BCCP’s capacity building efforts continues as the annual “Advances in Strategic Communication” held of its 27th episodes
The 27th episode of the Advances in Strategic Communication course was held on March 11-16, 2023. This 6-day course was initiated with a brief inauguration ceremony on March 11, 2023 at the BCCP premises participated by 16 officials from the Directorate General Family Planning, Social Marketing Company, BRAC, Care-Bangladesh, BCCP and Plan International. Modeled after the “Leadership in Strategic Communication” regularly held in Baltimore, USA organized by the Johns Hopkins University- CCP; the Bangladeshi version of this course has been holding by the BCCP since 1994.
The inaugural session of this workshop was attended by Mr. Abdul Latif Mollah, Director-IEM, DGFP as Chief Guest while Mr. Mohammad Shahjahan, Director and CEO-BCCP presided over this session. In his inaugural speech the Director-IEM termed this workshop as standard as an international course. He expected this course to bring changes in the attitude and the working style of the participants and have its reflection in the respective work areas. He mentioned that SBCC can really bring changes in human life to develop and lead a better personal and social life. In his concluding remarks the Director and CEO-BCCP expected this course to infuse passion into the participants to plan for SBCC interventions in the social development programs.
A great level of experiential learning environment was brought into the workshop sessions where participants shared respective program experiences and learn about the SBCC program planning, development, implementation and monitoring with the evaluation process through interactive discussion sessions and simulation exercises.
This workshop brought five key moves to align the social development issues combining with the steps of strategic communication processed through a globally recognized program planning process known as P-process. The key moves were to;
- Bring a real sense and use of learning environment during the 6-day long course.
- Infuse experiential learning in the course sessions by sharing knowledge and experience of the participants and facilitators.
- Establish TEAM spirit in maintaining relationship between the participants and the facilitators.
- A blend of didactic sessions with the practical one with an estimated proportion of 60% and 40%.
- A reciprocally combined methodology of reflection, discussion and synthesis (RDS) followed in course designing and development.
The closing ceremony of this workshop was attended by Mr. Quazi AKM Mohiul Islam, former Director General Family Planning as Chief Guest and Mr. Toslim Uddin Khan, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of the Social Marketing Company (SMC) as Special Guest. Mr. Mohammad Shahjahan, Director and CEO, BCCP presided over the closing ceremony of this event.
In this event participants expressed their views about this 6-day workshop as;
- A cordial environment and quality of international standard were maintained in the workshop.
- Becomes an amazing way of skill development on how better the social development communication can be planned and implemented.
- Unique way of communication knowledge and how it can be brought for individual program aspects.
In his speech Mr. Mohiul Islam said that communication is the most complex and difficult part of human life as well as in the workplaces. He added that communication and information must be associated with the data to bring about its effectiveness. He finally quoted a proverb that said, “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools speak because they have to say something.” Mr. Toslim Uddin Khan regarded this course as a quality and useful one and mentioned his plan to send more Program Managers into this course in the next round of the workshop. In his concluding remarks Mr. Mohammad Shahjahan mentioned that this course will be useful for people who requires developing communication interventions to be strategically planned. He assured continuation and holding of this workshop once a year.