Educators do not necessarily have to please everybody when they are conducting a voter or civic education programme. But to make the programme a success, and to ensure cost effectiveness and the multiplier effect, they have to keep everybody involved.
This has to be done by establishing and maintaining channels of communication between stakeholders and the programme.
Reporting
Regular reports to those who provide the budget can include a newsletter, a series of briefings and consultations, and one-on-one meetings between team leaders and designated people within the stakeholder community.
Consultative or Advisory Groups
In some cases, it may be possible to establish one or more consultative groups amongst stakeholders that meet on a regular basis. While it is difficult to maintain interest in these groups if they do not have decision-making powers, or if they have too broad a focus, it is possible to develop a set of tightly focussed and representative groups.
For example, a group may review and provide advice on an advertizing campaign, another on the content of messages, and a third on a code of conduct and monitoring of programme effectiveness.
Such groups are more than focus groups, because a relationship is built up with stakeholders over time. Groups require attention; to set them up and then not service them can be worse than not setting them up in the first place.
If such groups are established, they should remain open to new members, but the new members should have to meet certain criteria. Members who represent stakeholders should be identified and required to come to meetings with some consistency, otherwise each meeting will turn into an educational event rather than a continuing discussion.
The Effort is Important
All these strategies are important, because an education programme, particularly one conducted over a period of months, cannot take for granted the goodwill and understanding of the programme that might have been generated in initial discussions. Stakeholder views change because of their experience of the programme, changes in the external environment, and sometimes changes within the stakeholder group itself. So the legitimacy of the programme has to be constantly attended to.
When stakeholders are kept on board, a programme is able to reach into territories it might not otherwise get to. The programme is protected from political fallout as implementation takes place (an aspect of the programme might otherwise be deemed too sensitive or not sensitive enough), and there is a ready and continuing early warning system that ensures programme leaders do not get all their information from their own staff (see Coordination and Control).
