Identify & analyse

The first step in planning advocacy work is to identify the issues you wish to address. Within the WASH
sector, there are many issues of concern: poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water are responsible for
diarrhoeal diseases; absence of sanitation facilities at schools negatively affects education of girls; poor
sanitation degrades the environment. Targeting one or two issues for which to advocate will increase your
chances of making the changes you want to see.

Tip: "Advocacy will" checklist

If you are going to collaborate with others to advocate for an issue – which is quite powerful – everyone
will need to be knowledgeable about the issue on which to agree.

Tip: diffuse advocacy leads to wasted effort and little accomplished. Use the ‘advocacy will’ checklist
below to ensure your advocacy is focussed.

Effective advocacy issues will:

• result in real improvement in people’s lives

• give people a sense of their own power
• be widely and deeply felt
• build lasting organizations and alliances
• provide opportunities for women and others to learn about and be involved in politics
• develop new leaders
• promote awareness of, and respect for, rights
• have a clear target, time frame, and policy solution
• link local concerns with larger-scale, even global, issues
• provide potential for raising funds
• enable the organization to further its vision and mission
• be winnable.

Source: Veneklasen L & Miller V. A New Weave of Power, People and Politics: The Action Guide for
Advocacy and Citizen Participation. Oklahoma City, World Neighbors, 2002.

Tip: When initially analysing an advocacy issue, participatory exercises can help a team to understand
its complexity and distinguish the sub-issues that constitute it. Two useful tools are the Problem
Analysis Framework and the Problem Tree.

You may find that there is a lack of accurate facts and figures concerning the issue about which you wish
to advocate. If additional research is necessary, consider what information would be useful and where you
can find it. Who will contribute to your research? How will you collect the information and collate the
data? Systematically writing down the results of your searches will allow you to analyse the data, and draw
conclusions.
Problem analysis framework

Tip: when initially analysing an advocacy issue, participatory exercises can help a team to understand its
complexity and distinguish the sub-issues that constitute it. Two useful tools are the Problem Analysis
Framework and the Problem Tree.

The Problem Analysis Framework is a tool that divides an issue into its sub-issues. For each sub-issue, the
framework identifies consequences of the problem, its causes, and possible solutions. Causes may be
economic, social/cultural, technical or political, or a combination of these. Repeatedly asking the question
'Why?' helps to fully analyse the problem. Potential solutions may include changes in policy, practice,
laws, attitudes, and behaviour. The table below provides an example.
Issue: Insufficient access to sanitation in high density urban areas

Sub-issues Consequences Causes Solutions

Sub-issue 1:
Insufficient sanitation Slum dwellers must Public latrines are Providing innovative, easy-to-
facilities in urban slum defecate in the open insufficient, dirty, and maintain, safe and affordable
dangerous public latrines
Unhygienic environments
Limited space and lack of Retargeting city resources for
Slum dwellers, especially resources allocated to sanitation facilities to include
children, suffer from maintain and construct the urban slum
diseases related to poor latrines
sanitation Etc.
Funding for sanitation
Hours lost from work and facilities is inequitable and
school due to illness politically motivated

Etc. Etc.

Sub-issue 2:

Sub-issue 3:

Problem tree
The Problem Tree is a visual method of analyzing a particular problem. The tree maps the links between
the main issue and its resulting problems, as well as its root causes.

• Step 1: Imagine a large tree with its trunk, branches, leaves, primary and secondary roots.
• Step 2: Write the main problem/concern in the center of a large flip chart (trunk).
• Step 3: Add the causes of the main problem onto the chart below the main problem, with arrows leading
to the problem (primary roots).
• Step 4: For each of the causes, write the factors that lead to them, again using arrows to show how each
one contributes (secondary roots).
• Step 5: Draw arrows leading upwards from the main problem to the various effects/consequences of that
problem (branches).
• Step 6: For each of these effects, add any further effects/consequences (leaves).

The figure below provides an example.

Source: The Advocacy Sourcebook. London, WaterAid, 2007.

