Updated 19 May 2010
The World Federation of KSIMC NGO development manager attended a workshop on 15 April 2010, organized by Bonds Quality Group. The workshop was attended by over 60 participants from various NGOs gathered to examine the Voice and Accountability Monitoring Tool used for monitoring advocacy initiatives by the Overseas Development and Relief Agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales (CAFOD).
The presentation was made by Gweneth Barry, Head of Policy for the organisation. The tool is being piloted by CAFOD with its 10 partners across the globe to track changes in Advocacy projects. Advocacy is a strategy that is used around the world to influence policies of other organisations and governments. The tool has been used in 10 countries and has provided a rich data set for CAFOD, its partners and donors to better understand changes in the capacity and effectiveness of their work.
Ms Barry gave an overview of the some of the challenges that the organisation faced when it came to monitoring advocacy, such as:
- The tendency of advocacy not being a simple linear process of action - outcome.
- The knowledge that outcomes of any initiative are not always predictable;
- The different dimensions of articulating success to advocacy;
- The key problem of aggregation of data across different contexts and programmes.
Therefore, a tool was needed to help reflection and change in strategy rather than just sharing information on its activities. The initial concept used in the design of the tool was to develop something that:
- moved away from a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ indicator
- could reflect the different stages of development of the different organisations
- would also bring in reflection on the context
- looked at different aspects of the work
Hence this tool was developed with an aim: how local civil society can be more effective representing the voices of the communities they speak for in government processes or in engagement with the private sector.
This tool was implemented with the organisations other results matrix in their monitoring and evaluation systems.
The workshop addressed some of the questions from the participants, and further discussion on the potential for using the tool in different organisations and contexts ensued. Click here to view the tool.
For further information, email ngo@world-federation.org