SCL has carried out research and campaigns for clients in the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and South and East Asia. Its clients have typically included NGOs, police departments, military forces, municipal authorities and the UN.
Below are some examples of previous campaigns:
SCL is conducting research in the Middle-East into the strategic influences that might prevent governing regimes from adopting a nuclear policy. Early indications suggest that there is little motivation for actually having a nuclear capability per se - but there is significant motivation to be recognised and taken seriously. Western attempts to restrict Middle-Eastern countries’ nuclear capability have been ill-received, due to the perception that to do so would be to restrict their ability to become first-order states. The SCL approach has helped to understand the real underlying motivations behind such actions, which may go a long way towards resolving the issue.
SCL has presented findings both to the United States Department of Defence and UK Ministry of Defence criticising the use of printed material in Afghanistan. In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the United States government produced and distributed 1.3 million copies of a pamphlet called “The Network of Terrorism”. SCL found that the written word has very little meaning or credibility in Afghanistan, due to a literacy rate of between 20 and 30 percent.
SCL was commissioned to pre-test a major AIDS awareness campaign that was scheduled to be delivered across the Caribbean. The messages were simple and humorous in their portrayal of practicing safe sex. Our research showed that across a wide spectrum of the Caribbean islands, religion was a major factor in many people’s lives and that certainly procreation and sexual conduct was a matter for divine intervention. Consequently, the humour in the communications was very poorly received. A new, successful campaign was designed on the basis of our findings.
In Nepal, a large number of Maoist insurgents were breaking into houses in remote areas, to steal food, harass the homeowners and cause disruption. As this behaviour was becoming endemic, SCL was asked to recommend solutions that could prevent the house break-ins. After analysing the underlying reasons for the anti-social behaviour, the recommended intervention was to provide food for the insurgents outside the houses in a public gathering place. The insurgents were now quite happy to take their food without having to break into people’s houses. Hunger was the primary motivation for their anti-social behaviour.