Reflecting the ACIAR 10-Year Strategy 2018–2027 and its 6 strategic objectives, the Outreach Program is designed to communicate the work of ACIAR to audiences in Australia and overseas.

The objectives of the ACIAR Outreach Program are to:

• communicate the value and impact of our work, and increase our reputation as a trusted and valued partner
• build closer, more-effective working relationships with our partners and other stakeholders
• support the communication needs of our Country Offices, with an emphasis on detailing research results and outcomes achieved at a regional and country level.

In 2023–24, comprehensive and coordinated strategies and plans, and programs and projects will be developed and/or implemented to achieve these objectives. This work will include:

• managing and implementing an integrated content strategy, including segmenting our messaging to key target audiences
• working with partner and commissioned organisations to collaborate in outreach efforts on projects and programs
• identifying opportunities to further engage with stakeholders, including leveraging the profile and networks of the members of the Commission for International Agricultural Research
• leveraging sponsorship and opportunities through events to create awareness among stakeholders and cultivate relationships with partner and commissioned organisations
• continuing to improve the user experience of our website, including additional developments to present the geographic spread of our projects more dynamically
• working to further develop an online catalogue of scientific publications
• supporting and building our In-Country Communication Officer Network to increase our reach and continue to communicate actively and effectively in-country and in our regions
• implementing a formal monitoring, evaluation and learning framework, developed to evaluate the outcomes and impact of the Outreach Program.

Stakeholder engagement

Work will continue on implementing domestic and international stakeholder engagement strategies to ensure we take a strategic approach to improving awareness and detailed understanding of ACIAR among specific stakeholder groups.

In 2023–24, the stakeholder engagement strategy will continue to:

• increase engagement with Australian stakeholders, including their awareness and understanding of the ACIAR value proposition with information specifically targeted to a domestic audience
• leverage opportunities to demonstrate the impact of ACIAR-supported projects to business and government leaders
• collaborate with partner and commissioned organisations to ensure combined outreach approaches
• strengthen relationships with international stakeholder organisations to establish productive partnerships, collaborations and co-delivered initiatives
• identify opportunities to leverage the profile and networks of members of the Commission for International Agricultural Research to raise awareness of and advocate for ACIAR
• continue to position ACIAR to deliver on our 10-year strategy.

We will continue to participate in key sector events both in person and online to share the results of ACIAR-supported research with a highly targeted audience.

Gender equity and social inclusion campaign

In 2023–24, ACIAR will release a new gender equity and social inclusion strategy and action plan. The Outreach Program will support the release of the strategy and action plan as well as implement an internal and external communications strategy to build awareness and understanding of the key features of the strategy. A key activity will be participating in the CGIAR GENDER conference ‘From research to impact: Towards just and resilient agri-food systems’ in India in October 2023.

Website

The ACIAR website continues to evolve, with improvements made to enhance user experience and increase visibility with our audiences. 

During 2023–24 there will be further development to improve the sharing of project information, including changes to the project pages and interactive map, making them more dynamic and functional to meet user needs. 

A website accessibility audit will be conducted in 2023–24, with strategy development to follow. This will help ensure that the ACIAR website meets accessibility standards.

Social media

With an audience of over 96,000 in 2023, the ACIAR social media channels reinforce the awareness of the impact of ACIAR-supported research to an engaged and relevant audience.

In 2023–24, the focus will be on enhancing posts to increase engagement, including visual content and messaging improvements.

Image

Publications

Publications, including annual corporate reports, are an essential part of our outreach and communication work. Publications contribute to ensuring audiences in Australia and our partner countries can access and use our research findings.

The Scientific Publications Committee continues to ensure the quality and relevance of ACIAR scientific publications, so that our scientific and research partners are better served with improved review processes and more timely production of research publications.

During 2023–24, we will continue to work with the Business Systems Unit to further develop an online catalogue of ACIAR scientific publications. We will also continuously improve our publications production and distribution program, strengthening internal production support systems and processes to manage the timely production, distribution and promotion of ACIAR publications.

Corporate publications will be published according to statutory and legislative requirements, and will be available both online and, in limited numbers, as hard copy. The Annual Operational Plan and the Annual Review are published each year, offering snapshots of our plans, activities and impact.

The production of our flagship publication, the Partners in Research for Development magazine, continues on a quarterly basis, with ongoing review of content, audiences and delivery modes.

In-country communication

In 2023–24 we will continue to build our network of communication professionals in our Country Offices. Currently, there are communication officer positions in 5 Country Offices: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia. There are plans to recruit 3 more officers during 2023–24.

Communication and stakeholder engagement plans and activities will continue to be devised and delivered on a country or regional basis to provide ACIAR Country Offices with communication expertise, ensuring more proactive content is being produced and increasing engagement with our partners and stakeholders.

Media partnerships

We will continue to partner with media organisations, both domestically and internationally, to raise the profile of the impact of our funded work to a wider audience. In 2023–24, we will engage with journalists who have expressed keen interest in ACIAR-funded projects and their impact to identify opportunities for site visits or local media/journalism training. We will also explore renewing our media partnership with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to further extend the reach and work together to generate relevant and engaging content.

We will work closely with the Crawford Fund to generate positive media coverage, especially in regional and agriculture-based media in Australia.

Other activities

ACIAR supports outreach activities delivered by the Crawford Fund. This includes the NextGen project, which aims to raise awareness about careers in international agricultural research. The Crawford Fund also oversees the administration of Researchers in Agriculture for International Development, whose membership contributes to and features in the NextGen campaign.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning framework

In 2023–24, the Outreach Program will start using a newly developed monitoring, evaluation and learning framework. The framework aims to provide a structured approach to the collection, analysis and use of data about the progress, performance and results of activities within the Outreach Program. It clarifies the processes and resources applied to this work, and underpins well-informed and evidence-based program planning and management. The framework will provide the information needed by the Outreach Program to make sound day-to-day and strategic management decisions, based on timely and reliable information. It also supports strong accountability to ACIAR senior management about the use of Outreach Program resources, supports achievement of positive outcomes and enables deeper learning from program activities.