Evidence-Based Advocacy - United Nations Girls' Education Initiative

What makes a good advocacy opportunity? Be selective, concentrate your efforts where:
The timing is right in the decision-making process – and you can influence decisions;
Decision-makers have a vested interest in the outcome;
There are chances to network and meet influential people;
There are opportunities for media attention to alert the public;
There’s an opportunity for children to both sexes to present their views; and
The agenda is not too crowded.
Just as contextual analysis is key to the crafting of messages, it is key to dissemination as well. Some important
questions to identify include:
Who is the target audience for your evidence-based message? Policymakers? The “public”? If yes to
either of these questions, which policymakers? Who are “the public”?
Who are you trying to influence?
Who are their main constituencies?
Which groups do you need to reach?
Based on your target audiences, you can then use or create platforms such as:
Conferences;
Symbolic actions – demonstrations;
Mass communications – posters, TV;
Letter-writing ;
Podcasts; and
Web-based discussions.
If your advocacy is directed at implementing policy, prior to engaging in dissemination efforts, it is important to
analyse budgets and staffing, the political context: leadership, resources, corruption levels, imbalances in
allocating resources, nodal ministerial structures, identification of key and sympathetic players in relevant
ministries, evidence on benefits of gender responsiveness in key ministerial agendas.
Mobilising support from policymakers
If the target audience includes policymakers, after contextual analysis is complete, mobilisation of support from key
personnel in relevant ministries and government departments begins. Evidence for gender indicators directly
impacting relevant agendas should be emphasized in the dissemination strategy. Mobilisation of legislators and
other key players also plays a very important role. Testimonies from stakeholders in public meetings where key
legislators are present and/or invited, “real-life” stories and verbal accounts from affected parties, visual and
auditory materials such as podcasts etc can all serve to influence legislators. Another critical strategy in mobilising
such support is identifying and utilizing some key advocates or “champions with high ability to garner support on an
issue. In all these efforts, using evidence from one initiative may also help in advancing the issue in another
developmental period, or in a related area of education.
For example, if gender budgeting has been shown to have had an impact on survival
rates in primary education, this evidence can be used as a convincing backdrop for
advocacy for gender budgeting in ECCD programs as well. In this scenario, using the
most powerful data along with testimonies from stakeholders may have a more
powerful impact on legislators.
East Asia and Pacific Regional UNGEI: Evidence-based advocacy for gender in education, a learning guide 43