The Center for International Forestry Research's communication team undertakes a number of capacity building activities, both internal and external.

1. Michelle Kovacevic
Communications capacity building
Towards a strategy

2. Objectives
1. Clarify the capacity building
activities CIFOR’s
communication unit currently
undertakes
1. Brainstorm towards a
comprehensive capacity
building strategy across Africa,
Asia and Latin America

3. What is CIFOR’s approach to
communications capacity building?
Activities that boost:
• CIFOR’s ability to communicate its science
(internal)
• Forest science communications skills of
environmental journalists, boundary partners
and other audiences of strategic interest to
CIFOR (external)

4. Capacity building activitiesCapacity building activities
Internal
Scientist
communications
training
Journal club
External
Journalist
training
Communications
Boundary
partners
Social media
Websites (e.g.
REDDI)
Youth

5. Capacity building activitiesCapacity building activities
Internal
Scientist
communications
training
Journal club
External
Journalist
training
Communications
Boundary
partners
Social media
Websites (e.g.
REDDI)
Youth

6. Scientist communications training

7. CIFOR scientist comms training
More info:
http://kmc4crps.wikispaces.com/Resources

8. Capacity building activities
Internal
Scientist
communications
training
Journal club
External
Journalist
training
Communications
Boundary
partners
Social media
Websites (e.g.
REDDI)

9. Journal Club
A dedicated informal time each fortnight for CIFOR's
communications staff to either:
• Present and discuss a new innovation in communications,
knowledge sharing or forestry;
• Reflect on what they've learned from a particular event or
activity;
• Brainstorm creative ways to overcome a challenge we are all
facing;
• Teach the rest of the team a new skill.
Also an opportunity for staff to practice presentation/facilitation
skills.

10. Journal Club: Some techniques and activity types
Activity Description
Teach by asking - elicit don’t tell Demonstrate use of equipment by asking questions of participants
throughout
Individual or pair/group work exercise to elicit existing knowledge / experience. Brainstorming in pairs or
groups
Matching, grouping or ranking e.g. terms with definitions, ordering the stages of a process or
operation e.g. operating a camera
Transformation e.g. written brochure is turned into an educational radio or TV piece
Quiz Good way to check knowledge and learning at start and end of
session. Can be oral, using pictures, True / False / don’t know
statements for discussion
Simulation of real life work activities Group given real-life dilemmas and has to decide what they would do
in the given situation e.g. editorial decisions
Peer Assist Sharing of experiences with problems discussed and solutions offered.
More info: http://www.kstoolkit.org/Peer+Assists
Thanks to Keith Ricketts and
http://www.kstoolkit.org/

11. Journal club - topics
#1: How to shoot an interesting video interview
#2: Prezi and powerpoint presentations
#3: Book review of “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Using Data to
Change the World” and “The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with
Social Media to Drive Change”
#4: Are digital think tanks the future? What CIFOR can learn from the
Overseas Development Institute's online strategy
#5: Outcome mapping: What are the implications for communications?
#6: Technical Online Communicators' workshop recap
#7: New York Times’ leaked Digital Media strategy
#8: Welcome to the age of big and open data
Resources stored in a common dropbox folder.

12. Capacity building activities
Internal
Scientist
communications
training
Journal club
External
Journalist
training
Communications
Boundary
partners
Social media
Websites (e.g.
REDDI)
Youth

13. Journalist training
• Since 2011:
• Kalimantan
• Bali – mangroves and REDD
• Vietnam – coastal
ecosystems and REDD+
• Cameroon – Yaounde
conference
• Peru – REDD+
• Zambia – REDD+
• Jakarta – Forests in
Southeast Asia
• Future: Work with national and
international journalist
associations to develop
programs?

14. Capacity building activities
Internal
Scientist
communications
training
Journal club
External
Journalist
training
Communications
Boundary
partners
Social media
Websites (e.g.
REDDI)
Youth

15. Youth capacity building
Global Landscapes Forum, Warsaw: 10 inspirational young professionals selected to present
their challenge and success stories in natural resource management
www.landscapes.org/youth
Forests Asia Summit: 150 of the best and brightest young minds from across ASEAN took
part in interactive roundtable discussions to find creative ideas for the region’s future.
www.forestsasia.org/youth
Next youth session at COP20 in Lima: Master classes for young professionals?

16. Capacity building activities
Internal
Scientist
communications
training
Journal club
External
Journalist
training
Communications
Boundary
partners
Social media
Websites (e.g.
REDDI)
Youth

17. Capacity building and training for
scientists, journalists and
communicators
Social media training
• Social reporters training: For those with no background in social media
to learn how to use an array of online tools to report from conferences
• Social media bootcamp: for social media professionals managing the
social media outreach for a non-profit organisation. Delves deeper into
the use of social media and social reporting for nonprofit causes.

18. Capacity building activities
Internal
Scientist
communications
training
Journal club
External
Journalist
training
Communications
Boundary
partners
Social media
Websites (e.g.
REDDI)
Youth

19. REDD+ website in Bahasa Indonesia
www.redd-indonesia.org
“The public often sees governments as slow
to disseminate clear information. This is not
due to a lack of commitment to
communication (as a publicly-funded
government institution, we bear a
responsibility to disseminate our research
information transparently) but a lack of
capacity and experience with contemporary
communication tools and strategies.
We thought that a website would also be an
ideal way to build these communication
skills. Thus [the website] was born.”
Article by Dyah Pusapari, Forestry Research and
Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry
of Forestry (FORDA) and Budhy Kristanty, CIFOR
http://actlocalfirst.org/2014/01/improving-
understanding-of-forests-and-climate-change-in-
indonesia/

20. Questions for discussion
1. What opportunities exist for
communications capacity building
(internal and external) in Africa and Latin
America?
1. Are there other capacity building
activities we should consider? What
resources would we need?