You can convert your problem tree into a solution tree to define your goals and objectives. Rephrase
each of the problems into positive desirable outcomes – as if the problem has already been treated.

• Step 1: Write your goal, a reversal of your particular problem, in the center of a large flip chart (trunk).
• Step 2: Write the benefits that will accrue if this goal is achieved (branches and leaves).
• Step 3: Write the steps or actions you need to take to achieve that goal (primary and secondary roots).
The figure below provides an example.

Source: The Advocacy Sourcebook. London, WaterAid, 2007.

Set Objectives: what are your specific advocacy objectives and how can you
make them SMART?

When the analysis stage is complete, you can list advocacy objectives of what you want to achieve and by
when. As for any project or programme, advocacy objectives should be SMART.

• Specific: what exactly do you want to happen?

• Measurable: will you know when you have achieved them?
• Achievable: is it possible to achieve them given your resources and time?
• Relevant: are they relevant and appropriate to all stakeholders, and to the problem itself?
• Time-bound: by when do you want them to happen?

Examples of some SMART advocacy objectives:

• To increase funding for sanitation provision in the five poorest districts by 50%, within 18 months;
• To convince the Ministry of Education to agree to adopt a national hygiene promotion programme, as
part of the curriculum for all primary and secondary school age children by start of school year xy; and
• To ensure that the national economic and development planning authority includes water supply and
sanitation coverage targets in the country's new five-year development plan.

Examples of some not-so-SMART advocacy objectives:

• To promote the improvement of sanitation services in poor communities;

• To promote separate toilet facilities for girls and boys in schools; and
• To reduce national incidences of preventable water- and sanitation-related diseases.

While these objectives are relevant and achievable, they are not specific, measurable nor time-bound.

Make a stakeholder analysis: how do you know who to target?

Stakeholders are individuals, communities, or organizations who are affected by the issue and have the
power to change it. They can include celebrities, scientists, and politicians. Finding the right person or
people to target requires careful study.

Below are examples of questions you could ask to educate yourself about stakeholders.

• Who are the people denied access to water supply and sanitation services?
• Who has the power to make decisions about who does, or does not, get access?
• Who stands to gain from these decisions and what influence do they have on the decision-maker?
• Who is responsible for shaping and deciding sector policy?
• Who and what influence the decision-maker?
• What interests do decision-makers have in giving or denying people access?
• What environments do decision-makers work in and what are the challenges and barriers they face
there?
• Who decides on levels of public finance for water supply and sanitation provision?
• How is finance allocated and distributed?
Finally, consider who you are addressing. Municipal authorities? Local or national politicians? Non-
governmental organizations (NGOs)? The corporate sector? International agencies? Your work likely will
involve stakeholders from more than one of these areas.

Identify all the actors you need to convince and influence in order to bring about change, and analyse
their positions. Some stakeholders are natural or potential allies; some are natural or potential opponents
and some are undecided; all, however, can be influenced.

The better you know and define stakeholders, the better you will be able to select the most appropriate
advocacy tools and approaches to reach and influence them.

Questions on stakeholders
Tip: apply the following questions to each of the stakeholders you identify:

• How important is the issue to your stakeholder (low, medium, high)?

• How much influence does you stakeholder have on the issue (low, medium, high)?
• What is the attitude of the stakeholder to your position (strongly against, against, neutral, for, strongly
for)?

Stakeholders who regard the issue as important, and who also have influence over it are likely to be your
key targets. Those who have most influence but for whom the issue is not important will require
convincing. Potential allies are the ones with the most influence and who are most in favour of your
position – and will likely need little convincing. Rather neutral but influential stakeholders could be your
priority audience at the earlier stages of your advocacy work.
Identify partners
In most cases, advocacy is a group enterprise. You can benefit from collaborating with those who are
committed and willing to devote time or other resources to achieving change on your chosen issues.
Working within partnerships or networks bolsters moral support, solidarity and is the first step towards
strengthening civil society and furthering the process of social change. It is also an opportunity to share
expertise, knowledge, lessons learnt and other resources. Groups speaking with one voice are more likely
to be heard and seriously considered.

