This campaign will focus on the humanitarian diplomacy policy of the UAE Soft Power Strategy. This policy focuses on making the UAE a foreign aid center for the world (The UAE soft power strategy, 2022). Dubbed ‘Sunday Walks,’ the campaign’s goal is to raise money to support the education of elementary school children in Kenya. The problem being addressed by Sunday Walks relates to the walking distance covered by students in rural Kenya to get to the nearest school. While the average safe walking distance has been estimated at three to five kilometers, most students in countrified Kenya cover between ten and twenty kilometers to school (Burdick-Will et al., 2019; Siiba, 2020). The campaign is called for to alleviate the suffering of these children by initiating the building of one public school every five years in a remote and most deserving Kenyan village.
The campaign’s audience is the governing bodies overseeing foreign aid strategies in the UAE to get approval and support for the activity. The UAE public is also an audience because they will participate in the walks and donate their resources towards the objective of the school building initiative. Each audience will receive relevant materials with specific language and only the necessary details about Sunday Walks. Since the UAE is a global foreign aid hub, the campaign will involve international agencies. Dubai Cares will be assigned to planning and managing the walks since they have experience with similar programs. Communication with the public will include media interviews and mass media advertising, which are effective for informative purposes (Media interviews guidelines, n.d.). Official documents will be filled and filed with respective governing bodies (Ways of doing charity in the UAE, n.d.). Foreign travel will be required to deliver information to Kenya and seek the support of international agencies like the United Nations.
Depending on its program, Dubai Cares has partnered with various agencies and international bodies. These include the United Nations, War Child UK, Room to Read, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and other local entities (Our Programs, n.d). Subject matter experts include the ministers of education in the UAE and Kenya. In addition, teachers and scholars who focus on factors driving education success in Africa can explain and advocate for Sunday Walks. Dubai Cares will produce translators and foreign language participants who have been volunteering through the organization in previous campaigns.
The recommended envoy should be a team from Dubai Cares and the United Nations because the agencies are internationally recognized and well known by UAE citizens. The United Nations envoy will be most suited to engage with the Kenyan government because they are already present in the country. Nevertheless, Dubai Cares must be represented in most public diplomacy efforts because it oversees and implements the initiative.
Sunday Walks can be linked to most of Dubai Cares’ educational programs, such as the Back to School Campaign in Senegal, Recovery, and Resilience in Education in Iraq, and Improving ECDE in India. Dubai Cares Walk for Education initiative is the most relevant program linked with Sunday Walks to support global public diplomacy (Walk for Education, n.d). While there are similar programs in various countries, they might not have precisely identical objectives as Sunday Walks.
Sunday Walks’ effectiveness will be gauged using three measures: registered participants, locally raised amounts, and international donations. The targets for each metric will be moderately low in the first half year, but are expected to rise as the initiative gains popularity and acceptance. If an event produces less than 70% of its target, the oversight committee will need to file a report that speculates why the numbers were that low and make recommendations for improving the next event.
References
Burdick-Will, J., Stein, M. L., & Grigg, J. (2019). Danger on the way to school: Exposure to violent crime, public transportation, and absenteeism. Sociological Science, 6, 118-142. Web.
Media interviews guidelines. (n.d.). British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Web.
Our programs. (n.d.). Dubai Cares. Web.
Siiba, A. (2020). Active travel to school: Understanding the Ghanaian context of the underlying driving factors and the implications for transport planning. Journal of Transport & Health, 18, 100869. Web.
The UAE soft power strategy. (2022). The Official Portal of the UAE Government. Web.
Walk for education. (n.d.). Dubai Cares. Web.
Ways of doing charity in the UAE. (n.d.). The Official Portal of the UAE Government. Web.