From air quality and extreme weather events to the cost-of-living crisis and a just transition to net zero, we are surrounded by enormous and complex challenges locally, nationally and globally. Progressive organisations need to throw everything at these challenges to make an impact. This is especially true when it comes to blending lived experience with the learnt experience of evidence, insights and expertise in their communications and campaigning.
In the first of our online events series, Forster’s Peter Gilheany discussed some of the opportunities challenges and complexities of this issue in an international development context with Sally Copley, former Executive Director, Communications and External Affairs at the British Red Cross, and Noshin Suleman, Assistant Director, Global Social Impact at EY. This article explores the key learnings and outtakes from the conversation.
The communications sector has traditionally faced something of a paradox when it comes to campaigning. Communication campaigns around social issues ostensibly exist to improve the lives of those affected by said issues, and yet historically, people’s lived and learnt experiences of such issues are not always front and centre in campaigns. But this is changing.
In a world where social issues are discussed globally in real time, where social media enables authentic storytelling, and brands, charities and organisations are being held accountable for their actions and messaging, there’s a growing desire to bring lived and learnt experience to the forefront of campaigning. However, this isn’t something you can simply pick up as the latest trend, it requires a fundamental shift in how progressive organisations approach their communications and campaigning.
Out of the comfort zone
Implementing this in a practical sense can be uncomfortable. After all, it’s our job to package information neatly for the media, social and other direct channels, and people’s lived experiences aren’t always neat. As such, lived experience needs to be brought in from the outset, and positioned alongside and, crucially, used to inform the usual requirements of a strong message, clear policy ask, irrefutable evidence and killer stats.
Having people with both lived and learnt experience on board helps mitigate the risks associated with steaming into a campaign without proper understanding of the task at hand. This ensures that messages for your key audiences are valid and authentic whichever way they’re approached. Indeed, leveraging lived and learnt experience also diminishes the impacts of those posing bad faith arguments, and even allows us to be more direct in campaign messaging. In would also help to fundamentally challenge the need narrative that still influences comms around international development.
Amplifying voices
Of course, there are challenges here. Especially in the context of international development, lived experience often takes place some distance from the communicator, leading to barriers through language and cultures. And as the narrative around social and climate justice develops, so too do debates about the historic colonialisation of lived experiences and the global north/south divide.
Harnessing the power of lived and learnt experience in a meaningful and unproblematic way means enabling participation and giving people with lived experience a platform. It means empowering them to speak freely in a safe and supportive environment. In many cases, it means providing a platform and simply getting out of the way. This is very challenging from a brand perspective and requires an appetite for risk that is isn’t easy to have in the current very challenging financial and reputational climate for NGOs especially. But in doing so we can make the arguments for change not just better targeted but also more likely to succeed; hearing the case for a new way of doing things is often irrefutable when the evidence and need are presented by the person with lived experience. Amplifying voices so that they are at the very heart of the conversation is not only the right thing to do, it’s also considerably more effective.
Reimagining decision-making
This can only work with genuine buy-in from the top accompanied by effective resourcing and in the case of international development, with a reshuffle of traditional power hierarchies, so decision-making can be made at a local level. Increasing localisation is an important part of not getting the messaging wrong. This also better enables the identification of lived and learnt experience at varying levels within an organisation, in order to build capacity around it. After all, lived experience doesn’t just sit with people with direct experience of an issue. So, communications cannot take the lead, it requires a strategic change. If that isn’t there, then it risks just becoming another engagement tactic with no depth and continues to exploitative nature of communications in this area.
Embedding inclusivity
There are no shortcuts here. We can’t come up with an easy tactic to leverage the power of lived experience, because it’s not a fad or passing trend. It needs investment and effort, and a truly inclusive approach to our work. We’re facing a lot of thorny global challenges, but what can be driven by urgency is very different to what can be driven by inspiration. The impact of amplifying lived experience can therefore be significant.
As policy makers meet at the UN General Assembly (already underway) and at New York Climate Action Week (starting this Sunday) we need to ensure the representation of voices with both lived and learnt experience in order to drive meaningful change and do the necessary work to put that in place.
Watch the recording here
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