Government communicators are often familiar and comfortable working with local media and making them an important part of a media strategy. Less well known and understood, and often overlooked, is the international media, those foreign media organizations who have correspondents either based in your country or flown in to report the news. What they report often shapes the way your country is perceived by the rest of the world, so it’s important to understand how they operate and what kind of stories interest their audience.

This session looks into a recent case of an ADB urban transport project in Pakistan that attracted a lot of attention in traditional and social media, and presented a series of complex communications challenges for the local government.

Engaging with stakeholders and building consensus for government policy, programs or projects is a critical role for government communicators. This session looks back to the 1980s to examine the Republic of Korea’s communication and media strategy to win support for its transition from a planned to a market economy. Read more about the Republic of Korea's Stabilization Policies in the 1980s.

The rapid growth of the internet as a mass medium of information and communication exchange has presented an opportunity for governments and development organizations to encourage more stakeholders to participate in the development process than ever before.

Learn how to leverage technology in the age of Fourth Industrial Revolution, and how this can help address development challenges in Asia.

Slum dwellers, rural poor, and migrant populations are seen as difficult stakeholders in water and electricity projects. Governments see providing utility services for informal settlers as legitimizing the settlements. The Dhaka Water Supply Sector Development Program used behavior change communication to break the myths about difficult stakeholders and bring clean water to the city. The publication, The Dhaka Water Services Turnaround, chronicles the transformation of water services delivery to communities.

Implementing successful, long-term solutions to reduce, dispose, and recover solid waste requires communication to change behaviors of diverse stakeholders from households to utilities. ADB’s Andrew McIntyre shared the results of a five-city technical assistance on mainstreaming solid waste management and how ADB can ensure changed behaviors persist beyond project life.

Learn how the development communication planning processes that were integrated in ADB’s technical assistance on “Promoting Energy Efficient Products by Strengthening the Energy Labeling Scheme” in the People’s Republic of China from 2012-2014 contributed to the achievement of original project objectives and sustainability of project gains beyond 2014.