By Daniel Harrison, BFBS Creative
When organisations talk about communications capability building, the conversation often begins with training. A workshop. A framework. A set of tools. Which yes, all useful, but none, on their own, creates a communications function that can perform consistently long-term and under pressure.
That distinction shaped our work in Somalia. In Mogadishu, we supported a Somali government communications team operating in a complex and contested information environment. The team needed to strengthen its everyday communications while supporting government efforts to counter al-Shabaab and respond to hostile narratives.
Training is only one part of capability
The starting point was not to arrive with a predetermined solution. It was to understand what already existed: the team’s audiences, objectives, skills, processes, equipment and operational pressures.
Firstly, a small BFBS Creative team deployed to Mogadishu to deliver workshops and practical training, but also to conduct a detailed needs assessment. We worked across audience understanding, strategic objective setting, message development, crisis communications, organisational coordination, campaign planning but also the tactical delivery.
The assessment reinforced a simple point. Communications capability is not only about whether individuals know how to write a message or produce a piece of content. It depends on the system around them: people, processes, infrastructure, technology, leadership and coordination.
Capability has to be used
When we returned to the UK, the work continued. Weekly consultancy sessions and touch points helped the team apply new approaches to live challenges, maintain momentum and troubleshoot problems as they emerged. Implementing a GRID-style planning process strengthened coordination and made communications activity more structured and visible.
We also supported the practical conditions for delivery. That included camera equipment, content storage, creative software, animation training and social-listening capability. Alongside longer-term development, we supported strategic content production and counter-al-Shabaab communications activity.
This combination mattered. Training developed knowledge. Continued consultancy developed this knowledge into habits. Equipment and technology made delivery possible. Operational support ensured the capability was tested against real requirements rather than remaining theoretical.
The principle applies well beyond Somalia. Organisations often invest in knowledge without investing equally in the conditions that allow it to be used. If teams lack clear processes, reliable tools, leadership support or space to practise, even strong training will struggle to change what happens when pressure arrives. On the flip side, supporting an organisation with immediate delivery only achieves an immediate short-term effect.
The real measure is what happens without us
There is no single metric that captures institutional resilience. In this programme, progress was visible through more structured planning, clearer internal communications processes, improved crisis communications capability and greater confidence in capturing and producing content.
But the most important change was ownership. The strategic communications plan was not simply written for the team and handed over, it was developed with them so they could articulate it, use it and continue adapting it.
For BFBS Creative, this is the test of sustainable capability building. Success is not the workshop delivered, the equipment supplied or the content produced. It is whether the organisation is better able to communicate consistently, respond under pressure and continue delivering after external support reduces. For us, success is in the long term sustained success, not just the immediate support.
Strategic communications resilience is built through training, but it is embedded between the workshops, in the weekly decisions, shared processes, practical tools and sustained partnerships that turn knowledge into independent capability.