MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF YOUR ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN

Monitoring and evaluation is a time to step back, assess the progress and performance of the campaign, and make any changes necessary. It is an opportunity to take a candid look at both success and failures, try to understand what led to them and what changes need to be made.

Monitoring and evaluation rely on comparing situations across time. Therefore, the processes need to be thought through while the schedule is established and activities are launched. Monitoring and evaluation are interlinked, but distinctly different activities. Monitoring occurs on an ongoing basis. It tracks whether activities are likely to achieve the planned results and how effectively the budget is being used.

Evaluation looks at what was achieved as a result of the programme. It occurs at specific times and assesses progress and achievements over a longer period of time.

Impact Assessment goes further and looks at the ultimate benefits of the programme after the programme or campaign has been completed. Impact is very difficult to measure because it is hard to figure out what would have happened in the absence of the programme. Reliable impact assessment requires sophisticated techniques starting with baseline data. Because impact is so difficult to measure, an organization needs to carefully evaluate the resources that can be allocated to this process, and whether an impact assessment is feasible. It is rare that an organization can undertake an impact assessment using its own resources. An independent evaluation expert should lead this process to ensure that the results are credible.

Evaluation Questions

 Advocacy Objectives

• Is your advocacy objective moving smoothly through the process or have you encountered some obstacles? What are the obstacles and how can they be overcome?
• What else can you do to move your objective forward? Would building new alliances or increasing your media outreach help you move your objective through the decision-making process?
• If your objective does not seem achievable, should you alter it? What would be achievable? Could you achieve part of your objective by negotiating or compromising?
• Are the objectives still appropriate. Are some redundant? Are new objectives needed?
• How much does the policy/programme change reflect your objective? Did you win your objective entirely, partly, or not at all?
• Can you/should you try to achieve the rest of your objective during the next decision-making cycle? Or should you move on an entirely new advocacy objective? What are the pros and cons for each decision?
• Did the policy/programme change maker 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?

 Activities

• Should the priority of activities be changed?
• Should some activities be stopped because they are ineffective or because they are too costly in time or resources?
• Should new activities be added?
• Have the target audiences changed?
• Are resources sufficient to carry out all the activities? Is more funding needed?

 Message Delivery/Communications

• Have audiences changed? Can policy maps be updated with new audiences or new knowledge about audiences and their attitudes and beliefs?
• Did your message reach the key audiences? If not, how can you better reach these 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 which 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/press coverage? Was it helpful to your effort? How could your media relations be improved?

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 objectives? If so, are the data available elsewhere or do you need to conduct the research?

Decision-Making Process

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

 Coalition-Building

• Was your coalition successful in gaining attention to the issue and building support for the advocacy objective?
• Was the 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?
• Can the current advocacy group carry out all the listed activities? Are new members needed? Are new skills needed?
• How has your network been helpful to you advocacy effort? How can you expand your network?

 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 produced successfully and meetings run smoothly? 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 efforts more manageable?