Advocacy

In 2012, the South African government launched a new National Strategic Plan on HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and tuberculosis (TB) for 2012-2016 that included ambitious female condom procurement targets. Reproductive health advocates viewed these targets as progress toward expanded protection options for women. They also saw an opportunity to monitor and encourage implementation, especially since translating health policies into concrete programming remained a challenge in South Africa. Over 18 months, they implemented a series of advocacy activities to maintain a steady drumbeat of attention on female condoms and increase accountability among South African officials for procurement and programming. The conclusion of these advocacy efforts coincided with the government releasing its largest-ever tender for female condoms, requesting a supply of 54 million units over three years. This number tracks closely with the targets laid out in the HIV/STI/TB National Strategic Plan. The case study finds that coordinating and mobilizing local South African civil society and media partners to deliver advocacy messages through creative means—such as the “Dance4Demand” Global Female Condom Day campaign in 2014—was critical in persuading government decision-makers to act on their commitments. Click here for full case study ...
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Fostering civic action and agency to ensure that citizens have voice and choice in relation to the food they eat is vital. However, food systems are complex and many actors help shape and influence them at local, national and international levels. By lobbying from the grassroots up, systemic changes to food systems can be made in order to address local and national challenges. This toolkit aims to provide essential guidance and ideas to advocacy professionals and civil society organisations wishing to mobilise and support low-income citizen groups to advocate for improved diets. It is ideal for civil society organisations that work with those most affected and neglected by food policy, low income consumers, producers, traders, processers and vendors - the people who form the backbone of informal food systems, but whose needs are rarely factored in by policy makers. Click here for full toolkit ...
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This study, based on a 2017 survey of 79 organizations engaged in digital rights advocacy from around the world, seeks to provide clarity on how the community understands and utilizes research within current advocacy efforts and to identify the needs for future research and collaboration efforts. Through the survey, we asked organizations to consider their capacities for conducting research and using it within their campaigns, perceptions of current research being produced on internet policy issues, and thoughts on barriers to and opportunities for collaboration between research and advocacy organizations. The study seeks to address the following key questions: Which research methods do organizations use the most in internal research? What capacities for research exist within organizations and via existing collaborations with research institutions? What issue areas are perceived as the most researched and the least researched? What kinds of aggregated datasets would be most useful for organizations’ advocacy? Who are the perceived audiences for digital rights organizations’ research and advocacy? Click here for full study ...
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This ICNL study focuses on the ways in which the closing of space for civil society—especially restrictions on the registration, financing, and operations of civil society organizations (CSOs)—is affecting HIV response in the East African countries of Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya. In all three countries, the criminalization of key populations has been used to justify curtailment of the work of CSOs focused on HIV. CSOs that could energetically combat HIV among hard-to-find key populations are instead tied down by bureaucratic red tape, including the filing and re-filing of paperwork, negotiations with bank and government officials, and even court cases challenging their right to exist. While organizations confront these obstacles, all three countries continue to have difficulty identifying and reaching key populations with effective programs that address their health and HIV-related needs. This study also finds that laws related to CSO registration and operations fail to meet those countries’ obligations under regional and international human rights treaties. Laws in the three countries unduly restrict CSOs’ registration, financing, and operations while granting excessive discretion to regulatory bodies. The burdensome requirements and unpredictable nature of regulatory enforcement affects the degree to which organizations can plan and realize sustainable programs, build their internal capacity, ...
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South Asia is home to nearly a quarter of the world’s population and is a region of dynamic economic growth, yet it performs relatively poorly on health and nutrition indicators. As a potential route towards addressing this poor performance, a range of accountability initiatives has been implemented to improve service delivery in the health and nutrition sectors. This is a rich and vibrant field, with a great deal to offer in terms of best practice; but there is little work that focuses on South Asian innovation and practice generally, and takes a comparative and theoretical perspective to ground existing and future accountability initiatives in health and nutrition specifically. This report fills this gap. It highlights a set of four key considerations for the design and analysis of such programmes: the need to understand community heterogeneity (rather than assuming homogeneity, as many interventions do) the role of community collective action and/or its role in coercion or ‘noisy protest’ in effecting change the ways in which cooperation, capacity and commitment affect the community and frontline provider relationship, and the ability and willingness to deliver to meet demands the ways in which clientelism and other such extant local political structures form the backdrop ...