Approach a wide range of partners with an outline of potential activities and events, and agree upon their
involvement and support. Discuss their participation by focusing on their interests and stressing that
supporting a good cause can increase their visibility in the community or country – potentially even
globally.

Develop messages
How can you be accurate and persuasive?

To develop clear messages, transform your data and information into persuasive statements that the
stakeholders you target can relate to and understand. Your messages should capture what you want to
achieve, why, and how. They should be simple, direct, compelling, concise, and consistent. They should
also contain accurate facts and figures; evidence-based advocacy is a key ingredient for success.

Your messages will and should vary depending on the audience you target. You can adapt the way you
present your messages to achieve the greatest impact on different audiences – but without changing the
overall position on the advocacy issue; this is called 'framing'. Find links between your issue and the
concerns of your targeted stakeholders to increase the likelihood of a positive response. If you cannot
reach decision-makers themselves, target those who do have access to them.

Develop clear messages

Tip: how to develop clear messages?

• Use the language of your target group.

• Avoid technical terms or jargon.
• Turn dry facts and statistics into easy-to-remember messages and lively stories.
• Apply the ABC: Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity.
• Create sound bites, slogans, or short claims.
• Combine rational and logical elements with emotional ones to appeal to people's heads and hearts.
• Consider cultural, social, and political circumstances.
• Make specific requests to spur action.

Select the tools: how can you best reach your targets?

Effective messaging relies on careful attention not only to the message itself, but also how and by whom it
is transmitted. Consider the most effective medium to carry your messages and the most effective
messengers to deliver them.
There are numerous communication tools that can be used for good advocacy work:

 Lobbying: lobbying is defined as attempting to directly influence decision-makers. It can be

either formal – through letter writing and scheduled meetings – or informal – at chance
meetings, through leaflets, or invitations to events. When lobbying stakeholders, be prepared:
clearly state what you want, know the views of the people to be lobbied, and how they could
benefit from helping you.
 Project visits: project visits can both demonstrate good practice and show the full extent of the
problem / issue in order to encourage government or other agencies to improve their
programmes or to convince sceptical decision-makers. When organizing field visits, invite
journalists to accompany you and give community members the opportunity to speak on their
own behalf.
 Petitions: collecting a large number of signatures (with names and addresses) on paper or
through a web site is a useful way to demonstrate to your advocacy targets that the public
supports your cause. Consider how to deliver the petition to achieve maximum impact, and secure
media coverage to broadcast the results.
 Posters, leaflets, newsletters: printed matter can be used to raise public awareness among
large numbers of people. Create eye-catching headings; include a simple presentation of the facts
relating to your advocacy issue, and a clear statement of what you want your audience to do about
it.
 Drama: drama provides the opportunity to present facts and issues in an entertaining, culturally
sensitive and accessible way. In many societies, drama is a form of communication through which
people can comfortably express their views. It is most effective at the local level; its reach is
limited compared to other tools.
 Engaging artists and celebrities: the powerful appeal of artists and celebrities can raise the
awareness of the general public, which in turn puts pressure on decision-makers. The challenge of
involving famous people to raise the profile of your issue is to maintain momentum. Plan events
to coincide with those of others, for maximum impact. Give extra care to selecting the celebrity, as
his or her public demeanour will affect your advocacy efforts.
 Working with the media – TV, radio, the press – and more: media play a significant role
in advocacy, through influencing decision-makers directly or through changing public opinion on
an issue. Radio, for example, may reach a wider audience than any other medium as it is
accessible to people who are otherwise isolated by language, geography, conflict, illiteracy, or
poverty. Also, research the media itself. Find ways to fit your issue into the news agenda. The
media tend to showcase information within stories about people. Do the same: provide up-to-date
facts within a story – people want to support a cause to which they can relate and a good story
provides that link.

