Hi all!
My name is Alison Andrade, and I work as the Evidence and Research Coordinator at Fòs Feminista. I’m looking forward to participating in the 2023 DHIS2 Annual Conference!
On Day 2 of the conference, I will be speaking in the session titled “Monitoring Progress Across Sectors” (15:30 to 17:00 Oslo Time). In my presentation, I will be sharing how we developed our DHIS2 Advocacy Tracking tool for meaningful use of advocacy data to support sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. Please see below a brief description of the tool that we will be presenting:
Monitoring and evaluation of advocacy often focuses on collecting data for donors and international accountability, rather than supporting on-the-ground advocacy work of local partners. Data capture models for advocacy have also historically reflected simplistic logic where one action is solely responsible for one result and does not acknowledge the complex systems in which advocacy takes place. These tools tend to not reflect the prolonged time it takes for advocacy activities to contribute to legal, political, and normative change, and assessment of positive impacts are often limited to the approval of new policies and laws.
In response to these challenges, Fòs Feminista developed the Advocacy Tracking Tool. This tool was built as a custom form in the Event Program and is rendered in timeline format through a customized app. Users can enter and display data on their advocacy contributions and impacts on a timeline. Unlike prior tools, it enables users to track their advocacy impact according to the incremental stages of reform by policymakers, starting with the introduction of a law or policy and followed by later stages of advancement, defense, approval, and implementation. These are mapped to people’s sexual and reproductive health needs to ensure that we center our decision-making on people and their needs.
The tool was designed considering the features that would be most useful for organizations conducting advocacy work. The timeline is flexible, enabling users to filter for advocacy advancements of interest or by area of need. Users can analyze activities by country for national and regional decision-making and can print the timeline for use in their own reports. The timeline also displays multiple years of entries, allowing for analysis of incremental progress. This is important because it often takes time for advocacy to achieve change, and a tool that visualizes advocacy contributions and their distinct outcomes over multiple years enables a more meaningful analysis. It also allows for a more nuanced understanding of the complex ripple effects of different advocacy activities, facilitating learning by the organizations conducting advocacy in their context.
Thank you for reading, and I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. I’m looking forward to meeting you at the conference next week!