Advocacy Impact Assessment Guidelines

The United Kingdom Department for International Development's (DFID's) major advocacy activities most often focus on influencing agencies and governments to invest in infrastructure. However, according to DFID, it is hard to find concrete evidence of the contributions that advocacy makes towards poverty eradication.

In this resource, guidelines are provided for an approach that many NGOs take to assess advocacy impacts. Being clear about the changes needed means that organisations can develop measurable advocacy objectives. Designing indicators that act as milestones towards the achievement of objectives provides a basis in the search for evidence.

There are different types of advocacy impacts, known as different dimensions of change, and this document describes some indicators for the following dimensions: changes in policies and their implementation, private sector change, strengthening civil society, aiding democracy and improving the material situation of individuals.