Evaluating results for sexual and reproductive rights advocacy

Advocacy initiatives often have difficulty in evaluating impact and showing results, because many factors contribute to public opinion or policy change, and the contribution of any one initiative is hard to ascertain. Advocacy on sexual and reproductive rights – on issues such as access to safe abortion services, marriage for same-sex couples, access to condoms in HIV prevention programs for adolescents – faces a polarized cultural and political environment that creates barriers to policy goals as well as challenges for evaluation, since much effective advocacy in polarized environments takes place in confidential dialogue with decision-makers and allies. Given these challenges, the presentation will discuss development of appropriate indicators and research questions to evaluate an initiative's contribution to progress towards ultimate policy goals. The presentation will focus on the qualitative research methods needed to understand the complex political and social arena within which advocacy organizations operate, and their unique role within that arena. Process indicators to be discussed include those related to growth in mobilization of constituencies, positive exposure in media, and influence on political processes. For these indicators, quantitative measures can be devised, but qualitative methods are needed to analyze the significance and level of influence of these gains. Other evaluation questions to be discussed include: factors in leaders' or media outlets' progress from private to public support for a controversial issue; which strategies are effective in increasing mobilization around an issue, and why; and how strategically the organization has faced opportunities and threats in the political and social environment.