Intersectional lobby and advocacy toolkit

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The Make Way SRHR toolkit is a comprehensive package of materials that intend to increase and improve the capacity, skills and knowledge of civil society groups and organisations. That will enable them to undertake game-changing intersectional SRHR lobby and advocacy.

The toolkit is organised in line with the steps in the advocacy cycle that have been identified by Make Way. These steps are:

Step 1: Before you start
Step 2: Analysing the issue
Step 3: Setting advocacy goals and objectives
Step 4: Coalition building
Step 5: Stakeholder and power mapping
Step 6: Developing an advocacy plan
Step 7: Creating a communication and media strategy
Step 8: Time for implementation
Step 9: Monitoring, evaluation and learning

Each tool in the toolkit has a different purpose within this cycle. Some of them build a conceptual understanding of intersectionality or help clarify values. Other tools guide the user in applying the principles underlying intersectionality to in their approach to policy analysis, communication and community engagement.

This toolkit is a living, online resource that will expand and be adapted as we continue to learn. Tools will be adjusted and further fine-tuned based on new insights, feedback from civil society partners and stakeholders, and experiences of users.

Are you unsure of some of the terminology used in this toolkit? Please check out our list of SRHR terminology (under Resources).

A good understanding of the concept of intersectionality, and the principles underlying it, is key to your intersectional SRHR advocacy efforts. Before you start, you also need to reflect on the privileges or oppressions you yourself bring to the table because of your own identity – or identities and lived experience. Your advocacy aims to improve the lives of people affected by multiple forms of discrimination. So a significant amount of your time, effort and resources should be dedicated to ensuring their meaningful participation throughout the advocacy cycle.   

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

This tool contains a checklist for organising a training session or course that works towards change. It helps the trainer, facilitator or organiser to prepare the training, while being aware of the different aspects needed for a fruitful learning environment with an intersectional approach. Checking starts from the moment a training is planned, and can be used to track its progress from preparation to implementation and evaluation.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

The tool can be used for training sessions or workshops on multiple topics, including those that are SRHR and advocacy related, when the objectives focus on change in an intersectional way. The checklist can help you provide the participants with a more transformative learning process.

Who is this tool for?

The quality checklist for training has primarily been developed for trainers and facilitators, and can be used for self-monitoring. Organisations that hire trainers or consultants to give workshops and other training courses will also find the checklist useful. They can use it themselves, and give it to the person providing the training. That will enable the trainer to meet the expectations of the organisation. Finally, the checklist can be used to evaluate trainers or facilitators, which can be especially useful if an organisation wishes to hire them again.

The checklist can be added to specific terms of reference or calls for proposals for training. Collaborating partners can also send it to trainers they may want to work with.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

The main objective of the intersectionality self-assessment tool is to encourage organisations to undertake a thorough self-evaluation and to assess their current level of commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice. It provides guidance and resources to help organisations identify areas for improvement and develop a roadmap towards becoming a more equitable organisation.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

Through self-reflection and awareness of bias and privilege, this tool helps to lay the foundations for applying an intersectional lens in SRHR advocacy. By gaining insight into your own position, individuals and organisations can learn how to change their perspectives and interact more effectively with the world around them in order to be better advocates.

Who is this tool for?

This self-assessment tool is primarily aimed at civil society organisations that are looking to evaluate and enhance the integration of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice in their operations. The tool includes sample surveys and instructions for conducting organisational-wide reflection sessions. Make Way programme partners have all completed this self-assessment and created action plans that include staff training, hiring policies, and the clarification of values.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

The Meaningful Youth Engagement (MYE) tool is a guide to effectively involving young people in youth-focused programmes. Its goal is to identify some of the gaps in planned youth participation, and to offer practical solutions alongside scenarios for making youth participation an essential part of any youth programme. The tool also recognises the role of stakeholders and duty bearers in advocating for youth voices.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

This tool is based on ‘The Flower of Participation’ ideology, which is widely used to ensure inclusive youth participation. Its recommendations are in line with the Make Way approach of an intersectional lens, encouraging young people to speak up and be part of decision-making. The scenarios in the guide are based on lived experiences from different countries, taking into consideration the diverse youth populations that are categorised as minoritised.

Who is this tool for?

The MYE tool is for Make Way Consortium partners and its pool of collaborating partners. The tool goes further than just intersectional SRHR, calling on development partners to review the level of youth participation in any youth-focused programme. It has already been made available for the Break Free Alliance, another Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded project that uses Meaningful Youth Engagement as one of its pathways of implementation. The tool also targets programme implementers and resource mobilisation personnel during concept and proposal development. This is to ensure that youth voices and ideas are integrated even before proposals are approved for receiving donor funding.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

The primary purpose of the tool is to help demystify intersectionality. To help users understand the meaning of intersectionality beyond a buzzword with no substance or power to change anything. The tool provides an explainer, exercises and resources to deepen understanding of intersectionality and facilitate its integration into SRHR advocacy that promotes a vision of everyone enjoying their SRHR freely.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

As users come to understand the meaning of intersectionality, this tool can help them to articulate its role in their lives and institutions, and to see its relevance to SRHR advocacy. The explainer, exercises and resources that make up the tool help integrate intersectionality as an advocacy lens and framework for a successful SRHR approach.

