The Drum Beat 571 - Advocacy for Development
This issue includes:
- Selected summaries on SOCIAL JUSTICE advocacy.
- PREVIOUS DRUM BEATS with a focus on advocacy.
- New climate change communication BLOG from Ricardo Ramirez.
- VOTE in a poll on effective representation of marginalised groups.
- A focus on the use of TECHNOLOGY for advocacy.
- PREVIOUS SOUL BEATS with a focus on advocacy in Africa.
- Promote your publications through DEVELOPMENT CLASSIFIEDS.
- Perspectives on the EVALUATION of advocacy campaigns.
SOCIAL JUSTICE ADVOCACY
1. Guns and Roses: Advocacy in an Emerging Democracy
by Marian Nell and Janet Shapiro
Published by Atlantic Philanthropies in March 2010, this report is an attempt to distil learning from two advocacy campaigns that provide insights into doing advocacy in South Africa. According to the report, using advocacy as a non-violent strategy to bring about social change is an integral part of a constitutional democracy.
by Catherine Hine
This 2008 article describes experiences in evidence-based advocacy in order to demonstrate how policy change can be catalysed when the voices of people living in poverty are prioritised.
3. Effective Policy Advocacy: An RNRRS Synthesis
Written in 2005 for the Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom, this is a synthesis of how to advocate for policy changes within research for development programmes so that outputs of research will be taken up throughout the policy recommendation domain. The document includes 3 case studies from DFID research projects.
4. Civil Society and Advocacy Manual (Advocacy Expert Series)
This manual, developed by Pact Tanzania's Tanzania Advocacy Partnership Programme (TAPP), outlines ways in which civil society and individual citizens can be involved in political processes and ways for them to work in partnership with government to create policies and laws. It also looks at the role of advocates in the political process and outlines steps that can be taken to initiate an advocacy campaign.
5. Advocacy and Lobbying Manual
Published in 2006 by the Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities, this manual was developed for use in their advocacy and lobbying workshops and includes a step-by-step plan for engaging in advocacy work in any field.
6. Media Guide (Advocacy Expert Series)
Designed for civil society organisations involved in advocacy work, this TAPP guide aims to build practical skills to more effectively engage with reporters, journalists, and broadcasters. It looks at the different roles of the media, describes the benefits of working with the media, provides some basic skills on using the media, and shows how different organisations can link with the media to share information with the public.
PREVIOUS DRUM BEATS RELATED TO ADVOCACY:
The Drum Beat 515 - Internet Human Rights Activism
The Drum Beat 477 - Workers' Rights
The Drum Beat 298 - Human Rights Advocacy and Activism in the United States
From Ricardo Ramirez, "Climate change communication - time for the stage?" explores the challenges of changing behaviour through climate change communication, with a look at audiences, incentives and influences ("drivers"), and the use of narratives, scenarios, and theatre as planning and action tools.
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POLL on Effective Representation:
Which of the following is most important for effective representation of the interests of marginalised groups?
- media representation and coverage to create public awareness.
- group organisation for self-advocacy.
- representation and advocacy support through NGOs.
- government representation through assigned intermediaries.
VOTE and COMMENT click here.
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Results as of December 10th:
45%: group organisation for self-advocacy.
36%: media representation and coverage to create public awareness.
13%: representation and advocacy support through NGOs.
5%: government representation through assigned intermediaries.
A few select comments:
"People organised to raise issues that matter to them, with adequate training to use information and facts to the service providers is the way to go"
"Working with existing relevant NGOs can be both effective and efficient to get desired outcomes, but often is not entirely sufficient and we'd recommend an integrated approach working at different levels including self-advocacy."
"voices of any groups that are marginalised need to reach wider audience, and the massmedia is the only platform which is very cost effective and dependable interface between those groups and all others- the govt., the people, and the members of the groups concerned across any geographical boundaries."
"I chose the second option [group organisation for self-advocacy] for the following reasons: 1. Awareness of marginalisation could be percieved as objectification of marginalised peope and does little to transform the marginalised. 2. NGO advocacy and support could perpetuate helplessness and dependency. 3. Government representation through assigned intermediaries may also fail to build the capacity of the marginalised to take action."
ADVOCACY AND TECHNOLOGY
7. Prospects for e-Advocacy in the Global South: A Res Publica Report for the Gates Foundation
by Ricken Patel and Mary Joyce
Published in 2007, this report promotes e-advocacy: "the strategic use of ICT by individuals or movements to press for policy change." It provides a primer in the methods and applications of e-advocacy and surveys the current applications, constraints, and opportunities in the global south.
8. The Challenges of Mobile Advocacy
by Katrin Verclas
While mobile phones provide a new platform for advocacy, they also present specific privacy-, technology-, and audience-related challenges. This 2009 article, provided by MobileActive and adapted from Tactical Tech's Mobiles-in-a-Box Toolkit, discusses those challenges and suggests solutions for strategic mobile advocacy planning.
9. Quick 'n Easy Guide to Online Advocacy
This Tactical Technology Collective guide presents advocates with a collection of online services that can be used for advocacy. These services are offered at low- to no-cost and can be accessed and used by those without extensive technical knowledge. Most, however, require a broadband connection and are not recommended for dial-up connections.
ALSO SEE:
Advocacy and Interventions: Readings in Communication and Development
PREVIOUS SOUL BEATS RELATED TO ADVOCACY (focus on Africa):
The Soul Beat 160 - Advocacy in Africa
The Soul Beat 82 - Advocacy for Social Change
Advertise Your Publications through The CI
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EVALUATING ADVOCACY
10. What's Different About Evaluating Advocacy and Policy Change?
by Julia Coffman
This 2007 article cites four recommendations for advocacy and policy evaluators, which reflect how advocacy work differs from programming and direct services, suggesting that adjustments in reporting may be necessary in order for evaluations to be relevant and useful within the advocacy and policy context.
by Maureen O'Flynn
This January 2009 paper introduces the scope of, and rationale for, engaging in advocacy work as part of development interventions. It then focuses on the issue of monitoring and evaluating these efforts - offering reasons why and when these processes should be planned and implemented, describing what is involved (including challenges and opportunities), and detailing who should be engaged in the process.
12. A User's Guide to Advocacy Evaluation Planning
This tool, developed in 2009 by the Harvard Family Research Project, takes the reader through four basic steps that generate the core elements of an advocacy evaluation plan, including what will be measured and how.
13. Pathfinder: A Practical Guide to Advocacy Evaluation
This 2009 guide from Innovation Network is intended as an introduction to advocacy evaluation from an evaluator's perspective. It is written to give a sense of what is involved in the process and how this kind of evaluation differs from programme evaluations. The approach is learning-focused advocacy evaluation, which is structured to result in an evaluation design that yields the type of information funders and advocates need to understand their progress.
14. Evaluating Social Justice Advocacy: A Values Based Approach
by Barbara Klugman
From the Center for Evaluation Innovation in August 2010, this brief offers ideas on how to incorporate the concept of social justice and its underlying values into advocacy evaluation. It points to ways in which social justice values should influence what evaluators examine in terms of advocacy goals, theories of change, outcomes, and strategies. It also considers how the evaluation process itself can promote social justice values.
This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Deborah Heimann.
The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to drumbeat@comminit.com
The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
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