Review the variety of options to find the tools with the biggest potential impact on your target groups.

Plan for activities: understand the time frame.

Careful analysis of current directions in policy can allow you to intervene in an early stage of policy
debate, if necessary. Advocacy planning should include a component of assessing the time frame
surrounding the selected issues. There are often events or opportunities, such as international
conferences, elections, and meetings around which the advocacy plan can be built.

Horizontal timeline
Tip: draw a horizontal timeline to chart the key events within your advocacy project: write the anticipated
end date of your advocacy project at the time scale's right hand and mark social or political events that are
likely to impact on your project through its lifetime. Now brainstorm possible advocacy activities, include
them on the timeline and tie them to planned outside events. Decide which activities should be prioritized
(i.e. which ones contribute best to the overall goals, are most realistic, affordable and fit in well with other
events).

Monitor & evaluate

Consider monitoring and evaluating your advocacy work. You need to have set clear objectives at the
outset, which will serve as yardsticks against which to measure success. During the planning phase, define
indicators for success for all objectives. If your objective is to improve the sanitation condition in a certain
area and time period, some indicators could be ‘announcement of government subsidy for latrine
construction costs’, ‘participation in latrine construction training days’ or ‘increase in the number of clean
toilets’.

Indicators should be drawn up for all aspects of the work: inputs (time, resources, staff); outputs
(meetings held, visits made, reports produced); outcomes, which are the results of your outputs (press
coverage of the issue, debates in parliament on the topic, changes in policy or practice); and impact of
your work (the effect of policy change on the lives of poor communities). Obviously, outcomes and
impacts are challenging to measure, but ultimately they are the most important when evaluating your
advocacy work.

Where possible you should measure quantitative as well as qualitative indicators. Inevitably, certain
progress towards advocacy objectives cannot be recorded statistically: the quality and tone of speeches
made by public figures, the networks established, drafts of new agreements and policies. In these cases,
you will need to describe the activity, and your analysis in a narrative way. Record whatever evidence is
available as systematically as possible.

Monitoring is a systematic and continuous assessment of the progress of something (e.g. an initiative)
over time, which enables adjustments to be made in a methodical way.

Evaluation is a periodic assessment of the relevance, performance, efficiency, and impact of

something (e.g. a project) with respect to its stated objectives. An evaluation is usually carried out at
some significant stage in the project's development (e.g. at the end of a planning period, as the project
moves to a new phase, or in response to a particular critical issue).

Self-assessment questionnaire
Tip: regularly conduct self-assessments to review the progress of your advocacy work and shift focus if
necessary. The following self-assessment questionnaire is designed for use every 6–12 months.
1. Advocacy objective
• Is the process of achieving your advocacy objective moving smoothly? If not, what are the obstacles
and how can they be overcome?
• What else can you do to achieve your objective? Would building new alliances or increasing media
outreach help?
• If your objective does not seem achievable, should you alter it? What would be achievable? Could you
achieve your objectives (or parts of them) by negotiating or compromising?
• How much does the policy / programme change reflect your objective? Did you achieve your objective
entirely, partly, or not at all?
• Can or should you try to achieve the rest of your objective during the next decision-making cycle? Or
should you move on to an entirely new advocacy objective? What are the advantages and disadvantages
for each decision?
• Did the policy / programme change make a difference to the problem you were addressing? If you
achieved your objective in whole or in part, has it had the impact you intended?

2. Message delivery / communications

• Did your message(s) reach the key audiences? If not, how can you better reach those audiences? Did
your audiences respond positively to your message(s)? Which messages worked? Why? Which did not
work and why? How can you alter the messages that were not effective?
• Which formats for delivery worked well? Which were not effective and why? How can these formats be
changed or improved?
• Did you receive any media or press coverage? Was it helpful to your effort? How could media relations
be improved?

3. Use of research and data

• How did using data and research enhance your effort?
• Were data presented clearly and persuasively? How could your presentation be improved?
• Did your advocacy effort raise new research questions? Are more data needed to support your
advocacy objective? If so, are the data available elsewhere or do you need to conduct the research?

