Author: Nichola Geeson

The DESIRE project has  developed strategies that could remediate land degradation over vast areas, with potentially enormous environmental, social and economic benefits. However this potential can only be realised if these strategies are actually adopted by stakeholders. Stakeholders range from families who depend upon and manage land, to the policy-makers at district, national and international scales who design policies that affect land degradation.

Therefore, DESIRE has developed a comprehensive, pragmatic approach that can enable us to communicate our findings effectively to diverse groups of people. The aim of this DESIRE-specific manual was to provide guidance specifically for DESIRE project partners, as a compendium of ideas and guidance. A shorter, generic version of this manual is also available, to offer guidance to researchers outside DESIRE (see »Manual of communication and dissemination (Generic)).

The Manual of communication and dissemination (DESIRE-specific) contains the following sections

These guidelines for writing a policy brief have been compiled to help study site teams with writing a policy brief based on the results of their DESIRE research.

Contents   1. Why should we write policy briefs, with what aim? 2. Some general tips - Title of the paper - Executive summary - Context and importance of teh problem or issue - Policy recommendations - Appendices - Sources consulted or recommended 3. Layout and Choices 4. Check list 5. Used resources 6. Annex 1: How do I brief policymakers on science-related issues (Chandrika Nath) 7. Annex 2: "The Little Manual on Science Communication: a summary" (Cássio Leite Vieira)

Download the full document

Guidelines for writing a policy brief [0.4 MB]

DesertNet International
CORDIS European Commission News
European Commission Science for Environment Policy 
European Environment Agency
European Water Partnership
Drynet
Geography Directions
IISD mailing lists for MEA bulletin, Earth Negotiations Bulletin, Water-L, etc. 
MEA Bulletin invites articles from practitioners, MEAs and academics. Contact

Mongabay.com blog

Science in School aims to promote inspiring science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists, and everyone else involved in European science education.

UNCCD Library Contact
UNCCD Newsbox Contact

UNCCD on Facebook
UNCCD on Twitter

UNDP Newsroom
UNESCO Water, sustainable development, and conservation of freshwater resources 
Willem van Cotthem’s desertification blog

How to write for different audiences

Different groups of stakeholders will respond to different approaches, as outlined below. General guidance for writing for different audiences, and communication in general, is also dealt with very efficiently by the ESRC Communications Toolkit (Economic and Social Research Council, UK).

How to write Policy briefs
International Society for Technology in Education provides comprehensive tips and templates
The policy brief (International Policy Fellowships)
How to write a policy memo (Trevor Thrall, University of Michigan-Dearborn)

How to make video clips and video podcasts
Video material for student education (Mark Reed, University of Leeds, UK)

Intellectual Property and Copyright
Broadly speaking, the results of the project (knowledge) are the property of the contractor who has generated them. Where several contractors have jointly carried out work generating such results and their respective share of the work cannot be ascertained, they shall have joint ownership thereof. However, they shall agree among themselves on the allocation and terms of exercising the ownership of the knowledge in accordance with the FP7 model contract. See IPR helpdesk.

See also Comprehensive copyright advice for the United Kingdom (UK Copyright Service) but each country is likely to have slightly different laws. For audio-visual or video material it is always essential to pay attention to copyright. Participants being filmed should sign consent forms and all images and soundtracks must be copyright-cleared. See also advice on providing copyright notices and using copyright notices (UK Copyright Service).

Copyscape is a useful tool that will compare your web pages to others indexed by Google and return any it finds with matching text. If you notice another web site using your content, the best place to start is by reading the copyright infringement fact sheet (UK Copyright Service).

This dissemination training presentation was given at the 5th DESIRE Plenary Meeting, Xi'an, China, October 2010

Dissemination is all about targeting your audience, finding out how they are affected by desertification and how the results of scientific studies can help.

This presentation outlines 10 steps to planning dissemination and a number of channels through which it can be delivered.

• How does desertification affect all your different audiences?
• How can you present your results in ways that will interest and help them?

This presentation outlines how the complexity of the information can be matched to the different kinds of audience you are trying to reach.

A number of different strategies can be used to promote and maintain stakeholder involvement in research projects. This presentation describes those trialled under the DESIRE project in the Guadalentín Basin, Spain

The strategies include:

• Stakeholder workshops
• Field logbook for regular records of farming activities
• Photo-logbook record of activities, visible on the HIS
• Local Newsletter (Noticias del Campo) for stakeholders
• Field demonstration of monitoring for stakeholders
• Group field visit to farm receiving regional subsidies
• Scientific conference presentations and publications

Networking, communication and media tools can be used to advocate for sustainable land use in the drylands.

This presentation gives examples of

• internal communication
• website
• newsletters
• other publications/written material
• radio outreach
• marches and rallies
• press conferences
• face to face exchange

that have been used in the Drynet project.

The RIFT principal is about disseminating the

Right Information for the Right people in the Right Format and at the Right Time

So, who should be targeted? This presentation argues that it is better to concentrate on convincing the innovators and early adopters first, rather than trying to convince everyone all at once.