The Soul Beat 197 - Advocacy and Social Change
In this issue of The Soul Beat:
- HIV/AIDS ADVOCACY for children with HIV/AIDS and religious leaders ...
- FAMILY PLANNING advocacy initiative using youth advocates and RH champions...
- Soul Beat Africa themesites...
- TOOLS & RESOURCES on using maps and video for advocacy campaigns...
- Advocacy TRAINING opportunities...
Advocacy is defined as a political process by an individual or a large group which normally aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions. This issue of The Soul Beat looks at the use of communication in advocacy, focusing on mainly HIV/AIDS and family planning. It also includes a range of guides and tools used for a variety of development objectives related to human rights, child participation, and malaria.
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1. Investing in Community Advocacy for HIV Prevention: Showing Results
By Sarah Middleton-Lee
This report, published in December 2010 by the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), summarises the existing and emerging results, lessons, and recommendations of the 5-year Prevention Treatment Advocacy Project (PTAP) in 10 countries. It seeks to demonstrate the value added and impact of investing in community sector advocacy on HIV. Implemented from 2005-2009 in 10 countries, PTAP aimed to contribute to a policy and programming shift by building the knowledge and capacity of communities (in effective advocacy, networking, and communication) and, in turn, mobilising a broad-based community movement for HIV prevention.
2. Accelerating National-Level Action to End Paediatric HIV/AIDS: An Advocacy Toolkit
By Georgina Bukenya, Subarna Mathes and Susana Oguntoye
Published by the Children Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) in July 2010, this advocacy toolkit is a step-by-by step guide to planning advocacy campaigns based on the experiences of the Campaign to End Paediatric AIDS (CEPA). CEPA is an advocacy campaign that was initially launched in 2009 in Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, with the goal of scaling up prevention, treatment, and care of paediatric HIV/AIDS. According to CEPA, successful advocacy campaigns are based on a carefully designed workplan that lays out clear and focused goals, activities, timelines, roles and responsibilities of relevant actors, and steps for monitoring and learning from progress and impact, which in turn set the direction for ongoing advocacy.
3. HIV and AIDS Advocacy & Media Relations: Handbook and Training Manual for Religious Leaders
By James Cairns, Jane Gaithuma, and Andrea Louie (eds.)
Published by Religions for Peace in 2006, this training manual and handbook were produced to be used together to strengthen the advocacy and media relations skills of religious leaders at both national and community levels. According to the publication, the manual and handbook are designed to expand religious leaders' advocacy efforts on behalf of children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, with the goal of bringing greater priority to their needs and expanding the response. The training manual is designed to guide trainers in conducting both Training of Trainers (TOT) workshops as well as workshops for religious leaders on HIV and AIDS advocacy and media relations.
4. A Call to Act: Engaging Religious Leaders and Communities on Addressing Gender-Based Violence and HIV
By Britt Herstad
This advocacy guide was conceived and developed as the result of a focus on building the capacity of religious leaders, including women of faith, to address gender-based violence (GBV) in their communities, particularly in relation to HIV. The guide can be used by religious leaders, communities, and institutions to learn about GBV and HIV, why they should address the issues, and how they can address them through specific activities and approaches. The guide discusses the issues of GBV and how it is related to HIV. It covers advocacy and mobilisation strategies including what religious communities and leaders can do.
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ADVOCATING FOR FAMILY PLANNING
5. Expanding Reproductive Rights Knowledge and Advocacy with HIV-positive Women and their Allies in Namibia - An Action-Oriented Initiative
By Maria de Bruyn and Jennifer Gatsi Mallet
This report, published by Ipas in January 2011, looks at a Namibian project that was designed to increase awareness about gender and reproductive rights among members of the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW) and youth in order for them to advocate on these issues, particularly with regard to unwanted pregnancies, emergency contraception, and access to legalised abortion, within communities and nationally. The report outlines Namibia's sexual and reproductive health context and then details the impact of trainings on youth and women living with HIV before describing lessons learned. The report concludes with final observations that seek to support the use of varied communication tools in capacitating women and youth to advocate on gender and reproductive health.
6. Get It Together Radio Drama - Nigeria
In February 2012 the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) launched three 26-episode radio drama magazine programmes in Nigeria to encourage wider acceptance of family planning and to inform Nigerians of the benefits of modern family planning/child spacing. Titled Komin Nisan Jifa (Hausa programme), Ireti Eda (Yoruba programme), and Second Chance (Pidgin programme), the series combine entertainment and education to foster dialogue around family planning in three cities. The dramas were produced by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHU-CCP). In each project city the Youth Urban Mobilization plan utilises advocacy champions, local peer educators, trade unions, and faith-based institutions to organise community and electronic media activities
7. Genext: Small Families' Advocacy Campaign - Uganda
Launched in 2010, Genext is a nationwide participatory youth campaign in Uganda that is advocating for smaller family sizes. Implemented by the Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG), the project brings together youth aged 18 to 30 years as "Good Life" Ambassadors, who are rallying for a smaller population by 2013. In addition to advocacy with community leaders and through the media, the campaign uses online social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to promote smaller families. The campaign links into the ongoing "Good Life" initiative, which encourages people to view health choices as a part of what can help create the good life they are seeking.
