Research to Advocacy:

bridging the gap

Pro-poor Advocacy

Pro-poor advocacy shapes political decisions and actions that respond to the interests of people who directly face poverty and disadvantage.

Key drivers of advocacy

- Learning based advocacy (CMS, research, lesson learning workshops)

- Broad network across the country- Research: based on real experience and evidence- Media- Alliances

- pNGOs, GoB, Donors, Private Sector

What are our strongest drivers?

Research

• A research goldmine:– 36 projects; 32 partners; country-wide presence

from rural to urban contexts; innovative and proven interventions

• Research officers and assistants exploring challenges faced by the extreme poor:– Gender, khasland, health, Adivasis, old age,

disability, climate change adaptation, slum evictions, …

Potential Advocacy ChallengesBased on shiree beneficiary experience

• Exclusion from or poor access to services

• Inability to cope with external shocks

• Health and Nutrition vulnerability

• Poor or adverse engagement with economic processes

• Gender specific vulnerabilities and threats

Potential Advocacy ChallengesBased on shiree beneficiary experience

• These categories are all potentially responsive to policy initiatives

• They all fall within the scope of development programme design (GoB or donor funded)

• They all show potential for private sector initiativesHence they are all valid subjects for shiree

advocacy activity

Research to Advocacy

• How can the research programme add value to this advocacy agenda? – leading to greater relevance and impact examples?

• 2 similar pieces of research , yielding similar findings, will not have the same advocacy impact?

At different stages of the research cycle – looking at it from an advocacy perspective

• Identification of research themes• Validation of research selected• Planning of research processes• Peer review and validation of results• Presentation of results• Follow up

Research to Advocacy

Some questions to consider

• How to choose research topics? • How to publicise research underway?• Who to choose to undertake research?• What terms of reference?• Who to do the research with? • How big? What scope?• Who validates the research? • How, where and when are results presented?

Ideas to strengthen advocacy within shiree

• Strengthened link between researchers and key advocacy issues identified– Limiting advocacy challenges to current research

topics– Examples of good practice:• Khas land• Slum Eviction

Ideas to strengthen advocacy within shiree

• Focused advocacy workshops– Would focus on one advocacy challenge• Social protection• Gender equality• Health• Disaster risk reduction

– Bring experts of identified theme to present their knowledge on the issue – advocate to us

– Endorse advocacy outputs (i.e. policy briefs)

Ideas to strengthen advocacy within shiree

• New website!– Shiree has launched a new website with a page

dedicated to advocacy challenges– Would you use this as a forum to discuss or give

feedback on shiree’s advocacy outputs?

pNGO key advocacy challenges

• Are there any challenges shiree is not addressing in its advocacy campaign?

• In your experience, which five challenges are most apparent or relevant?

• What is your organization doing for advocacy?