Rethinking Development Cooperation Communications: When Strategies Speak Louder Than Action Plans

5 January 2025 Reading Time: 5 minutes

by Pascal Corbé

In development cooperation, communication strategies are like blueprints for constructing an ambitious building. They outline what to achieve, describe the desired impact, and often include detailed visuals and branding elements. But what happens when the strategy lacks the equivalent of a construction crew and a budget? The result is a recurring disconnect between vision and execution—one that’s deeply entrenched in the sector.

Let’s consider a typical example—let’s call it Organization X. Their communication strategy is a textbook case of what many development organizations produce:

• Clear objectives: To increase visibility, enhance engagement, and support the organization’s mission.
• Target audiences: Defined and segmented into categories like donors, partners, and the general public.
• Branding guidelines: A cohesive visual identity, tone of voice, and thematic messaging.
• Action plans: Concrete goals for outputs, such as the number of annual reports, blog posts, newsletters, or social media posts, relating specific communications activities to certain outcomes including indicators for measuring them.

This is a solid approach—arguably better than many others in the development cooperation. But even a good approach reveals critical blind spots that are not unique to Organization X but endemic to development cooperation.

The Missing Pieces in Planning

Org X’s strategy boasts an action plan detailing how many social media posts to create per week, how many flagship reports to publish annually, and even how many newsletters to circulate. Even how to position them or which Outcome they’re supposed to contribute towards. On the surface, this seems actionable. It seems so detailed. Yet it leaves out some of the most important elements:

1️⃣ Who’s Doing the Work?

The elaborate descriptions on the envisioned use of certain channels are in passive voice. So while the strategy and action plan acknowledge that a communications team exists, it provides no clarity on roles, workload distribution, or expertise required to execute the plan. Is the same team tasked with drafting blogs, designing infographics, and managing social media calendars?

For example:

• How many hours will it take to produce a flagship report with visuals, expert contributions, and editorial review?
• Which staff member handles video production or external podcast guests?
• Will the current team size suffice, or are external consultants needed?

🛑 The reality: Without this clarity, most of the heavy lifting falls to one or two communications staff juggling everything, often under unrealistic expectations, both in terms of work time and expertise needed.

2️⃣ How Much Will It Cost?

Budgets are either missing or vaguely mentioned. There’s rarely an alignment between the strategy’s scope and the financial resources required to implement it.

Key questions left unanswered:

• How much budget is allocated for design services, translation, or campaign outreach?
• What happens if costs exceed the allocated funds—will objectives be scaled back or staff workloads increase?

🔍 The result: The execution phase often becomes a game of catch-up, with costs ballooning or deliverables slipping through the cracks.

3️⃣ Where’s the Room for Subtlety?

Most strategies focus on direct communication, ie. telling the target audience straight on what the Organization X is doing. This “broadcast approach” assumes that by putting out enough content, the message will stick.

What’s missing is indirect communication—the art of swaying audiences without explicitly targeting them directly. This requires:

• Influencer engagement or partnerships that amplify messages organically.
• Tailored storytelling that resonates with specific subgroups rather than broad generalizations.
• Communication that creates curiosity, prompting the audience to seek more rather than being overloaded with information.
• Openess to consider that one knows that they don’t know certain things. Most teams have a certain target group persona in mind, one that the can approach with the materials. If they considered reaching children, they’d realise that they have to work via intermediaries.
• Planning that accommodates ample time for interaction with the target groups.

🎯 The challenge: This nuanced approach demands a level of planning and expertise that most strategies—and teams—simply don’t accommodate.

Why Does This Happen?

This gap between vision and execution isn’t an oversight; it’s a structural issue tied to the planning economy mindset. This is super important:

• Strategies in development cooperation are designed as three to five-year plans, with lofty goals and outputs predefined by specialists.
• Execution is deferred to an undefined “later stage,” often dismissed as too detailed for an overview document.
• The unspoken assumption is: “We’ll figure it out as we go.”

But in practice, there’s no “later stage” planning. Communications staff rarely get the opportunity to recalibrate the strategy or design an implementation roadmap. Instead, they’re left improvising.

The Bigger Picture: A Case for Realism

A good communication strategy should be more than a wish list. It needs to reflect the reality of what can be achieved with the available resources, not just what is desirable. Here’s how you can bridge the gap:

✅ 1. Include Execution Frameworks

Every strategy must outline not just what to do, but how to do it. This includes:

• Identifying roles and responsibilities for each deliverable.
• Estimating the time required for each task.
• Highlighting resource gaps, whether in skills, staff, or funding.

✅ 2. Prioritize Subtlety

Communication isn’t just about volume—it’s about not losing sight of your strategy. Direct approaches might seem intuitive and hands-on, but they often fail to connect with the right decision-makers. Consider this:

If development cooperation were organizing an event at a market fair with a jumping castle and other entertainment for kids, the typical communications approach in development cooperation would involve messaging aimed at the small children, telling them how fun the jumping castle is. But this is clearly misguided. Kids don’t need that to be told. But even more important is that they don’t decide to attend the market; their parents or guardians do.

A more effective approach to strategizing would ask: Who needs to hear the message to achieve the desired outcome?

• To entice parents, you could highlight the practical benefit: “Drop off your kids at the supervised entertainment zone and enjoy an hour exploring the market worry-free.”
• Want to take it further? Speak to the grandparents, who might relish the opportunity to spend quality time with their grandchildren. Tailor messaging for them, such as: “Capture precious moments with your grandkids at the face painting booth, jumping castle, and more.”

The point is simple: by understanding who truly influences decisions and crafting messages tailored to their interests and needs, you can achieve far greater impact.

This subtle, indirect approach requires more thoughtful planning but ultimately creates a deeper connection with the audience—and better results.

✅ 3. Shift the Mindset

You’ll need to move beyond planning economy-type of thinking, where strategies are designed in isolation from execution, feedback and interaction. Proactive, iterative planning must replace static planning documents.

A Call to Action

I hope you got some ideas on how to open up your approach communication strategizing for your in development cooperation organisation or project. A beautifully crafted strategy that overpromises and underdelivers risks more than just internal inefficiencies—it risks trust, credibility, and ultimately, impact.

💡 Your turn: Have you encountered strategies that seem perfect on paper but falter in execution? How do you ensure the bridge between planning and doing? Share your insights in the comments below!

#RethinkingDevelopmentCooperation #CommunicationsStrategy #ExecutionMatters #DevelopmentEffectiveness #developmentcooperation

Pascal Corbe is a leader in development communication and is based in Germany.  He is a #WeLeadComms honoree.