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

Mapping opportunities helps to determine whether it is worthwhile to start a
campaign, and what is an effective timing. The existence of a national or
international campaign on your issue may offer the opportunity to simply join the
campaign and/or tailor it to your community’s needs.
- Threats are external factors, i.e. factors beyond your direct control, that may have a
negative impact on your campaign and the likeliness it achieves its goal and
objectives, for example security issues, a change in government, a hostile social
environment, or national crises.
In order for this exercise to provide useful information, strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats should be phrased as concretely as possible. Avoid abstract
concepts such as ‘unstable political climate’ – specify, in this example, what aspects of
politics are unstable and how each aspect may affect your campaign goal and
objectives.
POLICY ANALYSIS
Policy analysis reveals the gaps and problems in existing policies in the broader sense –
i.e. including legislation – that need to be addressed in order to end violence against
women and girls. It should be one of the first steps in any campaign for
policy/institutional change, as institutional rules and practice are to a large extent
determined by relevant policies.
Practical guidance – In policy analysis, examine the following questions:
- What is the issue the campaign addresses? State and define it.
- Why is the issue important? (Scope and severity of the problem, other aspects that
make the issue important from a public policy perspective, e.g. public health, rule of
law, etc.)
- What areas of policy are relevant to the issue?
- Who are the main stakeholders?
- What is the current knowledge of the issue? (I.e. review of existing research on the
issue – do not forget to provide all references for your sources)
- What is the existing policy on the issue and what are the main problems about
current policy? (I.e. current laws, rules, policies and their implementations)
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Campaigns December 2011