Advocacy in Action - International AIDS Society

3. Who is this toolkit for?
This toolkit is for people and organisations that support NGOs and CBOs responding to
HIV/AIDS in developing countries. These include NGO support programmes, training
institutions and individual trainers. The toolkit can also be used by NGOs and CBOs
themselves to build skills within their own organisations and implement advocacy work.
It is important that people using this toolkit already have some basic facilitation skills, for example
in guiding large group discussions and small group activities. It is also helpful if they have some
previous experience of advocacy work around HIV/AIDS, although this is not essential.
4. How can this toolkit be used?
This toolkit is designed to be flexible so that facilitators can tailor the work schedule to meet
the needs of different NGOs/CBOs. For example, some groups may want to do most of the
activities during one training workshop, while others may want to use a selection of activities
over a period of time, or to focus on one or two activities to meet a specific, urgent need. To
provide this choice, Sections 1, 3 and 4 of the kit are designed for ‘pick and mix’ – meaning
that the activities can be used in any order or combination. However, it should be noted that
Section 2 – which takes participants through a planning framework for advocacy work – is a
series of linked activities that needs to be followed in order and as a whole.
Introduction to the toolkit
For most of the toolkit, facilitators can use the activities with either one individual NGO/CBO
or a group of NGOs/CBOs.
For Section 3, it may be more valuable for participants to work with colleagues from their own
organisation. This is because this section addresses the relationship between HIV/AIDS-related
advocacy work and the organisation carrying out the work.
This toolkit can be used with NGOs/CBOs with different levels of experience in advocacy.
However, in the Alliance’s experience, NGOs and CBOs have found it beneficial to use the
Alliance’s toolkit on building partnerships – Pathways to Partnerships – before moving on to
this toolkit. Many of the skills from the Pathways to Partnerships toolkit are also useful for
advocacy, particularly at the local level. A second Alliance toolkit, Documenting and
Communicating HIV/AIDS Work, is also mentioned throughout this toolkit and has useful,
complementary activities and information to support advocacy work. Both toolkits and other
Alliance resources can be requested from the Alliance free of charge – for contact details, see
the back cover of this toolkit.
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