The Multi-Stakeholder Forestry Programme is an ambitious 5-year, £24 million bilateral programme working with the Ministry of Forestry and a wide range of other stakeholders throughout Indonesia to ensure that the policy environment for forest management enables poor, forest-dependant communities to manage their own resources to provide improved, sustainable livelihoods. The main emphasis of the programme is to support changes that are already underway among civil society, non-governmental organisations and the private sector, and in parallel, to help the government system to respond. Communications and information play a vital, central role throughout the programme.

To achieve its purpose, MFP will need to produce information and communicate directly with the key policy makers to convince them of the need for new policies, help produce information for, and strengthen the capacity of programme partners to influence the policy-makers, and produce information that empowers policy-makers to put improved policies into practice. The various stakeholders in the programme have different information needs. The MoF and DFID require programme management information about programme plans, progress and expenditure. Grant-holders require information about the grant mechanisms, and help to communicate the results of their projects. Other stakeholders require general information about the programme, about how to become a partner, about progress, and especially about what the programme has learned that can help them contribute to the programme purpose.

The programme has already undertaken many communication and information activities, and has started to establish internal and external communication systems, but is constrained by the complexity of the environment in which it works, the capacity of current staff to focus on communication and information activities, and weak internal communication and information systems. There are however many other networks involved in forest policy in Indonesia, through which the programme can amplify messages, and a bewildering array of information and communication service providers in Indonesia (albeit of variable quality) who could help.

The key recommendations included:

• Institutionalising a set of key principles within the programme team including:
  • recognising that communications is a two-way, multi-directional process;
  • multiple media are more effective than single media;
  • seeking efficiency through the multiple use of information, and aiming for appropriate, rather than the highest quality;
  • focusing on the key issues;
  • organic growth and periodic synthesis;
  • learning from others and leaving spare capacity to seize unexpected opportunities;
  • and establishing procedures to guide the continuous development, implementation and monitoring of the programmes communications and information activities.
• A set of core information outputs for each stakeholder group, and the processes necessary to produce them. These include for:
• The MoF, Jakarta – A 6-monthly illustrated narrative progress report and a Quarterly activity schedule;
• DFID Bangkok – an Annual Report, a 6-monthly progress report, and an Annual Plan and Budget;
• Grantholders – an Annual Progress Report, Progress reports from the Partner Projects Database, Periodic Synthesis Reports, Grant-holders Guidance Notes, and the Grant-holders own reports;
• All Stakeholders – Fotonovela, Web site, Brochure, Leaflet, Folder, Policy Briefs and Research Reports;
• The Internal MFP Team – an information strategy, meeting reports, an intranet providing access to summaries and synthesis, projects database, partners database, library database and electronic archive, a central filing system, and an information and procedures manual.
• Key activities and immediate tasks include:
  • the confirmation of communication and information needs – through meetings with key partners, MoF and DFID, and other stakeholders and continuous monitoring of M&E activities.
  • the development of background information materials for an awareness campaign – followed by continuous low-level background communication activities.
  • strengthening MFP team capacity – through:
    • increasing the profile of communication and information activities,
    • employing more specialist communications and information staff – a Jakarta-based communications and information specialist is essential, regional communications specialists and a web-site editor are other options.
    • staff training – in using the improved information systems and specialised communication skills as required.
    • improved information administrative systems – including an information procedures manual and centralised physical and electronic filing systems.
    • imporoved internal information processes – including the monitoring and evaluation and shared learning systems.
    • improving the databases – completing the current Grant Thornton database development, using it on the Jakarta network for six months then commissioning a specialist consultant to develop and migrate the database onto more robust software which can be accessed by all staff over the internet.
    • improving the intranet – cancelling further Grant Thornton development, deciding the necessary functionality and commissioning a specialist consultant to develop a new system.
    • improving the web site – to provide a wider range of information (how this is done will depend on other decisions about the intranet, databases and forest-policy portal.
  • capacity building of partners - including direct capacity building with existing partners, and strengthening the capacity of service providers to support them.
  • network building – especially the development, with other programme partners of of a forest policy internet portal