Date: 04-06, March 2020

Venue: Fairview Hotel, Nairobi – Kenya

Introduction

For non-profits pursuing advocacy work, even on the narrowest and most local of issues, defining and measuring success is not for the faint of heart. Advocacy and policy programmes can be complex to implement, and more so complex to document results if the M&E design is not thought very well from the beginning. The typical approach to a successful measurement strategy in direct service—developing a (linear) theory of change and measuring in increasingly rigorous ways until you can prove your model’s effectiveness—simply doesn’t work in most advocacy contexts. Neither does waiting to measure until the “end outcome” is achieved, since that could be decades away.

So, where does that leave us? In our view, the very nature of advocacy work, particularly the dynamic environment in which it takes place, makes it the perfect candidate for measurement “along the way,” which enables rapid course correction and continuous improvement. There has been increased interest from development organisations, including donors in using theory of change (TOC) as the development hypothesis for projects. Compared to other processes, a TOC requires a more in-depth causal analysis of issues-one that is rooted in a rigorous and evolving evidence base. Developing and using a TOC builds common understanding among stakeholders around the actions needed to achieve desired changes. Additionally, a TOC allows for efficient monitoring, evaluation and learning based on a clear and testable set of hypotheses.

The overall objective of this training is to equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to make you better practitioners in your countries. This training has been designed to be practical with exercises to provide skills, encourage participation and exchange information. We will walk with you on how to design an effective Theory of Change for policy and advocacy programmes. We will also help you how to link your Theory of Change to your Results Framework and how to collect policy and advocacy results during implementation.

 Training Modules

This training will cover 8 modules as outlined below spread across the three days.

• Module1: Introduction to the Theory of Change approach
• Module2: Linking Political Economy Analyses (PEA) to ToC design
• Module3: Understanding factors that influence advocacy results
• Modeul4: How to describe the desired advocacy goal
• Module5: Mapping advocacy priorities/asks
• Module6: Mapping pathways of Change
• Module7: Mapping Assumptions
• Module8: How to Monitor and Evaluate advocacy interventions

Target Audience

Are you a programme manager, Coordinator, Specialist, project officer, M&E officer/specialist, programme director? Do you work for NGO, private or public service? Do you have limited knowledge on how to design and use Theory of Change in Advocacy Programmes? Well, this training has been designed just for you. Our training approaches takes cognisance of the varied experience our participants may have. Based on this, our modules are designed to accommodate varied level of expertise.

Course Format and Costs

This will be a 3 day face to face course which will take place at Fairview Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya and a 90 minute one-to-one coaching session after the course (via Skype) with the course trainers, focusing specifically on your needs. This individual, tailored coaching will support the individual to apply the learning from the course to their work, and offer the opportunity to work through current challenges, difficulties and opportunities with a highly experienced practitioner.

The available dates and times for coaching will be provided by the trainers in advance of the course. Coaching terms and conditions will be provided upon application. The cost of this course is USD 500 (Ksh 50,000) non-residential (includes training materials, 90-minute individual coaching session, lunch and refreshments).

How to Apply

Due to the hands-on and participatory nature of this training, the size of the event is limited.  Though the deadline for registering is 10 February 2020, once the maximum number of participants is reached, registration will be closed. As such, please register as early as possible by clicking  https://form.myjotform.com/92473682669574 . Once you have declared your interest, our training administrator will contact you on the next steps.

About Evidence Frontiers

Established in 2002, our main focus is to stimulate social impact in our communities through rigorous evidence. Over the years, Evidence Frontiers has been working with seasoned consultants from Africa, Canada, United States of America, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Our key areas of specialization include: Providing training in Policy and Advocacy M&E, conduct policy scientific research and impact evaluations, conduct performance evaluations of programmes, provide third party policy and advocacy M&E for development organisations, policy and advocacy proposal and strategy design.

We have supported development organizations, policy makers and managers to make socially impactful decisions using rigorous evidence. Our experience include carefully tailoring a wide range of analytical tools to enable organizations to design better policies, rigorously test those ideas, and take informed action at scale to improve lives.

Our mission is to continue working with organisations to generate and use rigorous evidence to improve social impact. Depending on organization’s needs, we help diagnose social sector challenges, design and test potential solutions, and operationalize those solutions found to be most impactful. We believe that organization-centered, rigorous, and responsive frameworks is essential to help managers maximize impact. Further, our vision is to improve millions of lives by transforming how the social sector innovates, learns and improves. We measure our success by the extent which our work increases the social impact in our communities.

As part of its mission, the Advocacy Accelerator is focused on listening to and observing how different actors within the advocacy ecosystem in Africa interact and to what effect. We do so to uncover new trends and take actions together with others to highlight emerging developments, disrupt or re-orient trends and processes in ways that are supportive of all the actors within the system. Through our work with advocates, donors, and technical assistance across our various in-person and online platforms we seek to connect the various actors so they can engage, share and learn from each other. It is an innovative “advocacy hub” building a more robust, locally-driven advocacy ecosystem in Africa.