J Walter Thompson Kolkata wins UNICEF contract for Mission Nirmal Bangla communication

Mission Nirmal Bangla, a Government of West Bengal initiative, is aligned to the objectives of the national flagship programme: Swachh Bharat Mission that aims for an ‘Open Defecation Free’ India by 2nd October 2019 – coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. It was a multi -agency pitch and J Walter Thompson Kolkata has been entrusted by UNICEF West Bengal to develop a 360 degree campaign on behavioural change that will promote toilet-use as a natural and daily habit among the target audiences.

The year-long scope of work assigned to JWT Kolkata includes research, pre-test, multi-stakeholder consultations, strategy development, creative package development, capacity building plan and monitoring tools and a 6-month pilot project for implementing the campaign in one selected district of West Bengal.

Vijay Jacob, Senior, VP& Managing Partner JWT Kolkat (pictured above), said, “We have been partnering with UNICEF for creating socially relevant campaigns for many a worthy cause. We welcome the opportunity yet again and  look forward to doing some great impactful work together.”

Pragyan Bharati, WASH Specialist, UNICEF Kolkata added, ” After reviewing pitches by several agencies, we were happy to zero in on JWT for their strategic understanding and creative expression.”

The overall objective of Mission Nirmal Bangla is to generate positive changes in health and hygiene practices and behaviour of rural West Bengal. Specifically, the agenda is to make all the villages in the state Open Defecation Free(ODF). So far, 11 of the 23 districts in West Bengal have been declared ODF. As more and more districts are catching up, the aim is to sustain the ODF status and integrate second generation sanitation components like Solid Liquid Resource Management, Menstrual Hygiene Management among others.