4. Decision-making process
• How is the decision-making process more open because of your efforts?
• Will it be easier to reach and persuade decision-makers next time? Why, or why not?
• How many more people / organizations are involved in the decision-making process now than before
you began? How has this helped or hindered your efforts?
• How could you improve the way you facilitate the decision-making process?

5. Coalition building
• How was your coalition successful in drawing attention to the issue and building support for the
advocacy objective?
• Was information distributed to coalition members in a timely fashion? How could information
dissemination be improved?
• Are there any unresolved conflicts in the coalition? How can these be addressed and resolved?
• Is there a high level of cooperation and information exchange among coalition members? How could
internal coalition relations be enhanced?
• Did the coalition gain or lose any members? How can you enlist new members and / or prevent
members from leaving?
• Does the coalition provide opportunities for leadership development among members?
• How was your network helpful to your advocacy? How can you expand it?

6. Overall management / organizational issues

• Is your advocacy effort financially viable? How could you raise additional resources?
• Is the accounting system adequate? Can you provide to funders an accurate accounting of how money
was spent?
• How could your financial resources have been used more efficiently?
• Were all events and meetings run successfully? Which were not and why not? How could logistics be
improved?
• Are you or your organization overwhelmed or discouraged? How could you get more assistance?
Should you narrow your goal or extend your time frame to make your effort more manageable?

Source: Sharma RR. An Introduction to Advocacy: Training Guide. Support for Analysis and Research
in Africa (SARA) and Health and Human Resources Analysis for Africa (HHRRA). USA, USAID Office of
Sustainable Development

Draw up an advocacy plan

When you have come to a conclusion for each of the steps of the advocacy planning cycle, you will be
ready to create an advocacy plan. You should detail exactly what you plan to do and by when.

Advocacy plan
Tip: an advocacy plan may take various forms; an example is below.

Objectives Targets Activities Indicators Timing Responsibility Review

Objective 1: Local Meetings to Announcement of By The WASH National March

80% of government document 25% government September Coordinator 2010
households in evidence of the subsidy for latrine 2010
the X, Y and economic benefits construction costs
Z districts to of sanitation
build their
own latrines
Community Dissemination of 500 households By October The WASH Coalition's March
hygiene messages sign up to attend 2010 communications 2010
through street latrine officer and the health
theatre and radio construction adviser
programmes training days

Other NGOs Forming network Clear action plan By The WASH Coalition's August
to coordinate plans developed for December advocacy manager 2009
for sanitation beginning latrine 2009
provision construction
 programmes

Objective 2: Local Providing teachers 50% of school By April The NGO's January
80% of education with videos that children surveyed 2010 communications 2010
households in authority foster healthy report they have manager
the X, Y and hygiene received hygiene
Z districts to behaviours in messages
adopt good school children
hygiene (and promote
transmission of
that behaviour to
peers)

Factory Petitions to install One sink installed By April The NGO's advocacy January
owners wash basins per 100 employees 2010 manager 2010

Media Lobbying media to Coverage in the By March The NGO's December

provide no-cost city's main 2010 communications and 2009
spots to advertise newspaper, on a advocacy managers
messages on TV news
healthy hygiene programme, and
behaviours on three radio
stations

Objective 3 Target 3a Activity 3a Indicator 3a By Person responsible 3a mm/yyyy

mm/yyyy

Target 3b Activity 3b Indicator 3b By Person responsible 3b mm/yyyy

mm/yyyy

Target 3c Activity 3c Indicator 3c By Person responsible 3c mm/yyyy

mm/yyyy

Except where noted, the main sources of material for this text came from Advocacy Sourcebook, A Guide
to Advocacy for WSSCC Co-ordinators Working on the WASH Campaign, London, WaterAid / Geneva,
WSSCC, 2003, and The Advocacy Sourcebook, London, WaterAid, 2007.