Facilitating an NHRI Gender Audit 1.6 Developing a communications (comms) strategy A communications (comms) strategy is an important tool to ensure the whole of your NHRI is engaged in, and has ownership of, the Gender Audit. As stated earlier, if your NHRI is large and geographically spread, it may not be possible for all within the NHRI to take part. A comms strategy will let people in your NHRI know: • What the Gender Audit is about • How it will benefit the NHRI and their work within the NHRI, and • What contributions are required from them and the timeframes for their involvement. A communications strategy will also provide information to people external to your NHRI about this work. The Gender Audit can be a standing agenda item in regular team and NHRI member meetings, apart from usual NHRI communication methods such as intranet, newsletter, staff announcements and notice boards. A simple communications strategy outlines: • Who you are communicating with (stakeholder) • Why you are communicating with them (purpose) • How you will communicate (medium) • How often you will communicate (frequency) • Who is responsible for the communication (lead) 29