RESET - Building Strategic Communications to Reset Public Narratives on Islam & Muslims in Germany

 

From 2017 to 2019, ICPA implemented the Reframe the Debate! project which worked to build the capacity of German NGOs to more effectively engage moveable middle audiences in the migration debate and supported a pilot campaign which proved that these approaches work in Germany. Wishing to take these results to scale and tackle one of the most pressing issues in this work:

The goal of the RESET project (2020 – 2024)1  is to professionalise strategic communications in CLAIM Allianz and other influential networks in Germany and empower them to amplify their voice and influence in leading on reframing the debate around Islam & Muslims and resetting norms towards a more socially cohesive Germany.  

 


Challenges & Response

  • Islamophobic triggers are a key driver of strong anti-migrant narratives being steadily mainstreamed in Germany, and are also being used to serve a broader populist agenda, creating divisions within society2 . 
  • If we can support our partners’ efforts to rebalance the public debate and turn down the anxiety on Islam and Muslims, this will then serve to open the political space and build the constituency needed for more inclusive and diversity-driven policy proposals to be seriously considered by a wide range of politicians and policymakers. This in turn, serves to further the social cohesion agenda at the core of all our work.
  • To achieve sustainable impact in shifting norms in the public debate, partners need to work at scale, embracing a movement perspective and committing to a strategic communications approach. This is a long-term strategy that moves beyond single or ad hoc interventions towards achieving the “surround sound, volume and velocity”3  and scale needed for resetting norms, with repeated interventions building presence in the public discourse, socialising narratives in communities & wider networks and, eventually, building the broad constituency needed to achieve a change of rules and behaviour.

 

 

Project Components

Project Components_EN
  • Modelling Strategic Comms - supporting multiple narrative change campaigns/projects, experimenting and learning by doing in an iterative manner to build partners’ capacity and increase the reach and effectiveness of interventions.
  • Creation & Transfer of Knowledge Base – developing and sharing practical research, resources and case studies among German and wider European networks to build capacity and support strategic communications thinking & practice.
  • Institutionalising Strategic Comms – learning from the experience of RESET to develop feasible and sustainable structures to embed strategic communications in CLAIM and other German networks.

The RESET project draws on approaches, methodology, and resources from ICPA’s Strategic Communications Incubator initiative. The Strategic Communications Incubator is a platform that provides the required space (to experiment/reflect and learn), support (needs-driven training/mentoring from a wide range of experts) and community (fostering peer-based collaboration and connection to key actors in the movement). This combined approach servers to incubate strategic communicaions initiatives with partners committed to reframing the migration/inclusion (integration in German) debate at scale.

 

About ICPA - bringing the experience needed to run RESET and support German partners

ICPA is an independent Berlin-based NGO with a team who has 18 years’ experience working on an international level to empower and build the public and policy advocacy capacity of researchers and activists to more effectively further/advance democratic principles and core values of an open society. Responding to the increasing mainstreaming of anti-migrant narratives, since 2016 ICPA has implemented a series of initiatives to support German and wider European activists to contribute to turning back this tide and also developed the internationally recognised Reframing Migration Narratives Toolkit.

Through the Strategic Communications Incubator and RESET project, ICPA now aims to take this work to scale by supporting influential German and wider European networks to build the infrastructure needed to lift the narrative change approach (‘changing the weather’) to a strategic communications level (‘changing the climate’) needed to deliver sustainable change.

 

 

Project partners

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Established in 2017, CLAIM Allianz is a key nationwide civil society network and dedicated advocacy platform working to counter anti-Muslim racism. With approx. 40 members, CLAIM has the reach, scale, focus and commitment needed to take on this ambitious narrative change goal and embrace the strategic communications approach at the heart of the RESET project.