By Zibi Jamal, Communications Director; Ekta Sawant, Communications Manager, Saamuhika Shakti

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Continuous Communication is one of the five key pillars of the Collective Impact Methodology, playing a crucial role in fostering collaboration and achieving shared goals. Within the framework of Saamuhika Shakti, the communication function is well-developed to meet the needs of a collaborative team working towards transformative change. It ensures that all partners stay informed, connected, and aligned with the overarching mission.

The twelve organisations in the collective are well established actors in the impact sector, some of them with antecedents that go back decades. While many are home grown in India, our initiator and funder as well as quite a few partners are international NGOs with years of deep expertise in their area of focus. The communications framework at Saamuhika Shakti takes into account the embedded systems and ways of each organisation and provides guidelines to speak in one voice about the work of each partner in the initiative, individually as well as collaboratively.
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How we do it

The communications endeavours at Saamuhika Shakti are broadly categorised into internal and external communications.

Internal Communication: Strengthening transparency, building trust, becoming Saamuhika Shakti

The internal communications channels are designed to provide both granular details on the individual partner and collective’s progress as well as regular touchpoints to ensure alignment, foster collaboration, and build a strong foundation of trust and transparency across the initiative. Over and above this, the communications role is also to provide avenues for teams to come together as Saamuhika Shakti, rather than just as individuals representing their organisations in the collective.

Right from the beginning of Phase 1, we focused on a singular point: building a cohesive foundation for open communication that is constantly learning and updating itself to reflect the needs of the collective. To this end the independent backbone team set up communication processes and frameworks in consultation with all the partners of Saamuhika Shakti.

To allow for seamless alignment and continuous engagement, each implementing partner team in the collective was requested to identify and designate a member to be the communications representative for the said team responsible for sharing information both internally within the collective as well as to the external audience as per the plans chalked out.

The internal processes, as it has evolved over the five years, are as follows:

1. Communications Working Group (CWG): The first process to be regularised was a periodic touch point with all the communications representatives across partner teams to discuss ongoing work. The periodicity of meetings has changed from a weekly 30 minutes call at the beginning to a now bi-weekly session of 45 minutes, reflecting the changing requirements taking into account the maturing of the communications function and to accommodate the growing number of partners in the collective, from seven at the earliest stage to the ten implementing partners currently. This space serves as a platform to update partner teams on program elements, identify potential collaborations and strengthen collective strategies, as well as, discuss challenges and learnings. Post the bi-weekly catch up session, minutes of the meetings are shared with all communication representatives with action items called out.
   
   For quick touch points and turnarounds, a WhatsApp group was created with all the communication representatives.
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2. All Partner Calls: Over and above regular meetings with communication representatives, a monthly All Partner call was scheduled so all team members could have a platform to come together, share updates, concerns and learnings. In Phase 2, the All Partner calls have moved on from a monthly cadence to an as needed basis.
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3. Monthly Communiques: In the second year of Phase 1, the backbone worked on creating a database for partner updates that could then be a reference point and archive for the Saamuhika Shakti initiative. A comprehensive internal report, with text and images, compiling key updates, case studies, achievements, and milestones from each partner every month was developed. This ensured each stakeholder in the collective had a snapshot of the progress month by month and a good resource for generating reports as well as sharing stories and insights via social media by the backbone.
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4. WhatsApp Groups: Dedicated messaging groups, such as those for CWG and All Hands, facilitate real-time updates and quick coordination, streamlining day-to-day communications and celebrating wins (both small and big!). While the CWG WhatsApp group is limited to communication representatives, the All Hands include members from all the twelve partners in the collective.
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5. Meetings and Capacity-Building Workshops: Regularly scheduled spaces focus on enhancing communication skills and reinforcing shared objectives. Specially designed workshops also provide practical tools and strategies for effective storytelling and collaborative messaging. The backbone team has held three in person capacity building workshops to date, one on messaging and two separate sessions on storytelling. These are over and beyond sessions held online with teams on an as needed basis.
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6. Guidelines and Welcome Kits: Clear and concise communication guidelines have been established to ensure all partners use unified language and approach when discussing, capturing or furthering Saamuhika Shakti’s work. Collaterals shared with partners include a  comprehensive messaging document with recommendations on drafting content, brand guidelines which detail information on Saamuhika Shakti colours and logo, and standards to follow when using language for communication.
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   The Welcome Kits are for new team members joining the collective and encapsulate the various communication processes and frameworks Saamuhika Shakti partners follow. The kits help with onboarding the new recruits and give them a handy tool to reference as they get familiar with the processes.

