Experience Note: Connecting GEF Projects with a Global Audience: Outreach Initiatives of the South China Sea Project
2008: A large number and wide variety of information and data outputs were produced as part of the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand project (SCS project). This note covers the efforts of the SCS project to build awareness of these outputs via the Internet by: (1) building the online visibility of the SCS project website; and (2) by providing website visitors with an engaging and interactive insight into project interventions and achievements. A combined strategy of improving the search engine friendliness and content richness of the SCS project website resulted in a large increase in the number of visitors accessing the website via Internet search engines. The creation of a SCS project layer for viewing on Google Earth also assisted in building awareness of project outputs and interventions. It also resulted in several unanticipated outreach benefits, including addition of the project to Google’s Outreach Showcase and its promotion in the official Google news as “a great example of how to connect with a wide audience”. The technical aspects of this work represent application of basic operating practices for online businesses to a GEF project. The potential for replicating the online outreach initiatives of the SCS project in other projects is high, particularly considering the outcomes were achieved using freely available software designed for use by non-Information Technology specialists. Christopher Paterson patersonc@un.org
885: Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand (SCS)
Experience Note: Connecting GEF Projects with a Global Audience: Outreach Initiatives of the South China Sea Project.pdf
