How FSCA people can interact with communication tools?

Countries

Luca Servo, FSCA ComDev Team, FAO, Italy

After the launch of the new FSCA-PISA website (www.fsca-pisa.org) and almost two years of distribution of the newsletter, the ComDev team took the initiative to learn more about the way FSCA people uses digital tools to communicate.

A survey to collect useful information about communication habits and needs was conducted among all the participants of the FSCA activities. It aimed at reviewing how the Team uses digital communication tools inside and outside the Programme.

The survey had a high level of participation to the initiative with almost 75% of the recipients providing an answer, with a good balance between Anglophones and Francophones. Women respondents represent one quarter of the total respondents. This good result in terms of participation allows us to come to several conclusions and consider different scenarios for the future:
- 78% of the respondents describe their involvement in the Programme as being their main professional activity. This is important as it might translate in commitment for the team members,
- 96% of the team members have more than 5 years of experience, showing the high level of knowledge and experience of the Team in the field of development.

Another interesting aspect of the survey regards the use of the communication tools used by the Programme. The NEWSLETTER is still to be considered an effective tool to disseminate information, data and suggestions as: - 65% of the PISA people receive and read the newsletter on a regular basis, - Almost the same percentage redistributes it to colleagues and friends who are potentially interested in learning more about the activities of the Programme, - A variety of topics covered by the newsletter is of general interest as shown in the table related to the question “What other topics would you like to read about in the newsletter?”

As you know, the FSCAPISA website is pretty new and mostly dedicated to provide institutional information about the Programme. The survey data regarding the WEBSITE shows a future scenario where it could be a major vehicle for exchanging knowledge inside the Team:
- 93% of the survey respondents consider that they have an overall good access to the Internet, benefiting from available and accessible Internet connection, while 75% of them connect to the Internet every working day, - The members of the Team demonstrate to know the Internet and its main tools quite well: all respondents use the email to communicate and a vast majority is familiar with the web (as a source of information) and more recent tools like Skype and facebook. - the willingness to collaborate in the future is very high as 33% of the respondents declares to be willing to contribute with articles about their activities, 28% are ready to provide images and 22% to monitor events and meetings with brief announcements. Nevertheless, it must be said that up to now, it has been very difficult to get contributions to the newsletter. New mechanisms to facilitate collaboration might be needed to translate the willingness to collaborate in reality.

Given this context, it would be appropriate to explore different options for the next steps to take in the future, such as improving the Newsletter, preparing new functionalities for the Website to collaborate and keep in touch with colleagues and partners.