WHD2021 comms campaign for the Australian Humanitarian Partnership

In my role at the Australian Humanitarian Partnership Support Unit, I put together a social media campaign for World Humanitarian Day 2021. The theme was the urgent need for climate action to support the world’s most vulnerable.

The campaign included an Adobe Spark interactive on the work the DFAT-supported Disaster READY program undertakes to build resilience to climate-related disasters in Pacific communities, which was shared by Australia’s Humanitarian Coordinator, James Gilling. View the interactive here.

The social media campaign also shared the views of more than 21 humanitarians from across Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Timor-Leste and Samoa through cross-platform social media content (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram grid and stories). These posts highlighted the impact that climate change was having on Pacific peoples’ work as humanitarians, and in their communities.

Example:

Policy brief — Communication post-integration: reloading Australia’s efforts

In August 2016, Ashlee authored a Development Policy Centre policy brief titled ‘Communication post-integration: reloading Australia’s efforts’. The brief looked at why it is important to invest in aid communication, with a focus on web and social media, and gave suggestions for how DFAT can do better. It included qualitative and quantitative analysis of aid communication on the DFAT website and on Twitter, and compared DFAT’s efforts with those of other aid donors.

Download the policy brief [PDF].

Three part blog series
The need to resurrect aid communication efforts
Australian aid communications by the numbers
DFAT and aid communications: how to improve

Communications for protection: a three-minute aid pitch

At the 2017 Australasian Aid Conference, a plenary session called ‘The three-minute aid pitch’ put nine proposals head to head, with the audience voting for their favourite.

Out of the nine competitors, Ashlee won with a third of the audience vote with her pitch on the importance of improving communications on the aid program, particularly in the age of Trump.

You can watch the video of her pitch here, or read the blog post based on the presentation.

Outsourced labour: international surrogacy and women’s rights

Ashlee Betteridge writes on international surrogacy, and whether commercial surrogacy in a poor, developing country can ever be a fair or acceptable option.

“…the voice that we perhaps most need to hear in this debate is the voice of women who work as surrogates. As governments scramble for answers, both in developed and developing countries, it is this voice that is missing from policy debates.”

Read the full post.

Global Gag Plus, family planning and Australian aid

Ashlee Betteridge and Camilla Burkot write on the US decision to reinstate the Global Gag Rule, and urge Australia not to follow suit.

‘Australia must stay strong and stick to the current family planning guidelines that put women’s empowerment at the forefront. It should also consider increasing the percentage of aid spending that goes towards family planning and sexual and reproductive health to fill the vacuum that will be left as US aid-funded programs are forced to end. Since the Global Gag Plus executive order was signed, the Dutch government has announced the establishment of a global abortion fund to help fill the gap, for which Belgium has indicated its support and Canada has also expressed interest. Perhaps this is an initiative that Australia too should consider supporting.’

Read the full blog.