Building Effective Communication Strategies and Messaging

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Program Overview, Objectives, and Priorities Agricultural biotechnologies continue to develop new tools that allow agricultural producers to protect yields, improve plant and animal health, preserve the environment, and provide choice to consumers in the products they have available, among other desirable outcomes. International trade in such products relies upon a favorable policy environment. Obstacles to trade through de jure or de facto bans, delays in country approvals, and nonscience-based regulations delay trade, disincentivize innovation, and limit producer and consumer choice. Improving communication on the science, benefits, sustainability, practice and the promise of agricultural biotechnologies at the local, regional, and national level helps the United States achieve its strategic goals. This project includes activities that support the goal to enhance countries’ abilities to create and deliver more effective and targeted messaging on agricultural biotechnology to policy makers, stakeholders and the general public. The New Technologies and Production Methods Division (NTPMD) seeks to continue its engagement effort initiated in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology (HLPDAB) by hosting intersessional activities for participating APEC and ASEAN economies on strategic communication and targeted messaging. The intersessional activities should help to build on the partnering economies’ capacities to create a communication strategy and develop and deliver targeted messages on agricultural biotechnologies for a more effective and proactive communication approach on the subject of new technologies. Trainings will be conducted for one economy or between two or three economies to provide ample opportunity for a hands-on experience. The partnering organization will work with FAS NTPMD to identify the participating economies. The goal of this program is to advance NTPMD’s strategic goals pertaining to agricultural biotechnologies and to support its existing work on engaging APEC economies participating in HLPDAB. This will be accomplished through efforts on the following objectives. The project narrative should discuss in detail how the organization will achieve the objectives listed below. a) Conduct communication and outreach training for participating APEC economies related to the agricultural biotechnologies including genetic engineering and gene editing. b) Participating APEC and ASEAN economies will learn how to assess their communication needs, draft a communications strategy, identify targeted audiences, develop effective verbal and written messaging, and learn how to successfully engage an audience to communicate effectively about the science of agricultural biotechnologies and make evidence-based decision making in the participating economies.

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