Voice for Change Partnership: Reflecting on five years of evidence-based advocacy

Civil society plays a crucial role in mobilising citizens’ voices and ensuring that the interests of low-income and marginalised communities are included in government and business policies and practices. As part of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Dialogue and Dissent Framework, the Voice for Change Partnership (2016-2020) empowered civil society organisations to engage with decision-makers and voice their views more effectively by taking an evidence-based approach to advocacy. They focused on four thematic areas: Food & Nutrition Security, Resilience for Pastoralists, Renewable Energy, and Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH). This animation provides an introduction into the V4CP approach.

With the programme coming to an end this year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on its successes.

Key take-aways on advocacy and capacity-building

For an overview of key learnings from the programme, see this set of publications_,_ available in multiple languages:

• Voice for Change Partnership in a nutshell: end of programme brief

• Food and nutrition security learning brief in English, French and Spanish

• Resilience learning brief in English and French

• Renewable energy learning brief in English, French and Spanish

• WASH learning brief in English and French

• For a taste of the type of evidence used by civil society in their advocacy, see this selection (LINK).

Country-specific highlights

For a taste of the activities and learnings from the six countries in which the V4CP programme worked, see:

• A synthesis of Honduran CSOs’ experiences (in Spanish)

  • La sociedad civil y la SAN: Programa V4CP y ASONOG

  • Acompañando mesas SAN: Programa V4CP y CDH

  • Sociedad civil, incidencias y políticas públicas: Programa V4CP y FOPRIDEH

  • Evidencia para la incidencia en políticas públicas de estufas mejoradas: Programa V4CP y Fundación Vida

  • El camino hacia la incidencia SAN: Programa V4CP y RDS-HN

• Video on V4CP Ghana’s stories of impact

• End of programme booklet V4CP Indonesia (in Bahasa)

• Stories of Change from Burkina Faso:

  • Advocating for a resilient rice sector

  • Power to the people: advancing solar energy in Burkina Faso

• Stories of Change from Rwanda:

  • Tackling budget allocation and expenditure for food and nutrition security (Story of Change)

  • A new law to fortify food

• Stories of Change videos and booklet from Kenya