Making the case for health

Messages, messengers, and framings

Scatter chart showing global health message testing scores with micro-economic self-sufficiency being the strongest message, while other top performing frames included health equity, health as a basic need and global health security across countries including donor countries, Sweden, Netherlands, South Africa, Indonesia, India, Ghana, and LMICs/LICs.

Wave 2 testing confirms the strongest arguments from wave 1 continue to test well.

As in wave 1, “micro-economic self-sufficiency” was the strongest message, while other top performing frames included “health equity”, “health as a basic need” and “global health security”.

Chart showing impact of messenger origin in donor countries comparing home countries vs Global South messengers with reference to Sweden and the Netherlands. With arrows indicating that for government ministers, Global South messengers are more convincing; for scientists, Global South messengers are more convincing; for health workers, home country messengers are on par.

Wave 2 findings provide additional evidence for the value of Global South voices in donor markets.

Messages attributed to messengers from the Global South test as more convincing than those attributed to messengers from the donor countries.

Comparison chart showing shift from passive recipient framing to active contributor framing for individuals, projects, and organizations.

Focus group testing shows that by framing aid recipients as active contributors (rather than passive recipients), we can positively change how individuals, projects and organizations are seen.

The “active contributor” framing shifted perceptions of the individual depicted, from worker to leader or expert; shifted how a project was viewed, increasing confidence in long-term success; and shifted perceptions of the organization, to one that listens and is more deeply invested.