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Session Title: Using Advocacy Evaluation and Learning Processes in Countries With Limited Political Space to Understand Actors, Identify Openings, and Achieve Policy Advances
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Panel Session 342 to be held in San Clemente on Thursday, Nov 3, 11:40 AM to 12:25 PM
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Sponsored by the Advocacy and Policy Change TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Laura Roper, Brandeis University, l.roper@rcn.com
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| Discussant(s):
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| Sono Aibe, Pathfinder International, saibe@pathfinder.org
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| Abstract:
This session takes several advocacy case examples - a family planning campaign in Tanzania, a nascent disability movement in Vietnam, and a gender-based violence prevention campaign in El Salvador - where civil society actors have to navigate complex political dynamics, not only with an array of formal and informal power structures, but also amongst both domestic and international non-governmental actors. In each case we discuss the role that evaluation and learning has played and, from there, address more broadly the ways in which advocacy planning, monitoring and evaluation tools need to be refined to be more useful in political settings that range from limited democracy to more authoritarian systems
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Using Developmental Evaluation for Better Coalition Advocacy on Disability and Reproductive Health Issues
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| David Devlin-Foltz, Aspen Institute, david.devlin-foltz@aspen.org
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The Aspen Institute's Advocacy Planning and Evaluation Project (APEP) works with foundation and NGO clients to identify effective advocacy strategies in a wide range of contexts. In East Africa, our partnership with the Hewlett Foundation's "Money Well Spent" grantees includes support for coalitional work in contexts where relationships between international and local NGOs pose particular challenges for assessing the contribution of various parties. In Vietnam, a nascent disability rights movement is trying to create greater space for movement while addressing the challenging legacy of Agent Orange use by the US military during the war. This purely local movement is also working through its relationship with international NGOs and funders. This presentation will draw on these examples, together with other APEP projects on reproductive health - all in their relatively early stages - to discuss how a developmental evaluation approach can contribute to coalitional advocacy.
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Policy Success in the Campaign to Prevent Gender-based Violence in El Salvador - The Contribution of Formal and Informal Evaluation and Learning Practice
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| Laura Roper, Brandeis University, l.roper@rcn.com
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In 2005 Oxfam-America and several counterpart organizations launched The Campaign to Prevent Gender-based Violence in an adverse political context, characterized by conservative dominance, political polarization, and seemingly uncontrollable criminal violence, including violence against women. It has employed a strategic mix of popular awareness-raising, targeted outreach to policy-makers in both major parties, engagement with government authorities in key municipalities, and results-focused capacity building targeted at key stakeholder groups (e.g. judicial authorities, education officials, parliamentarians). This presentation talks about the how the campaign developed its own form of developmental evaluation and employed an array of formal and informal learning practices that led to notable political successes including incorporation of a GBV prevention curriculum at the Ministry of Education and the passage of the Law for a Life Free from Violence for Women.
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