U.S. Embassy Ouagadougou noticed a communication gap between government policies and Burkinabe citizens. The government may be doing good things of which the people are not aware or the government may be trying to communicate in crisis situations, but not doing so effectively causing rumors and misinformation.
To promote the Embassy’s goal of rooting Burkina’s fragile democracy, the Embassy organized a training session from November 14-17 on government communication for 15 government spokespersons with Paris-based American speaker, Eduardo Cue. During the training session the participants learned the responsibilities of the communication department in a Ministry. Mr. Cue led the group through strategic messaging exercises and filmed mock interviews which the group watched and critiqued together. He also focused on crisis communication (especially in light of regular terrorist attacks in the North of the country) and social media outreach to better promote the government’s policies and agenda.
