Advocacy & Policy Influencing: strategy and skills

To achieve lasting changes in society, doing the right thing ourselves is not enough. We need to advocate for the changes we want to see, and influence the policies and laws that govern society. In this course you will learn to strategize systematically for successful Advocacy and Policy Influencing interventions, resulting in designing your own API strategy.

Your strategy will be based on a sound analysis of the stakeholders and policy context important to your cause, and on making strategic choices in your Theory of Change. To make your strategy work in real life, we will explore how transformative social change works, and how to manage networks and build strong coalitions to foster that change. You will learn how you can have influence in policy development as well as policy implementation stages, and how to select your political targets strategically. We will practice how to plan, prepare, implement, monitor and evaluate advocacy initiatives, using practical methods and tools as we go along.

You will only be successful if you can convince decision makers to change. The course culminates in you demonstrating your skills by pitching your cause in front of a critical audience.