Considerations for Strategic Policy Advocacy

Abstract

The book concludes by summarizing key points and offering considerations for evaluating advocacy efforts. There is a brief recapitulation of the six strategies and discussion of the use of different strategies depending on the organization's size, scope, issue area, and targeted level of government. A discussion of the challenges of policy advocacy acknowledges that a policy ``win'' may take significant time, with success or failure often due to forces outside the advocates' control. These challenges make evaluating advocacy difficult and require a flexible approach. Developing a logic model can assist with strategic planning as well as monitoring and evaluation of an advocacy effort. Methods used in advocacy evaluation often draw on key stakeholder perspectives to identify if and how advocacy campaigns contributed to outcomes. Popular methods in advocacy evaluation are reviewed, including systems mapping, bellwether methodology, policy maker ratings, intense period debriefs, contribution analysis, and process tracing.