VISIBILITY, COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION

As regards European Commission humanitarian aid, visibility is sometimes used loosely to cover the whole spectrum of “visibility-information-communication”. Here below you can find a definition of the three words given in the framework of the DG ECHO funded action.

Visibility means in its basic acception:
• the display of the European Commission’s humanitarian visual identity,
• the written and verbal recognition of the European Commission’s role in global humanitarian aid, in partnership with the agency implementing the action, in all relevant situations.

Implies the assembly of data through various tools and products that inform about humanitarian situations and actions, the partnership between the Commission and implementing agencies and the role of the EU as an aid donor.

Relates to the pro-active dissemination of data and messages to identified target audiences. At this purpose it is important to make a distinction between operational and institutional communication. 

Operational communication refers to communication activities that are part of the operational content of a project and by definition necessitate the use of information and communication tools, such as: awareness rising of the risks of unexploded ordnance; hygiene education campaigns; training brochures and workshops; radio spots to alert beneficiaries to the importance of disaster preparedness and so on.

Institutional communication refers to activities that highlight humanitarian issues and the Commission’s role more generally, to wider audiences (not just beneficiaries), such as publications explaining the Commission’s humanitarian role and the essential messages; events showing the partnership between the Commission with the agency responsible for the project; human interest films on projects being financed by the Commission and so on.