SMART Advocacy

Advocacy is action by individuals or organizations designed to influence the decisions of individuals or groups. The most skilled advocates focus energy and attention on actions that have the highest potential for impact in the near-term. These incremental changes—termed “advocacy wins”—are discrete policy and funding decisions critical to advancing
an issue.

The SMART Advocacy approach provides a framework to achieve the near-term advocacy wins needed to reach broad, long-term goals. SMART Advocacy focuses on decision-makers—that is, the specific people with the power to act on requests from well-prepared champions. It prepares advocates to anticipate what information and insights will convince a decision-maker that taking a particular action will achieve their goals and yours.

The success of SMART Advocacy rests on identifying what can be achieved within discrete timeframes and which policy change has the potential to advance a larger, long-term goal. applies each of these elements to the advocacy process.

SMART Advocacy is one way of advocating. Rather than seeking reform through tactics like activism or mass media campaigns, SMART Advocacy seeks to reach and work with a specific person who controls the lever of change. It emphasizes the benefits of a specific policy or budgetary change that is within the control of the key decision-maker. SMART Advocacy helps match the advocacy objective to those with the authority to make changes—policymakers, government officials, private actors, or donors.

Last modified: April 5, 2024

Language: Bangla, English, French, Spanish

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2023

Modern Kitchen Campaign, Bangladesh

The Clean Cooking Alliance (Alliance), government agency SREDA, Social Marketing Company and Purplewood implemented a campaign, between 2016 to 2019, for promoting clean cooking products in Bangladesh. The campaign aimed at increasing awareness and adoption of clean (energy-efficient and low emission) cookstoves and clean fuels like LP gas, wood pellets. The campaign also promoted a retained heat cooker, piloted by GIZ Bangladesh.

The campaign aimed to expand the stove-continuum to accommodate improved cookstoves and efficient fuels e.g. LPG, wood pellets. All thirteen products were brought under a category-brand, styled ‘Modern Kitchen’. The big idea was, “Times have changed, change your kitchen.” A social norming approach was also adopted, showing that forward thinking households were upgrading their kitchens, and minding the health of the cook (usually the female household head).

The campaign used radio, print, billboards, rickshaw branding, interpersonal communications (IPC), community-theater, movie-screenings, and fairs. Also used were bulk SMS, helpline and geo-targeted Facebook marketing. All materials were pre-tested in the field and fine-tuned before deployment. In each case, usage situations of clean cooking products were highlighted.

The key pitch was a soap-opera style, over-the-top family drama, screened outdoors. In the story, a flamboyant man realizes that – despite his clothes and gadgets – his meek older brother is more modern; because a truly modern man protects his home and family. Multiple product usage and maintenance videos were produced. To create hype, ‘kitchen makeover’ activities were carried out in 16 locations.

For women, the campaign went into playgrounds and yards. In the street theater performance, the heroine was a young ‘Modern’ new-bride who tries to clean up her in-laws’ kitchen. A TV celebrity endorsed HAP messaging, and starred in a mock Teleshopping Program about stoves. Outreach workers carried videos and materials to households and conducted IPC sessions.

Over 300 days of SBCC activities reached an estimated 1.6 million unique individuals. Online video views totalled 550,000. Final evaluation, carried out by Berkeley Air Monitoring Group, showed a ~40% increase in brand awareness. Nearly 15000 units of clean stoves and fuels were sold during the campaign period.

Source: Purplewood Limited

Date of Publication: November 16, 2021

My Childhood My Right Campaign Materials

This campaign was inspired by a group of youths in the Purulia and Malda districts of West Bengal in 2011. At the center of the campaign were Youth Champions – young change agents identified by Unicef through their network of schools. The campaign strategy was train hundreds of Youth Champions through workshops, empower them to engage other community stakeholders in conversation, while simultaneously running a public visibility campaign on the issue.

Included are:

  • Youth Champion’s booklet – This Picture and Activity booklet was a take-home for the young participants, handed out at the end of the workshop. It has been designed to summarise the key issues covered; including aspects of law, discussions around the prevailing attitudes and practices, and ideas on how the Youth Champions can continue the dialogue in their own communities.
  • Posters aimed at youth as well as at different groups of stakeholders
  • Banners
  • Wall paintings
  • Billboards

Source: UNICEF

Date of Publication: September 30, 2021

Umoja: Transforming Communities [Guides]

Umoja (Swahili for ‘togetherness’), is a church and community initiative. It helps church leaders and their congregations work together with the local community to bring about positive change for the whole community. Umoja does this by helping these local institutions build on the resources and skills they already have. It is a process that inspires and equips local people with a vision for determining their own future with their own resources. The Umoja process is based on more than 20 years of experience of working with churches and communities throughout Africa and Asia.

Umoja consists of two main guides, one for facilitators and one for coordinators. The Umoja Facilitator’s Guide contains Bible studies, activities, energizers, tools, advice and a step-by-step process to help a church and community become inspired and start working for transformation in their community. The Umoja Coordinator’s Guide provides everything that an organization or church needs to know to start and manage an Umoja program across a number of local communities.

Last modified: July 23, 2021

Language: Bangla, Cantonese, English, French, Portuguese

RESOURCES

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Examples

    Helping Health Workers Learn

    This book provides hundreds of methods, aids, and learning strategies to make health education engaging and effective, encouraging community involvement through participatory education.

    Last modified: July 23, 2021

    Language: Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, English, Farsi, Indonesian, Portuguese, Tamil, Urdu

    RESOURCES

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      It’s All One Curriculum: Guidelines and Activities for a Unified Approach to Sexuality, Gender, HIV, and Human Rights Education

      Research shows that young people need chances to learn about gender equality and human rights, particularly because these issues affect their sexual lives, and indeed, their happiness. Most sex education programs have lagged in applying these findings. Few sex education curricula address issues of gender and rights in a meaningful way, and few sex or HIV curricula have demonstrated a statistically significant impact either on unintended pregnancy or on sexually transmitted infections. The lesson—which we ignore at adolescents’ peril—is that gender equality and human rights are not just lofty goals. Rather, they are key to preventing the spread of HIV and to enabling young people to grow up to enjoy good health, as well as responsible and satisfying sexual lives.

      This two-book kit provides the essential elements for developing a rights-based, gender-sensitive, and participatory curriculum for sexuality and HIV education. It includes two books. Book 1 contains Guidelines, with an introduction that includes an evidence-based policy argument for this type of education. It has seven content units (each with Learning Objectives, Key Content, and Points for Reflection), and a final project-based unit (to support advocacy and apply lessons learned), along with 22 fact sheets. Book two contains activities which focus on effective teaching methods – there are 54 sample activities.

      Last modified: July 23, 2021

      Language: Bangla, Chinese, English, French, Spanish

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      Examples