Once you have completed your UNDERSTAND phase and gathered insights about people, context, media systems, and barriers to action, the next step is to define what change you intend to create through communication.
Clear goals and objectives anchor your strategy, help prioritise activities, and provide a framework for monitoring progress.
Goal: What change do you intend to achieve?
Your goal describes the long-term change you want to see in your specific target audience as a result of your disaster risk communication.
It provides overall direction and purpose for your communication plan and should reflect:
- Who you want to influence (your target group)
- What change you want them to experience or make
- Why this change matters in the broader disaster risk management context
- How communication can realistically contribute to that change
This is not an activity (“run a campaign”), but a desired transformation (“households living in flood-prone neighbourhoods adopt safer evacuation practices”).
When defining your goal, ask:
1. What change do you ultimately want to see in this audience?
Describe a specific, tangible outcome—something observable or measurable.
2. Why is this the right change to focus on?
Explain the rationale, drawing on insights from the UNDERSTAND phase—risk perceptions, vulnerabilities, structural barriers, misinformation patterns, or behavioural drivers.
3. How can media and communication help?
Clarify the communication contribution (e.g., shaping norms, correcting misconceptions, reducing uncertainty, making instructions easier to follow, improving trust in warning systems).
Example goal (strong):
Residents in the lower coastal district (target group) consistently follow evacuation guidance during storm surge warnings (desired change), reducing loss of life and enabling emergency services to operate more safely (purpose).
Example goal (weak):
"Raise awareness about storm surge risk."
(This does not specify the audience, the change, or the intended outcome.)
Objectives: How will change happen?
Objectives break your overarching goal into concrete, actionable changes you will create with your target audience.
They describe what needs to shift in people’s knowledge, perceptions, feelings, confidence, or behaviours to move toward the larger goal.
Objectives are about audience change, not communication activities.
- Objective (correct): “Increase families’ knowledge of the three safe evacuation routes.”
- Activity (not an objective): “Distribute evacuation maps.”
Strong objectives are:
- About people, not about your team’s outputs
- Directly connected to a barrier or opportunity identified in the UNDERSTAND phase
- Clear enough to guide message design and channel choices
Setting SMART goals and objectives
To ensure your goals and objectives serve as a practical guide, they should be SMART:
S
Specific
Clearly state what change will happen and who will experience it.
M
Measurable
Define how you will know the change has occurred (metrics, indicators).
A
Achievable
Consider your time, resources, partnerships, and operational constraints.
R
Relevant
Respond directly to insights gathered in UNDERSTAND; align with local disaster risk management plans.
T
Time-bound
Establish a timeframe for achieving the change.
Example SMART objective:
Within six months, 70% of households in the floodplain (target group) can correctly identify the nearest evacuation route (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound)
Avoid vague “awareness-raising” objectives
"Raising awareness" is rarely a sufficient or meaningful objective.
Most audiences are already aware of the hazards they face, and awareness alone does not reliably lead to action.
Instead of stating “raise awareness”, specify:
- What awareness is missing?
- How does this gap prevent action?
- What should people do differently because of your communication?
Describe how people will think, feel, or behave differently as a result of your work.
Keep objectives realistic and grounded
When developing goals and objectives, consider:
1. What can people reasonably do on their own?
Your plan should empower actions that do not require resources or permissions your audience lacks.
2. What structural barriers limit what people can do?
Communication cannot fix:
- poverty,
- lack of infrastructure,
- unsafe housing,
- broken governance systems.
Your strategy should acknowledge these limits and focus on feasible, meaningful change within the audience’s sphere of control.
3. What is appropriate within your mandate and capacity?
Avoid overpromising impact you cannot deliver or measure.
Distinguishing awareness, attitude and behaviour objectives
To design targeted and realistic objectives, it helps to separate them into three types. Each plays a different role in achieving your overall goal.
1. Awareness objectives (knowledge-based)
What people know.
These are useful when misunderstandings, misinformation, or lack of clarity prevent action.
Examples:
- “People know the meaning of the colour codes used in heat alerts.”
- “Farmers understand when and why to expect early-season drought.”
Use when:
Knowledge gaps or confusion are the primary barrier.
Limitations:
Awareness alone rarely leads to behaviour change—so awareness objectives should support, not replace, behaviour objectives.
2. Attitude objectives (perception or motivation-based)
What people believe, value, or feel.
These are essential when emotional or cognitive barriers stand in the way of action, such as optimism bias, distrust, or fatalism.
Examples:
- “People believe that evacuating early is safer than waiting.”
- “Women feel confident the shelters are safe.”
- “Residents trust that heat warnings are timely and reliable.”
Use when:
Fear, fatalism, distrust, or misconceptions are the main constraints.
3. Behaviour objectives (action-based)
What people do differently.
These are the strongest and most actionable objectives, and where communication can most clearly support disaster risk reduction.
Examples:
- “Households register for SMS early warning alerts.”
- “Residents follow evacuation instructions during severe rainfall.”
- “Families prepare an emergency kit.”
Use when:
The goal relates directly to preparedness, response, or resilience actions.