Introduction.

• Author: Nyamweya, Pauline
• Position: ADVOCACY TRAINING MANUAL: SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS - Work overview

What is advocacy?

Advocacy is the effort to change public perceptions, and influence policy decisions and funding priorities. Advocacy involves making a case in favor of a particular issue, using skillful persuasion and strategic action. Advocates educate about an issue and suggest a specific solution. Advocacy is geared towards change: change in personal behaviour and attitude, change in the political and public debate, institutional change and legal change.

Why this training?

Advocating for sexual and reproductive health arises from the recognition that: reproductive and sexual health problems are caused by decisions made at the household level and from decisions made within community leadership structures, national legislatures, international organizations, and powerful institutions.

Advocacy strategies will therefore enable the participants to effectively:

* influence policy makers as a means of addressing policy level causes of sexual and reproductive health needs and problems.

* contribute more effectively to reducing and preventing deaths and suffering by using a wider range of interventions.

* reach a large segment of the population and broaden the scope of their impact.

Approach to Training

This training manual presents advocacy as a skill that relates to all areas of sexual and reproductive health (SRHR). It emphasizes the skills and knowledge required to advocate for comprehensive SRHR needs and rights, and address the combination of socio-cultural, economic, personal, and service-delivery factors that influence the decision-making process. It describes some of the steps in organizing campaigns and provides information on developing, implementing, and evaluating a successful rights-based advocacy strategy. These skills are to be imparted in a two-day workshop covering six key sessions. This core manual is supplemented by participant handouts that focus on the specific advocacy skills and concerns.

The training manual recognizes that inequalities between women and men, as well as different norms for women's and men's sexual behaviour, affect the SRHR of men and women. In addition, the manual explores ways in which violations of men's and women's sexual and reproductive health rights impact on their ability to access care, treatment, and support. Integrated throughout the manual is an overall philosophy of reducing the social, gender, cultural, economic, and legal barriers to effective SRHR care of men and women.

The manual is intended for a wide variety of cultural settings...