Integrating U-FE & Rescom to develop an evidence-based comunication plan

Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) is an Argentinian NGO that seeks to contribute to establish a judicial and institutional culture that would guarantee the fundamental rights of people based on the values of the national constitution. In 2015, ADC created the Freedom of Expression and Privacy Unit (FEP). Right after its creation, the unit´s staff members became aware of the need to start a reflection process that would allow them to clarify and prioritize their goals and objectives. ADC came in contact with DECI-2 following a request from the Cyberstewards research network they belong to, that had already received mentoring from DECI-2 at the hub level. They saw that working in evaluation and communication with DECI-2 mentorship was a great opportunity because it responded to their need.

As expressed by one of the FEP team members, “we decided that having a basic communication plan would be very useful for our team because it would allow us to establish greater clarity about the objectives and the results of our communication strategies, especially about those seeking to influence public policy on digital rights. The idea of undertaking a U-FE process in parallel also caught our interest, and we decided to do it as a strategic learning initiative that would allow us to measure and improve the performance of our communication strategy”.

This case study summarizes the process, products and learnings that resulted from ADC’s experience with Research Communication (ResCom) and Utilization-focused Evaluation (U-FE). The document is structured as follows: First, it describes the initial steps that were taken to help the FEP unit develop a basic communication plan. Second, it describes how the U-FE process was designed to support the communication plan and how U-FE and ResCom were integrated. Thirdly, it describes the main achievements and products. Lastly, it summarizes the main learnings from the mentor’s perspective and provides some concluding remarks.