National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) has joined hands with UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) to establish a ‘Communication Resource Unit’ (CRU) that will act as an institutional mechanism for providing strategic communication support to national flagship programmes.
The CRU will provide social and behavioural change communications to State governments and Central government schemes such as Poshan Abhiyaan, National Health Mission and Swachh Bharath Mission, among others. It is currently operating in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
“ It aims to cater to strategic communication needs of different government departments through consultations, technical support and capacity building. CRU is a unique model and has been identified as a success story in the UNICEF country office and they are replicating to start same kind of units in other institutes too,” said Gyanmudra, professor and head of the Centre for Good Governance and Policy Analysis, NIRDPR and director, CRU.
CRU draws expertise and resources from UNICEF programme specialists, NIRDPR domain experts and social-behaviourial change agents. It is functioning from the UNICEF, Hyderabad field office, and has offered all its services to departments with either free or with minimal charges.
It has specifically supported the TS department of women and child welfare in taking up a 30-day intensive campaign on All India Radio (AIR) and FM radios focusing on complementary feeding, dietary diversity and nutrition, girl child nutrition and education.
He said that capacities of 572 PR Institution representatives and ICDS functionaries were built on social and behavioural change communication for panchayat leaders on child rights.
