Advocacy and communication for social protection

This course aimed to equip social protection professionals with the knowledge and skills to better plan their advocacy and communication work in order to persuasively convey their vision and catalyse lasting change in social protection. OBJECTIVES The training objectives of the course were to: • Understand what advocacy is, what it isn’t and how it relates to communication. • Appreciate how advocacy happens at many different levels and how it can help us advance the social protection agenda at the local, national and international level. • Conduct a policy analysis, research and diagnostics, understanding why these are essential to policy reform. • Undertake a contextualised problem analysis to help participants identify priority issues. • Craft a convincing narrative to convey participants’ vision for change and galvanise others to take action. • Select the best approach for participants’ advocacy initiative. • Map stakeholders and profile them in order to understand what they care most about in order to convey participants’ messages to them. • Plan advocacy and communication initiatives and develop effective strategies. • Convey messages in an engaging way to different audiences, including the media and policy-makers. • Monitor and evaluate advocacy and communications efforts in order to understand whether they made a difference. CONTENT Live Session 1.b | De-mystifying Advocacy Live Session 2.a | The politics of social protection Live Session 2.b | Evidence-based advocacy Live Session 3.a | Knowing what needs to change Live Session 3.b | Exploring different approaches to change Live Session 4.a | Getting to know your audiences Live Session 4.b | Driving change together Live Session 5.a | Developing effective messages Live Session 5.b | Working with the media Live Session 6.a | Knowing whether you have made a difference ACHIEVEMENT The course consisted of a number of online modules offered through the eCampus over a period of six weeks for an estimated total of 60 learning hours. The assessment for this course, based on a total of 100 points, consisted of: -Interactive Learning Activities (45 points) • Live sessions • Readings and videos • Wall of Commitment -Interactive exercises and assignments (55 points) • Discussion Forum • Weekly Assignments • Final Assignments NUMBER OF HOURS The Advocacy and communication for social protection consisted of 60 hours of learning.