The standards for language spell out recommendations to follow such as being respectful when sharing stories and challenges faced by the waste picker community, without being patronising. Standards also highlight words to avoid (we do not use the term beneficiary as it denotes a captive community waiting for handouts) or use the term ragpickers (waste pickers is the correct term as per the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016) when communicating.

7. Shared Communications Folder: A google folder curating all the communication related material has been made accessible to all partner team representatives. The folder is a repository of photos and videos from in person meetings, visits to the community, CWG  meeting minutes, guidelines among others.
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8. Photo Bank: A shared repository of over 5,000+high-quality images, captured by a professional documentary photographer since the inception, supports our storytelling efforts, enabling us to visually communicate the collective's work and impact. The photo bank is available to each partner to use.

By fostering an open, structured, and resource-rich communication environment, Saamuhika Shakti ensures that its partners remain informed, engaged, and equipped to collaborate effectively.

External Communication: Sharing the Power of Collaboration

The primary objective of the external communication effort is to share knowledge of learnings from working with underserved communities and of working in a collaborative following the collective impact methodology through well documented and comprehensively developed pieces on the practices, measurable outcomes, and impact.

Aside from the focus on sharing the collective’s learnings, we hope the lessons on the achievements will encourage impact organisations to consider collaborative methods as the methodology to adopt while designing programs as we believe that complex societal problems have multiple contributing factors requiring many actors to work together to address the issues. The documented failures are intended as lessons to avoid the same mistakes, wasting valuable time and resources.

The external toolkits are:

1. Saamuhika Shakti Quarterly: Beginning in March 2020,the collective has published 16 editions, released quarterly, sharing learnings, evidence-based results, and impact. The newsletter features contributions from partners focused on impact and learnings, a photo story that visually connects readers to the collective’s work on the ground, and a video element showcasing interviews and insights into the ongoing work and interventions at Saamuhika Shakti.
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2. Website and social media: The website serves not only as an information hub but also as a platform to highlight the impact and proof points of the Collective Impact Methodology while showcasing thought leadership.  The newsletter and authored blogs are featured in a special section. Through its social media platforms—Instagram, LinkedIn, and X—Saamuhika Shakti regularly shares updates and insights into collective impact efforts and on-ground collaborations by its partners.
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3. Case Studies and Reports: Showcasing the power of partnerships through detailed case studies and participation in reports authored by impact sector organisations that highlight learnings and successful collaborations among Saamuhika Shakti’s partners. For instance, a case study on working in a collaborative was developed and shared with Integrated Design while learnings on how to center the community –📖: Community-Driven Change: Demonstrating Impact in Africa and India– made into the report authored by The Bridgespan Group.
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4. Events: As Saamuhika Shakti, we curate as well as participate in events that run the gamut from hosted events, panel discussions, webinars, and industry discussions. Our hosted events include offline panel discussions held on inclusive circularity, to participation at large impact sector events such as Collective Impact Action Summit by CIF and #charcha conclaves hosted by The/Nudge Institute to speaking to development sector audiences through industry engagements on collaboration, working with marginalised communities, innovation in waste management to name a few.
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5. Media: The backbone team also reaches out to mainstream as well development sector platforms to share the story and work of waste pickers and Saamuhika Shakti. Over Phase 1 and now Phase 2, learnings and insights from our gender work to that of circularity with inclusivity have found traction.
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By strategically leveraging these avenues, Saamuhika Shakti actively drives awareness of collective impact and marginalised communities in India, ensuring its learnings and successes resonate within and beyond the development sector.

Visual Documentation: A Commitment to Dignified  and Respectful Representation

The art of impactful imagery is integral to Saamuhika Shakti’s communication strategy. The initiative places strong emphasis on the respectful representation of the informal waste picking communities, ensuring that their stories are told with dignity and accuracy.

The word waste picker conjures up a visual of a bedraggled adult, with dirty and ragged clothes and a heavy bag slung over the shoulder. Googling the word will throw up similar images and  articles about waste pickers with visuals reinforce the stereotypes. Waste pickers suffer from the danger of the single story narrative, but the reality is different. Waste pickers, especially women, choose to dress down to avoid harassment on the streets.

Through the visuals, Saamuhika Shakti seeks to give a view of the other side: Waste pickers at their homes, celebrating milestones, or of their children playing with their pets and going to school. Every visual shared reflects the authenticity of the community’s perspectives and experiences, and aims to avoid the  stereotypes or misrepresentations that are par for the course when narrating stories from the waste picking communities. Ethical practices are followed to engage with community members, including the use of consent forms to ensure their approval and comfort in being featured in visual content.

Visual storytelling isa powerful tool for challenging societal norms and preconceived notions, such as gender roles, appearance and more, and enabling positive change and dialogue through relatable narratives.

Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X, and subscribe to the Saamuhika Shakti Quarterly Newsletter for regular updates!