Template: How to Report and Present the Communication Proposal

When you write your report about the proposed communication strategy, and its rationale, you must make sure to include all relevant factors, while avoiding being too long or spending too much effort in explaining details of each step you went through. There are many ways to write and present a report. Each of them could be equally effective. You should choose a format you feel most comfortable with. Always keep in mind the person it is intended for. The following is a suggestion of what to include in your written report:

Executive summary. It is always advisable to start with a short summary, not more than a page long, of what is your proposal all about. This allows even the busiest person to have an idea about your proposal and hopefully to become interested in it. The executive summary should emphasise what is your proposal about and why is its relevance. Often people writing on a well known issue forget that other people may not know it that well and may fail to see the relevance of the issue in question. Therefore do not assume that what you are doing is important, prove it! Make sure your audience can see what the problem is and why it is important to address it. If your executive summary conveys these two issues effectively you made a big step forward in getting your audience attention.
Contents and acknowledgements. Include a table of contents to illustrate all the topics treated in your report. You should also acknowledge the contribution of everybody.
Background Information. At this point include a short project presentation, illustrating the geographical, cultural, social and economic background of the concerned area. Also state the project objectives, problems, structure and main activities.
Presentation of the main problems and rationale of the proposal. Present the problems you are addressing with your proposal. Explain why they are major ones and what is the rationale for addressing them; stating why do you think it is important to deal with them. Illustrate why you think communication can effectively assist in solving the problems or improve the situation.
Presentation of the research findings. Show how the point above has been derived from the field research. Illustrate your original research proposal, the methodology used (PRCA tools and baseline), the findings and the difference between project and community perceptions.
Description of the communication strategy. Synthesise the major steps you went through in order to illustrate your strategy. Remember that most of all, you have to convince the readers that your communication strategy is: needed, relevant, consistent and effective.
Description of the outputs. Specify which outputs are expected as a result of the strategy design. Illustrate the use and purpose of communication materials to be produced.
Present the work plan. This is the culmination of all the work you have done so far. The project management will judge the soundness of your proposal by the consistency, relevance and feasibility of the work plan. Based on this they will also decide if it should be endorsed and if adequate funding should be authorised.
Make final comments and recommendations.

When you present your strategy do NOT spend too much time on details and background information, however interesting and relevant they might seem to you. If somebody wants to know more, they can read the report or ask you a question at the end of the presentation. Focus on the issues and problems in question, on the findings of your work and on proposed solutions. Remember that if you want to convince the management, or other agencies, to fund your project you need to convince them of two things above everything else. Firstly that the problem presented is a serious one (presenters tend to assume that it is already a known fact, when often it is not) and secondly that your strategy will effectively assist to eliminate or reduce the problem.

Many presentations fail to achieve the intended results just because the presenter tries to include everything in its presentation. Remember that when you prepare for the presentation you should have in mind your listeners, among them focus your attention on the decision-makers, and concentrate on the more important issue only. Also try to use visual aids to make your presentation more lively and interesting. There are many ways you can organise the presentation to the management. Whatever format you choose to use, remember to be straight forward and up to the point and most of all be logical and show all causal links. That is, first illustrate the problem, supporting yourself by data, then illustrate how it can be addressed and why. If you perform effectively these three steps you are almost there. Do not worry if in your presentation you leave out most of the work you have carried out and methodology you have used so far, you can always present these during follow up questions. The objective of your presentation should be twofold. Firstly to convince your audience that the problem you are addressing is a major one (which needs to be solved before all others) and secondly that the strategy you are proposing will eliminate or greatly reduce the problem. In the following page you will find a list of dos and don'ts about the presentation. So please pay attention to them.

Table 6

The Dos and Don'ts about Preparing a Presentation.

Do not start your presentation with general statement or background information.	Start your presentation with a strong statement, illustrating the crucial issue and refer to it throughout the presentation.
Do not make a long elaborate presentation. People have attention time span and tend to lose concentration fast.	Try to keep your presentation short (less than 30 minutes) and up to the point. Eventually bring out more information during the follow up questions
Do not get up and start to read your paper in a monotonous way	Diversify the tone of your presentation, emphasise important points, use visual aids and keep eye contact with the audience
do not get worried about including everything you have in your presentation	Stick to the most important points, which stem from your field findings
Do not end your presentation in a rushed way	Reinforce the main point in your conclusion, if possible with a dramatisation or a provocative statement
Do not make your presentation as if you were the audience	Shape your presentation having in mind the portrait of the audience i.e. what do they know, what do they need to know, what is their background, ect.