The International Budget Partnership’s (IBP) Open Budget Survey 2017 Dissemination Workshop was held in Cape Town, South Africa between 7th and 9th of November, 2017. In attendance were over twenty representatives across Africa, each representing their country. The dissemination workshop was designed to train participants on how to disseminate the Open Budget Survey results in each country. BudgIT, IBP partner in Nigeria, was represented by Ayomide Faleye.

At the workshop, issues discussed included the Global Results of the OBS 2017, key issues and recommendations for OBS 2017 country summaries, country-specific communications strategy development, and incorporating OBS methodology into messages and messages. Other topics included message development, communication channels, activities, materials and partnerships, IBP’s OBS dissemination plan, delivery, working with the media, practice communications activities and workshop evaluation.

The workshop was split into different sessions for each day. The major highlight of the first day of the workshop was the group’s discussions on the effect and implications of the decrease in global OBS scores in 2017. On the second day, Ayomide was asked to do a presentation on the use of infographics in conveying messages to the appropriate audience. Other means of communication, specific to each country were also examined. Dissemination plans prepared by each country before the workshop were also examined and corrections were made where necessary. On the third day, each participant was asked to do 5mins of short video interviews when found in such a situation with media outlets. Each video was examined and corrections were made appropriately.

At the end of the workshop, participants were presented with certificates and a photo session with the IBP team.