Who is this tool for?

This tool can be used by anyone who is interested in understanding intersectionality and would like to have specific tools and resources to integrate an intersectional feminist framework and lens into their SRHR work. For example, SRHR advocates can use the self-assessment tool in their groups and organisations to address preconceptions, power imbalances and other obstacles to inclusion and participation.

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An advocacy effort always begins with detailed, context-specific analysis of an issue or problem that needs to be addressed in order to promote a change to a policy, budget or legislation, for example. Fully understanding the different aspects of the problem is crucial to developing clear advocacy goals and objectives. Analysis like this is generally referred to as context analysis, situation analysis or issue analysis.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

A community scorecard (CSC) is a citizen-driven accountability measure for assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery. The Make Way programme wants to use an intersectionalised CSC (ICSC) to promote the engagement of youth with compounded vulnerabilities with duty bearers and other power holders. Its purpose is to improve the acceptability, accessibility, affordability and quality of SRH services. So the ICSC has been designed to complement conventional supply-side mechanisms of accountability by bringing together youth and service providers. First, to identify underlying obstacles to effective SRHR service delivery, and then to develop a shared strategy for their improvement.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

  • The ICSC puts special emphasis on intersectionalisation of the CSC to ensure that the main outcomes support young people with compounded vulnerabilities.
  • This intersectionalised approach puts youth with compounding vulnerabilities at the centre of the ICSC process, shaping its design, objectives, activities and outcomes. Throughout the ICSC process, minoritised young people are given a platform to hold duty bearers accountable for the provision of SRHR services.
  • Additionally, the ICSC outcomes create an opportunity for civil society organisations to conduct youth-led advocacy for the improvement of SRHR provision beyond the facility level.

Who is this tool for?

The ICSC is designed for anyone who is interested in intersectional social accountability. This includes CSOs, local or other communities, and young people themselves. The intersectionalised scorecard has been successfully pretested in Kenya and Rwanda. Minoritised young people were given an opportunity to evaluate the SRHR services available at two facilities.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

The Intersectional See-Judge-Act (ISJA) tool aims to facilitate analysis of religious SRHR issues. It does so by using religious texts to initiate a community-centred discussion of the issues, their impact and actions that need to be taken to address any barriers identified, so that no one is left behind in accessing their SRHR. The tool can be used in diverse religious contexts, as its goal is personal, social and systemic transformation, and not converting people to a particular religion.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

The community-centred approach looks at SRHR issues from the perspective of those affected. Similarly, those affected lead the process of identifying action that needs to be taken to realise the desired change. Religious texts can be used to spread discriminatory attitudes and practices regarding sexual well-being, and these can hinder access to SRHR for all. Putting community at the centre ensures inclusion of all voices and experiences, while an SRHR challenge is looked at in detail by interpreting a religious text. Together they identify what needs to be done: community-led action that promotes sexual well-being for all.

Who is this tool for?

This tool can be used by anyone who wants to utilise religious texts as a resource for community dialogue and advocacy on intersectional SRHR. For example, if your objective is to find and strengthen allies of intersectional SRHR advocacy within the religious sector, the tool can help to equip religious leaders in their support for the intersectional SRHR cause.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

If youth-relevant policies and plans are to be successful, they must be supported by appropriate budgets for their implementation. That’s where the budget analysis tool comes in. It allows you to monitor – and possibly influence – budgets throughout the whole budget cycle. The tool looks at how the budget is allocated and whether that is in line with national and international standards.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

The tool consists of a checklist that follows the budget cycle. The composition of the group doing the analysis will be intersectional. They will assess the budget lines on how each addresses intersectional target groups and/or SRHR-topics, and whether the standards recommended in national and international conventions are respected.

Who is this tool for?

Budget analysis calls for considerable knowledge of budgeting and preferably of the relevant policy too. Analysers will often need to monitor the budget over a longer period, rather than doing the analysis just once. This could be annually or over a number of years, from allocation to reporting. So having a strong core group that stays connected with the process is advisable. That could include people from the authorities directly involved. Results from the analysis are useful for policy advocates. And they will make sure that groups of minoritised youth are properly informed about accessing and monitoring the budget available.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

The Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) tool aims to help you analyse policies, action plans and strategic documents at national or subnational levels. This analysis looks at how policies or plans have taken into account the priorities of the Make Way programme: SRHR, youth, intersectionality and accountability. Information gained from the analysis should contribute to better policies over time, and to minoritised youth being in a stronger position to claim their rights.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

With the IBPA analysis, you are able to find gaps and opportunities in policy documents regarding SRHR, youth and intersectionality issues. The gaps that are identified can be used strategically to advocate for improved policies. At the same time, target groups can be made aware of any opportunities identified, and accountability mechanisms put in place to help them claim what they are entitled to.

Who is this tool for?

The IBPA can be applied by analysers who are knowledgeable about the policy under review. Findings from IBPA analysis can be used to present arguments for advocates as well as for awareness-raising messages for intersectional youth. The tool has already been applied to the East Africa Community Bill on SRHR.

