“Pamoja Communications has transformed the way I think and talk about research uptake. Kate has generously shared her knowledge to develop capacity and patiently supported our efforts to ensure our research findings are taken up at all levels of the system. Without her involvement REACHOUT would not have anything like the global reach and impact it has had. I cannot thank her enough.”
About Pamoja
We work with a range of international partners to help them think strategically about where they invest their efforts. This includes help with online and offline audience mapping, assessment of policy environments and opportunities to influence, and targeted campaigns.
We help with the management and implementation of communication campaigns – including organising events, supporting work online, publishing, photography, design, and the creation of audio-visual content. We have extensive experience of academic publishing and working with researchers to improve writing skills for a range of outputs such as journal articles, conference abstracts, presentations and posters.
The best communication is often a collaborative effort where a range of people bring their ideas and abilities to the table. A large part of our approach is building the capacity of all team members in playing their part in communicating results and success, so training and mentoring is at the heart of how we conduct ourselves. We have a particular interest in building the individual skills and institutional abilities or staff and organisations in low- and middle- income countries offering tips for professional communications in settings where under-performing infrastructure and small communication budgets sometimes make this work challenging.
Having worked in the development sector for many years we are experts in global health, sexuality, gender, migration and many more topics.
Pamoja timeline
2011
In 1985 the Rockefeller Foundation published what was to become a seminal report – Good health at low cost. The report explored why some low- and middle-income countries achieved better health outcomes than others, making Good health at low cost essential reading for health systems decision- and policy-makers alike. Good health at low cost 25 years on draws on new case studies from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Tamil Nadu and Thailand providing fresh insights into the role of effective institutions, innovation and country ownership in catalysing improvements in health. We worked with the editors of the book to create a website, policy briefs and an online presence which opened up the findings of this work to new audiences.
2013
We have been partners in the REACHOUT consortium from the outset working with a team from Ethiopia, Malawi, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Kenya, the UK and the Netherlands to craft a proposal which was funded by the European Commission. This collaboration is an international research project helping to understand and develop the role of community health workers in preventing, diagnosing, and treating major illnesses and health conditions in rural and urban areas in Africa and Asia. We manage all the communications for the consortium.
Research in Gender and Ethics (RinGs): Building stronger health systems, one of our flagship programmes was formed in 2013. We were part of the proposal writing team which secured financing from the UK Department of International Development to support their large health systems programmes in integrating a gender analysis into their work. Through a small grants programme, the creation of tools and training, international advocacy and academic publishing we have worked hard to get this issue made a priority in the health systems research world.
We were contracted by the Institute of Development Studies to work on their Undressing Patriarchy: Redressing Inequalities project. This is a subject that we feel strongly about as debates on patriarchy have all but disappeared from gender and development discourse – debates that we feel are crucial if we are to remove the underlying social and cultural attitudes, constraints and institutions that buttress gender inequalities. Working together with a team from around the world we put together a meeting report based on a participatory workshop which raised the profile of these issues.
2014
We were shortlisted for a Social Media Award by Health Systems Global for our Twitter account and the support we offer other projects such as @RinGsRPC, @REACHOUT_Tweet, and @ReBUILDRPC.
We worked with the International Health Economics Association to put together a webinar series which enabled their members to engage with cutting-edge thinking with international experts. Webinars have since become a core part of our communications portfolio as they enable participants from around the world to come together on issues of interest.
FEMHealth stands for ‘fee exemption for maternal health care’. We worked with the project on a series of French and English policy briefs which brought together research learning from Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali and Morocco. Developing the content of short research and policy briefs which summarise key learning from research is something that we have developed our skills in over a number of years.
The Guardian newspaper in the UK ranked us as one of the top 10 tweeters on sexuality and development. It was very nice to be recognised for our work on this, often contested or ignored issue.
2015
PERFORM researches human resources for health in Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania. Through action research they provide new knowledge on how district managers can effectively intervene within their current constraints to improve the performance of their staff. We supported PERFORM towards the end of the project when they were thinking through how to communicate the tools that they had developed from the work and their findings. They have since secured follow on funding from the European Commission and we are working with them again in 2018 to put together a communications strategy for the next phase of their research.
We began working with the Migrating out of Poverty Research Programme to help them organise and communicate about their conference, Gendered Dimensions of Migration: Material and social outcomes of South-South migration. We built an enduring relationship and we reconnected in 2017 and now manage all of the communications work for the project.
2017
Throughout the world, gender norms, roles and expectations restrict and undermine women’s potential, behaviour and freedom. The turmoil and violence of war can exacerbate inequalities between men and women. As the conflict fades, however, possibilities are created for profound change. Donor funds flow, social norms are in a state of flux and there may be an appetite for political change. Building Back Better is a website and set of resources which grew out of work by the ReBUILD Consortium. We are pleased to be part of a growing movement which is paying more attention to these issues.
2018
There is a growing interest in women’s role in global health leadership. We know that women are the majority of people working to improve health outcomes in communities, health facilities, non-governmental organizations, and multilateral organizations. So why is it that when it comes to leadership positions we have a governance system that privileges men and what can we do to redress the balance? With Women in Global Health we secured a publishing deal with Springer to write an edited volume which explores some of these issues.
2019
Funded by UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund, this ambitious new programme will run for five years. The research consortium consists of ten partners from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. Our vision is to catalyse change in approaches to enhancing accountability and improving the health and wellbeing of poor, marginalised people living in informal urban settlements. Pamoja Communications will be managing the communications for the consortium.
