It is a tool that was developed with a clear eye on tackling ‘A’ - Awareness but has expanded to help tackle the other three ‘A’s’, namely Affordability, Availability and Accountability, says the report.
Authors Simon Bishop, Jeroen Blum, Pradeep Pursnani, and Anuradha Bhavnani of the Shell Foundation say a two pronged strategy is being used to get the message to market.
First, focuses a blitz of communications activities in one district of Karnataka, Shimoga, designed to convince the population to adopt ICS. A layered objective is to create a ‘demonstrator effect’, illustrating how such a blitz could be replicated in other parts of India – and hopefully attracting others to the table. The second leg of the strategy involves Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) – to keep the campaign cost per ICS-sale to a minimum and simultaneously address affordability.
The authors note that while the jury is out, "On a Local level, Room to Breathe has firmly launched. Backed by 18 months of planning and trials we hope it will play a significant role in tackling not just the ‘Awareness’ challenge but also a large part of the ‘Affordability’ challenge too. Crucially, we need to get the cost of the campaign per ICS sold down to an absolute minimum – ideally US$1.5-US$2 per ICS; we are not there yet. On National and Global levels there are two areas where the Room to Breathe campaign is making a difference. The first, is the expansion of the current India-based local campaign to IAP-affected households in other countries, of course allowing for different local cultural characteristics. The second, is to target national and global key opinion leaders through niche advocacy campaigns with the aim of attracting more interest and resources (both financial and non-financial) to the IAP sector as a whole."
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