Soul Beat Africa theme sites are topic focused sub-sites within the overall Soul Beat Africa website (see top navigation bar). These include:
Democracy and Governance Themesite
8. Video Advocacy Planning Toolkit
This toolkit, published by WITNESS in October 2011, was created to help human rights defenders and social change activists evaluate whether video is right for their campaign and, if it is, to plan and create an advocacy video. It incorporates the best practices and lessons learned by the United States (US)-based WITNESS on strategic advocacy, storytelling, videomaking, and distribution that this organisation has developed through partnering with over 250 groups in 80 countries and its partners over the past 20 years. Users of the toolkit are also guided through a series of questions that will help them develop a strategy for their advocacy video, which they can then save and share with allies.
9. I Can Change It! Advocacy Guide for Young Campaigners
This guide for young campaigners against malaria, published by Stop Malaria Now in 2010, is aimed at young activists and teachers who want to play a role in the fight against malaria. This illustrated advocacy guide gives simple explanations for terms such as 'advocacy', explains the Millennium Development Goals, and outlines facts, figures, and statistics about malaria. It also includes many practical tips and suggestions for anti-malaria campaigns. It explains the various kinds of advocacy work that ordinary people can do around malaria, such as letters to legislators, editorials to newspapers, and awareness raising events. It also explains why advocacy has to be carefully planned.
10. Maps for Advocacy
By Sean O’Connor
Recognising the power of maps, the Tactical Technology Collective has published this guide which is an introduction to Geographical Mapping Techniques. The purpose of the guide is to enable advocacy groups to explore how maps can be used effectively for advocacy. The guide reviews different tools and mapping techniques, explores certain types of data, considers the ways different data can be used, offers some diverse case studies to illustrate how maps have been used for advocacy, and provides a glossary that explains terminology related to mapping.
11. Tracking Progress in Advocacy: Why and How to Monitor and Evaluate Advocacy Projects and Programmes
By Maureen O’Flynn
This paper published in 2009, introduces the scope of, and rational 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, what’s involved, and who should be engaged in the process. This paper defines advocacy as: "...the strategic use of information to influence the policies and actions of those in positions of power or authority to achieve positive changes in people's lives.....Advocacy should be based on the experience and knowledge of the families and communities it aims to support. It should be empowering for those individuals and communities."
12. Putting Children at the Centre: A Practical Guide to Children's Participation
By Hannah Mehta
This document, published by Save the Children UK (United Kingdom) in November 2010, is a guide for Save the Children staff and others to develop and support children's meaningful involvement in the governance, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of their work. The guide is organised into two main parts, the first being an introduction to children's participation in practice, and the second being a set of guidelines focussing on specific themes, including governance, advocacy, media and communications, and emergency situations. The introduction to children's participation section of this document includes a discussion on the planning, facilitating, and evaluation of participatory sessions or activities with children and young people.
13. Developing Advocacy Strategies for Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV & AIDS (Jun 11-15 2012) Nairobi, Kenya
Organised by Centre for African Family Studies (CAFS), this course seeks to provide hands-on experience in designing, developing, and setting indicators for monitoring and evaluating an advocacy campaign and strategy designed to influence policy change.
14. Policy Analysis and Advocacy Course 2012 (Aug 27-Sep 7 2012) Arusha, Tanzania
According to the organisers of this workshop, MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation (MS-TCDC), by the end of the course, participants will have acquired skills that will enable them to influence public policies effectively, and to design and implement advocacy strategies and campaigns. The training course will cover: advocacy concepts and issues; public policy and civic engagement; rights-based approach to development; advocacy tools; research, lobbying communication, coalition building, and monitoring; developing an advocacy strategy; using media in advocacy and campaigning; evaluation of advocacy strategies; and capacity building for advocacy.
15. Basic Advocacy Skills (Oct 8-12 2012) Nairobi, Kenya
Organised by African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), this 5-day course is meant to empower participants with advocacy and lobbying skills in order to advocate for health and health related issues. The course includes: Meaning of lobbying and advocacy and how to identify advocacy issues; identifying advocates for a particular issue; use of media in advocacy and lobbying; how to reach and lobby the policy makers; building consensus and dealing with divergent views; and fundraising for advocacy.
MORE INFORMATION ON ADVOCACY
See this archived edition of The Soul Beat:
The Soul Beat 160 - Advocacy in Africa
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