerging evidence on values and frames on global issues, such as Common Cause and Finding Frames.
7. Develop partnerships with media and creative industries. NGOs/non-profits cannot achieve public support goals alone. We need a new scale of relationships with the private sector to extend reach and capacity.
8. Support champions of development from outside the development community. Allies and voices from politics, commerce and public life help create greater leverage with decision-makers, opinion-formers and supporters.
9. Develop campaigning, individual giving and public education in ways that maintain and build public support.
10. Develop a common vision and shared ambition around the optimum level of support for international development and how we can get there.  

A powerful new narrative should include the voices of people living in poverty.

Whilst many development organisations have plans for their own public reach, a greater and more systematic project for the whole sector is also needed: a common agenda for future success.

As a vision for public support startes to take shape, these pages will become a resource on new thinking and improved practice on public support for development.

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