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client: United Nations Population Fund
assignment: Build European donor country public and political awareness of and support for the equality and rights of women in developing countries.
more information
Coddington first commissioned a 13-country omnibus survey to establish a baseline of Western European public awareness of international population and development issues, including women's equality and rights. Responses from 13,000 face-to-face interviews influenced the thinking of the population and development organization coalition members throughout Europe that was then organized to create a pan-European public awareness-building media campaign.
To increase media coverage of the campaign, Coddington engaged European celebrity spokespersons. In all, thirteen national and international celebrities were recruited all of whom became UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors -- championing the rights of women worldwide.
Coddington further recomnmended the incorporation of Face to Face International, an advocacy and fundraising organization, to help UNFPA and other population and development organizations promote women's rights.
Results
In the first three years of operation, Face to Face International raised US $2 million dollars in advocacy grants for twenty population and development NGOs in thirteen donor countries. With this funding, the NGOs produced: eleven study tours and field visits for journalists and parliamentarians; regular press conferences; a great amount of media coverage including a cover story on female genital mutilation in Reader’s Digest (the world’s largest circulation magazine), numerous ODA policy-maker briefings; fourteen TV documentaries on women's health issues; eight public service advertising campaigns; population and development assistance educational materials for schools in Germany, the United Kingdom and Austria; and even a Swiss ballet called Face to Face.
Collectively, Face to Face advocacy partners and celebrity spokespersons generated more media coverage and public awareness of UNFPA and the NGOs in three years than the previous 30 years combined.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of these advocacy initiatives, Coddington commissioned another survey of 13,000 people in the targeted Western European donor countries. The survey measured the level of public awareness of the same international population and development issues polled in the benchmark survey conducted several years earlier.
The survey revealed that awareness of women's issues scored the highest among the population and development-related issues polled. This increase in awareness could be attributed directly to the Face to Face campaign's support of European NGO advocacy efforts. The greatest increase in awareness was in the three countries where Face to Face campaign NGO partners were the most active: Italy, Spain and Belgium.
As important, according to Face to Face campaign partners, the campaign helped strengthen ODA population assistance commitments in The Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and the United Kingdom. In addition, ODA agencies in the UK, Belgium, Sweden and Finland indicated their appreciation of the value of the Face to Face campaign by co-funding campaign activities.
To visit the Face to Face Web site, please click here.
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