A woman who brings change provides strategic communication interventions, inspires and encourages people to make the right decisions. This is what Sarah-Jean Cunningham is all about, the woman who has succeeded in combining scientific rigor and technological innovation in behavioural change communication.
The founder and managing director of Magenta Consulting, an organisation that specializes in research and social change communications, Sarah-Jean Cunningham has been channelling both her own and her team’s efforts towards understanding the actions and emotions of humans. The new champion of DevelopmentAid’s Hero Stories points out that thoroughly executed communication strategies can change the lives of whole communities.
To Sarah-Jean Cunningham, communication is not just about content. It is an entire science that brings together insights from various other scientific sectors and thus makes it possible to bring real value to communication projects.
“Communication has been focused mainly on the creative aspect, messaging and content that resonates with people. Such an approach does not integrate the academic evidence that can help us to understand why people do what they do. Bringing together insights from sociology, psychology, and behavioural science from the academic perspective and applying these in a rigorous way in the ambitious projects we work on adds incredible value to our ability to connect with people, understand local cultures and political dynamics.”
To bring changes to communities in Africa, the Middle East, and SouthEast Asia, Sarah-Jean Cunningham and her team have been putting in place thoroughly implemented communication strategies to encourage people to make the best choices for their lives. This is how Magenta operates – bringing the people and their future to the core of their decisions.
“The essence of our work is using communication as a way of influencing and encouraging people to make the best choices for their lives, it’s about how we reach audiences and create content or channels that will inspire people to adopt new positive behaviours. It’s about using the power of behavioural insights to be able to understand human psychology and emotions. We see ourselves as a local organization acting in the countries where we implement our projects, and often we are supporting bigger international efforts in one context or another. We really bring a local understanding coupled with best practices in a consistent way. We operate in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and other regions across the world, working in remote parts of the globe, bringing the changes that communities need.”
Magenta’s intervention strategies rely on the cross-sectorial approach with a solid focus on the key individuals who can significantly impact people’s wellbeing. To illustrate how this works, Sarah-Jean Cunningham revealed the details of a project conducted in Lebanon. Magenta’s team addressed early child development through several pathways such as nutrition, health, education, cognitive and emotional learning, and protection in order to bring to the table a complete strategy that would cover the entire spectrum of a child’s needs. Prior to this, health, education, and protection issues were addressed separately with no connection between them.
“We started our work by conducting sociological research and trying to become deeply immersed in the harmful practices that still exist for children. We analyzed the high prevalence of violence, child labor, and marriage. One of the key insights that was powerful for our communication strategy was the parents’ love for and protection of their families. We heard that violent discipline often stemmed from a place of love and a desire to offer a better future. So, we ended up framing our messaging strategy for parents and caregivers around love, and the protection of your child and your family.”
Aggressive and accusatory content is far from being part of the communication strategies of Magenta Consulting. To truly have an impact and to bring about change, Magenta places the emphasis on positive content, carefully chosen communication tools and channels, and the development of new approaches when necessary.
“We were doing a lot of communication work ranging from developing parenting toolkits for line workers, social and health workers, and people linked to parents. We provided games for parents that could showcase the real impact of discipline violence on children. We also developed an app that targets parents and explains what to expect at different points of the child’s development. We also developed a drama series that was broadcast on national television in Lebanon that focused on addressing the drivers of violence against children and early child marriage as well.”
To Sarah-Jean Cunningham, communication also involves creativity without limitations combined with a deep understanding of the behavioural habits of the communities her team works with. To them, entertainment is a very powerful tool that is able to secure a strong social impact.
“We use entertainment quite a lot in our work. Entertainment is a really powerful way of reaching large audiences. You can reach tens of millions. We need to meet people where they are, strategically put into place these kinds of positive messages. We had an amazing team developing the drama series. It also allowed us to address more complex issues. Building a relationship between the characters and the audiences contributes to raising empathy and going along that journey with the characters. One of the things that really drives us as a company is social impact. We are a profit-making company, but this isn’t the reason we exist. The profit-making aspect allows us to exist, our focus is social impact.”
Changing social norms in order to improve people’s lives can be a somewhat tortuous process and is quite often doomed to fail. To avoid such a scenario, Magenta researches heavily in order to understand people’s mind sets and to find the best way possible to change those norms whilst avoiding any opposition.
“We have a passionate team immersed in this sector trying to understand people’s minds, why people do what they do. We are engaged in creating programs that change social norms. By definition, social norms are something everybody inherently accepts, and going against them is an uncomfortable process. We need people to question their behaviours or beliefs. There are techniques and ways to do that in a less confrontational way. For instance, what we use often is humor and comedy.”
When it comes to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Sarah-Jean Cunningham states proudly that her team “has been part of the solution” by doing its best to persuade people to adhere to preventive measures and adapt to the new realities.
“We have been very involved in the COVID response, we have been hired to do research, understand public perception, produce campaigns, connect people to preventive measures. We did a lot to support the COVAX delivery, we have been adapting to the new realities. We have been fortunate enough to play a really positive role in the COVID response. We haven’t been watching the situation. We have been part of the solution.”
With a visionary approach for her company, the managing director of Magenta Consulting enhanced the company’s communications interventions in support of broader policy objectives.
On DevelopmentAid you can find many other champions who will encourage you to embrace the change.
