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 Challenges Based 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 Challenges Based 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 initiatives Hence 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?