Advocacy Accelerator Advocacy Accelerator

This webinar was for advocates who really want to delve deep into what is distinct about advocacy that makes it so interesting and difficult to measure.

The panellists- Jim Coe and Rhonda Schlangen led a discussion that sought to gain an understanding of how to advance advocacy in a complex and dynamic system whilst distilling authentic effects and outcomes that you can truthfully claim. It was moderated by Wanjiku Kamau, a seasoned campaigner and advocacy specialist.

The objectives of this webinar were:


To engage advocates in a stimulating discussion on the oddities and peculiarities of monitoring advocacy as covered in Jim and Rhonda's recently published paper- “No Royal Road: Finding and Following Natural Pathways in Advocacy Evaluation” 
To share experiences on how to best to track and measure advocacy with all its unpredictable pathways and the perpetual uncertainty of results.
To discuss the inherent characteristics of advocacy that make it resistant to control, predictability and certainty.
To propose new ways to reorient advocacy M&E practices in a way that makes it more useful, credible and reliable to all advocacy stakeholder.

The webinar provided a platform for panellists to discuss the novel ideas in their paper and explore the metrics and solutions used by advocates to date. They shared new ways and yardsticks that may be more credible and ultimately more useful to all stakeholders in the advocacy ecosystem. 

Enjoy the discussion!

 The way in which the media perceives issues determines how they frame and present them to the general public. In particular, framing issues that inform policy makers of an agenda, communicates that it is an issue affecting the general public and calls for some urgency in acting on them.
In recognising the potential of the media in shaping agendas, anyone engaged in advocacy work must be consistent in coming up with creative ways to pitch their issues to the media. This requires an in-depth knowledge of the media environment, editorial policies and news values.
Within the Voice Linking and Learning project for Kenya and Tanzania, the several Partner organisations involved have requested in previous events, for their capacity to be built in the following areas:


• Increasing the visibility of their beneficiaries in the media and development space
• Influencing behavioural change, policy and practice through communication
• Preparation of success stories to be shared with the media
• Do’s and don’ts when engaging with media
• Media communication skills/ packaging a message for media
• Developing a communication strategy
 

It is for this reason that the Voice consortium planned this webinar to serve as a platform for cross pollination of knowledge on best practices on working with the media to increase the visibility of Partner organisations’ advocacy work, in particular the do’s and don’t’s, media strategy development for the impact of advocacy. This webinar also provides a platform for Partner organisations that have effectively worked with the media to share their success stories with their peers. 

This is the second of our three-part webinar series on youth advocacy. 

The discussion is held by seasoned advocates from across Africa. The panellists tackle important questions on the topic such as:


Are we really interested and invested in innovative approaches used by youth advocates? 
Where is the proof of this interest and investment? 

Enjoy listening and share the podcast with your networks.

In this episode of our 3-part webinar series, the panellists discuss what impact pan-Africanism has had on youth advocates across Africa, as well as its importance in youth advocacy. There is also an engaging discussion on the role of language and trade within Africa, in pan-Africanism.

The session is being moderated by Catherine Rodgers, the Hub Director at Restless Development Uganda. The three panellists are Varyanne Sika from Kenya, Levi Sigh from South Africa and Christina Chilimba from Malawi. Varyanne describes herself as a feminist researcher, writer and editor. She is the founder of The Wide Margin digital journal. Levi Sigh is a  Youth Strategy Officer at SRHR Africa Trust and Christina Chillimba is  a youth advocate - RMNCAH at the Graca Machel Trust in Malawi.

Enjoy listening!