Principles of Preparing a realistic ACSM budget

It is important to create a realistic Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilisation (ACSM) budget.

General principles which would be helpful in creating a realistic budget are:

• Enlist the goals intended to be achieved in the given time period
• Include pre-planning and intended activities
• Include break down of steps involved in each activity along with the resources required
• Partners should understand the overall budget for the activities as well as the budget for the respective components in which they are involved.
• Prioritise programme activities in case funding is reduced
• Follow the ACSM financial guidelines which are issued by the Central TB Division (CTD)

Make sure adequate funds are allocated for:

1. Meeting and work space
2. Formative research
3. Material and product development (including pre-testing) and production
4. Material distribution and storage
5. Staff and consultants (specify the amount of time needed)
6. Revisions to materials and activities, based on feedback from implementers
7. Process and outcome evaluation
8. Payment of external technical or creative experts as needed
9. Miscellaneous costs of the partner organizations such as transportation, telephone and postage.

• Partner organizations can augment existing resources in various ways. For example, some partners might be able to contribute by photocopying materials while others may be able to donate office space for meetings. When planning ACSM activities, draw up a checklist of activities, products and other resources that might be needed. If the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) does not already have some of these services or items, identify potential organizations that might be willing to donate them.
• Both ACSM financial guidelines and the previous year’s budget utilisation should be kept in view as only 10–15 percent increase in budget allocation is the general norm. Bigger increases are uncommon and have to be explained with full justification. Hence, it is important to prioritise ACSM activities and prepare a realistic plan and budget estimation.

Table: Example of an Implementation Plan Format

The reason/ purpose for undertaking the ACSM activities is recorded in the last column of the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) format.

Resources

1. Advocacy, Communication & Social Mobilisation (ACSM) for Tuberculosis Control - A Handbook for Country Programmes, WHO, 2007.
2. Operational Handbook on Advocacy, Communication & Social Mobilisation for RNTCP, Central TB Division, MoHFW, GoI, 2014.

Assessment