Monitoring progress
Monitoring, evaluation and learning will help you assess whether your advocacy efforts are on track to achieve the objectives you set during planning.
As there is no one-size-fits-all approach to advocacy, monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) comes in many forms. Naturally, MEL should be in proportion to the size of your advocacy effort. When resources are short or the scope of an advocacy activity is small, a self-evaluation, conducted with partners, may provide useful feedback. With longer, more resource-intensive campaigns, it may be advisable to engage an outside evaluator to conduct an assessment or engage partners in a survey, focus groups or other evaluation methodology.
Monitoring creates an opportunity to step back at regular intervals to assess the strengths of your efforts and areas where it can be improved. Evaluations put you in a position to learn from your work, share your experience and apply the lessons to future endeavours. Above all, MEL is the best way to understand when you need to change strategies, adapt your tactics or reset your objectives.
In the context of health-climate advocacy, the highest-level measure of a campaign’s success is an improvement in public health. However, this outcome may take significant time to achieve: Time frames may be unpredictable and outcomes may also be influenced by large socioeconomic or demographic factors out of your control. For that reason, it is important to assess the activities, not just the final impact.
Download the key questions for monitoring, evaluation and learning worksheet
Tracking national standards and action for health and climate
Monitoring and evaluation in the WHO action plan focuses on high-level changes to the health-climate situation. It measures change at the regional and country level through indicators tracking national health action plans, health-climate partnerships and collaborations, and assessments of the burden of disease from air pollution and poor water and sanitation. In addition, the plan tracks data relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, such as mortality in disasters, prevalence of malnutrition and access to safe drinking water.
Right-sizing monitoring and evaluation
The size of your monitoring, evaluation and learning activities should be in proportion to your advocacy effort.
Community-building on the internet
As more people gain access to the internet, online platforms are becoming an increasingly important venue for advocacy, learning and collaboration. Virtual communities are an example.
Case in point: 350.org, a virtual platform formed in 2008 by a group of university students. Described as an “international movement of ordinary people,” 350.org focuses on mitigating climate change by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Named for 350 parts per million – the safe con
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