HYDERABAD: The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) has joined hands with UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) to establish a Communication Resource Unit (CRU) to act as an institutional mechanism for providing strategic communication support to national flagship programmes.
According to the NIRDPR, the CRU is currently operating in three states - Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, and has demonstrated the management of strategic communication. It aims to cater to the strategic communication needs of different government departments through consultations, technical support and capacity building.
It provides Social and Behavioural Change Communications (SBCC) to State governments, as well as to Central government schemes such as Poshan Abhiyaan, National Health Mission and Swachh Bharath Mission, among others, said a press release from the NIRDPR.
Speaking about the significance of the initiative, the Director of Communication Resource Unit said, “The CRU is now functioning with the grant and technical support from the UNICEF Hyderabad field office, and has offered all its services to departments either free or with minimal charges. Over the long term, the CRU aims to generate a corpus that will sustain its activities without external funding.”