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This background report was produced in preparation for the 2016 Learning Route in Rwanda. The Learning Route programme’s main objectives are: to build stronger, aligned civil society alliances that work for improved nutrition at all levels of society. The report is primarily intended as a briefing for those participating in the learning exchange, though it will also be of value to those interested in civil society efforts to end malnutrition in Rwanda. This background report provides basic information on poverty and malnutrition in Rwanda and the process of scaling-up nutrition. It also features five case studies that exemplify the work done by civil society in the following thematic areas: • advocacy, social campaigning and mobilisation • multi-stakeholder coordination • communication for behavioural change • integrated approaches to fight malnutrition The report was developed following a participatory mapping process involving civil society organisations in Rwanda and a survey of 11 Anglophone Africa. This process identified the priority thematic areas and the best practice examples that are most likely to stimulate country-country learning. Each case study briefly describes the experience, main outcomes and lessons learned by the civil society organisation leading the initiative. The case studies were developed with the participation of the ...
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The Philippines has a long history of state–society engagement to introduce reforms in government and politics. Forces from civil society and social movements have interfaced with reform-oriented leaders in government on a range of social accountability initiatives – to make governance more responsive, to introduce policy reforms, and to make government more accountable. Several theoretical propositions on which strategic approaches work best for social accountability initiatives have been put forward – including the idea of vertically integrated civil society monitoring and advocacy. This multi-authored research report uses vertical integration as a framework for examining seven successful civil society social accountability initiatives in the Philippines, looking at what made them successful, and how the gains they realised can be deepened and sustained. Click here for full details and report ...
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Over the last decade, policy advocacy has made critical contributions towards the development of nutrition policies, laws and strategies in many countries with high burdens of malnutrition. Translating and safeguarding these policy achievements into results on the ground requires nutrition advocacy to be pursued across administrative levels and throughout the policy cycle. However, this briefing argues, such multi-level advocacy (MLA) is often limited and poorly documented. In order to strengthen and support MLA for nutrition, the challenges and opportunities must be understood ...
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In recent years, there has been a proliferation of new terms in relation to malaria in scientific literature, technical reports and the media. Concurrently a number of terms with new or modified use and meaning have been introduced. These changes stem from renewed global interest in malaria elimination and eradication, increased access to scientific and technical information and faster translation of research findings into evidence-based policies. This updated glossary for malaria aims to improve communication and mutual understanding within the scientific community, as well as with funding agencies, public health officials responsible for malaria programmes, and policy-makers in malaria-endemic countries. Click here for the full glossary ...
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Effective advocacy proposes specific, actionable solutions and is strategic, targeted, well designed and firmly supported by reliable, relevant, recent data. The Family Planning Advocacy Toolkit provides advocates at all levels, including international, national, and community leaders, with the information and tools they need to make the case for improved access to voluntary family planning. The Toolkit contains a carefully selected collection of state-of-the-art resources for effective family planning advocacy ...
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Le présent manuel a été conçu pour fournir aux stations de radio locales africaines des connaissances, des outils et des compétences qui leur permettent de faire participer des jeunes à la production d’émissions. Son objectif est de renforcer les compétences des jeunes en matière de reportage et de production radiophoniques, avec leur participation active. Il fournit également des astuces pour développer des espaces créatifs où les enfants et les adolescents peuvent travailler de façon inventive ...
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UNESCO’s radio toolkit – Linking Generations through Radio – is an open access document, which is inspired by children and youth who make up one-third of the world’s population. The majority may listen to radio but the likelihood they are invited to regularly produce interviews and programmes, express their information needs or their opinions about productions made for them is very low. The 62-page radio toolkit provides inclusive examples to allow free exchange of ideas between girls and boys and increase awareness of radio producers and managers about ethical and legal requirements particularly when working with minors. It may serve as a routine training or programming handbook in radio stations, a reference and resource for young people, and an advocacy tool to inform policy makers as well as the general public ...
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