Campaigns to End Violence against Women and Girls - Virtual ...

providers with their contact details, and update and distribute them regularly among
campaigners. Care needs to be taken not to divulge addresses of women’s shelters that
keep their addresses secret for security reasons; only their public telephone numbers or
e-mail addresses should be listed.
Lawmakers, government officials and judges are common targets in advocacy
campaigns, as they are mandated to promote and protect citizens’ rights. For example,
they can pass laws criminalizing violence against women and girls (VAW), set guidelines
for public services dealing with VAW (e.g. police, hospitals, courts), train and monitor
public service staff on VAW prevention and response, allocate State funding to
organizations working on VAW, or run nationwide campaigns to end VAW. Advocacy
campaigns are a compelling way to hold duty-bearers accountable of their responsibility
to respect, protect and fulfill women’s human rights. Unlike lobbying, which tends to take
place behind closed doors, campaigning brings an issue into the public spotlight.
Many governments can do more to fulfill their international engagements and ensure
holistic multi-sector policies, but may choose not to devote resources to ending VAW
unless effective campaigns demonstrate that there is strong public support for change. A
summary of generic actions that can be demanded from governments is available in the
Programming Essentials section. Gender-responsive budgeting is another issue that
deserves attention as a way to secure resources to end VAW – more information about
this can also be found in Programming Essentials.
IDENTIFYING TARGET AUDIENCES
Primary targets are those who have the power to effect the changes the campaign calls
for. They need to be influenced in order to reach the campaign goal. In campaigns of
limited scope, the target could be just one decision-maker. In most cases, however,
there are likely to be more targets; in campaigns aiming at behaviour change, for
example, targets could number in the thousands.
If the primary target cannot be reached directly, or if communicating with the primary
target alone is not sufficient to bring about change, people with influence on the primary
target need to be mobilized, i.e. the secondary target audience. Local leaders and
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Campaigns December 2011