Annex C: Survey: Sample letter of invitation

Address

Dear ______

You have been selected to participate in a survey on development communications (communications for development). Your roll and experience in this field makes you an ideal candidate to participate in this research. If, however, you feel there is someone who would be more qualified at your organization, please forward this letter on to her or him.

This survey is part of a research project that is required for the completion of a Masters of Arts degree in Communications and Technology at the University of Alberta , Canada . As the head of communications at the United Nations Capital Development Fund, I believe this research also will benefit the work we are doing to expand our efforts in the area of development communication in local development programmes and in our microfinance operations. The results of this survey may be published in a future report.

This research will be entirely conducted by myself. If, however, any research assistants are brought onto this project to assist with data collection, they will sign a confidentiality agreement and comply with the University of Alberta Standards for the Protection of Human Research Participants (http://www.ualberta.ca/~unisecr/policy/sec66.html)

The final research report will be shared with you as one of the research participants.

As this research is being conducted on behalf of a public institution, I am required to inform you of your various rights as a participant. You of course have the right to not participate in this survey, and to withdraw at any time without prejudice to pre-existing entitlements, and to continuing and meaningful opportunities for deciding whether or not to continue to participate. You will have the right to opt out without penalty and any collected data withdrawn from the data base and not included in the study. You will have the right to privacy, anonymity and confidentiality, and to safeguards for security of data (data are to be kept for a minimum of 5 years following completion of research). Finally, you will have the right to full disclosure of the presence of any apparent or actual conflict of interest on the part of the researcher(s).

The plan for this study has been reviewed for its adherence to ethical guidelines and approved by the Faculties of Education and Extension Research Ethics Board (EE REB) at the University of Alberta . For questions regarding participant rights and ethical conduct of research, contact the Chair of the EE REB at (780) 492-3751. In the event of concerns, complaints or consequences, you can contact the officer-in-charge of the United Nations Capital Development Fund, Ms. Henriette Keijzers (henriette.keijzers) and/or the Director of the MACT program at the University of Alberta , Mr. Marco Adria (marco.adria@ualberta.ca).

To complete the survey, please visit the following URL at your earliest possible convenience: http://devcom.uncdf.org [ note: participants contacted through surveymonkey.com were sent unique URLs so their participation could be tracked .]

Best regards,

Adam Rogers
Chief, Communications and Public Information Unit
United Nations Capital Development Fund