Advocacy for Health and Development

2010

In the social and economic development context the aims of advocacy are to create or change policies, laws, regulations, distribution of resources or other decisions that affect people’s lives and to ensure that such decisions lead to implementation. Such advocacy is generally directed at policy makers including politicians, government officials and public servants, but also private sector leaders whose decisions impact upon peoples lives, as well as those whose opinions and actions influence policy makers, such as journalists and the media, development agencies and large NGOs.

Public Relations Review, 2010

BMC Health Services Research, 2020

Background: The Nigerian government introduced and implemented a health programme to improve maternal and child health (MCH) called Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment programme for MCH (SURE-P/MCH). It ran from 2012 and ended abruptly in 2015 and was followed by increased advocacy for sustaining the MCH (antenatal, delivery, postnatal and immunization) services as a policy priority. Advocacy is important in allowing social voice, facilitating prioritization, and bringing different forces/actors together. Therefore, the study set out to understand how advocacy works-through understanding what effective advocacy implementation processes comprise and what mechanisms are triggered by which contexts to produce the intended outcomes. Methods: The study used a Realist Evaluation design through a mixed quantitative and qualitative methods case study approach. The programme theory (PT) was developed from three substantive social theories (power politics, media influence communication theory, and the three-streams theory of agenda-setting), data and programme design documentation, and subsequently tested. We report information from 22 key informant interviews including national and State policy and law makers, policy implementers, CSOs, Development partners, NGOs, health professional groups, and media practitioners and review of relevant documents on advocacy events post-SURE-P. Results: Key advocacy organizations and individuals including health professional groups, the media, civil society organizations, powerful individuals, and policymakers were involved in advocacy activities. The nature of their engagement included organizing workshops, symposiums, town hall meetings, individual meetings, press conferences, demonstrations, and engagements with media. Effective advocacy mechanism involved alliance brokering to increase influence, the media supporting and engaging in advocacy, and the use of champions, influencers, and spouses (Leadership and Elite Gendered Power Dynamics). The key contextual influences which determined the effectiveness of advocacy measures for MCH included the political cycle, availability of evidence on the issue, networking with powerful and interested champions, and alliance building in advocacy. All these enhanced the entrenchment of MCH on the political and financial agenda at the State and Federal levels.

Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2022

The need for effective advocacy on the part of health professionals has never been greater. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has made the connection between human health and social conditions clear, while highlighting the limitations of biomedical interventions to address those conditions. Efforts to increase the frequency and effectiveness of advocacy activities by health professionals have been hampered by the lack of a practical framework to define and develop advocacy competencies among trainees as well as to plan and execute advocacy activities. The authors of this article propose a framework which defines advocacy as occurring across three domains of influence (practice, community, and government) using three categories of advocacy skills (policy, communication, and relationships). When these skills are successfully applied in the appropriate domains of influence, the resulting change falls into three levels: individual, adjacent, and structural. The authors assert that this framework is immediately applicable to a broad variety of health professionals, educators, researchers, organizations, and professional societies as they individually and collectively seek to improve the health and well-being of those they care for.

2014

is an independent, non-profit research institution and a major international centre in policy-oriented and applied development research. Focus is on development and human rights issues and on international conditions that affect such issues. The geographical focus

Introduction We live in such a world today where countless of differently able people are denied of their rights and their living, many society do not even consider their existence and since these group of people cannot stand for their right to fight for their existence there is an urgent need of advocates who will stand for them, who will speak for them, who will fight the society on their behalf in order to communicate the truth that disabled people have a right to live and built their own world in the society This paper will therefore bring out various truths in relation to disability and offer ideas, advocacy strategies and information for legal advocates so to equip them in advocacy for the disabled people.

International Journal on Advances in Life Sciences

Health advocacy can make significant contributions to promoting global health by shaping health promotion programs that are responsive to the needs of consumers. Health care consumers have a major stake in the health care system, yet have had difficulty influencing health policies and practices due to the limited power typically afforded them within the modern health care system. Strategic health advocacy communication can help to recalibrate the balance of power in health care and health promotion efforts, facilitating important influences on health policies and practices, Health advocates can help make health programs responsive and adaptive to consumer needs by communicating consumers’ perspectives in compelling ways to key audiences using a variety of key media. This article describes the communication demands of effective health advocacy, the need to help advocates develop strategic communication knowledge and competencies, and presents a case study of the Global Advocacy Leade...