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For advocacy to be effective in creating change, it must be clear to everyone involved what success will look like. Once there is a thorough understanding of the issue you want to change, you can define this success or result. That is the advocacy goal. Usually, an advocacy goal is a long-term result that may take years to realise. The goal provides the overall direction. It should, however, also include Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART) advocacy objectives. 

Coalition building is a key step at various stages of the advocacy cycle, often having a great effect on the success of the advocacy effort. Coalitions can provide leadership and guidance for a more unified voice, as well as enabling coordination of all efforts, resources and capacities. They are also useful for reaching goals that are beyond the capacity of any individual member organisation. Intersectional coalitions embrace diversity, connecting people or groups with different histories, lived experiences and social agendas behind a common social justice agenda.  

A stakeholder power analysis can be used to map out the various stakeholders and their relative power and influence. This enables you to select the best people to target with questions, and tailor your messaging for them. Effective advocacy begins with awareness of the critical stakeholders that surround your objective. Who are your allies and who can be persuaded to become allies? You also need to identify those who are likely to stand in the way of you achieving your advocacy objectives, to determine how to deal with that 

Building on the advocacy goals and objectives, an advocacy plan should outline the specific steps that need to be taken. It indicates the resources required, how the tasks should be divided, and the tactics to be used. All this will be based on the capacities within your coalition. The advocacy plan is closely interlinked with the communication and media strategy. 

The strategic use of communication and media is key to effective lobby and advocacy. You need informative, appealing and targeted messages that reach and convince your desired audience to inspire change. A communication and media strategy helps you do that: it outlines who you talk to, and how and when you talk to them. 

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

This Intersectional Messaging tool helps advocates put the principles of intersectionality into practice in their messaging. It provides guidance on developing messages that recognise diversity and complexity, centre the voices of those who are most minoritised, use respectful language, build collective power, and create positive and empowering narratives.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

“Language is very powerful. It does not just describe reality. It creates the reality it describes.” Our words matter. How we say things, influences the thinking of our target audience, and impacts mainstream portrayals. Lobby and advocacy for SRHR requires you to share information and ideas through messages. To ensure that your advocacy is effective, inclusive and intersectional, your messages must reflect the same principles.

Who is this tool for?

This tool is useful for anyone who wants to ensure that their writing and speaking contribute to an intersectional, respectful and inclusive solution to the issue they are addressing. Communication staff are the primary target group, but whoever is involved in communicating in any way, for example by writing a report, giving a presentation or posting messages on social media, will benefit from this tool, ensuring that their words make a positive contribution to their lobby and advocacy.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

This tool helps you to develop a well-founded intersectional communication and media strategy for your lobby and advocacy work. It takes you through 10 steps, from setting objectives to constructing key messages, choosing the right formats and channels, and engaging external media. Going through all the steps will enable you to draw up a comprehensive strategy that you can immediately implement.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

The strategic use of communication and media is key to effective lobby and advocacy. You need well-grounded, appealing and targeted messages that reach and convince your desired audience to either change, or to inspire change themselves. A communication and media strategy helps you do that: it outlines who you talk to and how you talk to them.

Who is this tool for?

This tool is useful for anyone who wants to communicate with their target audience, and who wants to know how to do this on a structural and strategic level that contributes to the effectiveness of their lobby and advocacy work. Communication staff are the tool’s primary target group. But to ensure that your strategy is well aligned with the lobby and advocacy work, all those working on a specific issue should be involved.

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What is the primary goal of the tool?

Part of intersectional SRHR advocacy is communicating with your target audience to raise awareness, activate them or increase the visibility of your organisation. This tool will help you to make your communication accessible, meaningful and usable for as many people in your target audience as possible. It applies to written communication, presentations, videos, social media posts and events.

How does this tool enable intersectional SRHR advocacy?

For intersectional lobby and advocacy to be clear and effective, you need to make sure that everyone can easily access and understand your messages. Some people have to deal with significant challenges every day in accessing information. Someone with a visual impairment, for example, might not be able to read information on your website. Limited education could cause problems for other people. All this creates divides between those who can and those who cannot access information. By taking the accessibility of your communication into account – whether online, in official documents or at face-to-face meetings – you can minimise these divides.

Who is this tool for?

This tool can be used by anyone who wants to communicate with their target audience, but it is especially relevant for those working on communication. For example, when you are organising an event, you can use this checklist to make sure that there is nothing that will prevent people from being physically present, feeling welcomed and actively participating.

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When all the puzzle pieces are in place, you can begin implementing your advocacy plan. Implementation can take many different forms from research to campaigning to bilateral meetings. An advocate needs to be flexible, adjusting the advocacy plan to respond to developing circumstances and continuous stakeholder analysis.  

Monitoring and evaluation are also essential parts of the advocacy cycle. You’ve analysed the issues, developed advocacy goals and created an advocacy plan (including a communications plan). Now you have entered the actual implementation phase. Monitoring the progress of your work at all stages, and evaluating the results youve achieved, are vital for learning about the pathways of success (or failure) of the advocacy initiatives you implemented. 

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