intelligent measurement

10 elements of success for advocacy

July 14, 2015 at 11:28 am 1 comment

The US-based Media Impact Funders have produced a ten point list on elements of success for policy change (what I’ve labeled “advocacy”), as reproduced below in this post.

Although it is looking from a US perspective of influence on policy through advocacy, what struck me was that many of the points are relevant to advocacy done globally or in other countries/regions.  For example:

Point 1: Solutions – when evaluating advocacy initiatives and talking with policy-makers, a common complaint I have heard is that advocacy is not “solution focused”, i.e. it makes valid points about the given issues (that often policy-makers are also aware of) but don’t necessarily put forward possible solutions to these issues.

Point 3: Agility – the ability to be flexible is so important – to take advantage of opportunities that arise, that were not necessarily included in the original advocacy plan. That I saw recently in an evaluation I carried out for Oxfam on global development policy – where they had enough flexibility to move resources as the issues peaked and new opportunities emerged.

Point 5: Humanity – often advocacy focuses on the “facts” but what can also make an impact is the “human factor”. One effective example of this was in the creation of the Arms Trade Treaty where state representatives drafting the treaty were directly confronted by survivors of armed violence; certainly bringing a human face to the dry legalistic treaty process and language.

Entry filed under: Advocacy evaluation, Campaign evaluation. Tags: advocacy evaluation, arms trade, att, mediafunders, oxfam.