Resources search

In 2007, a Norwegian theatre director Morten Traavik arrived in Cambodia to stage a beauty pageant, with funding from the government of Norway, for girls and women who had lost limbs in landmine explosions. This opinion article analyses the project which "continues to raise questions about what it means for a foreign project to offer 'freedom' and 'opportunity' to women with disabilities in Cambodia and stoke debates about the sexualisation of women with disabilities from the global South"

"This manual offers an introduction to information design. It is intended to provide NGOs with a useful and powerful tool for advocacy and research"

This toolkit raises awareness around the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and aims to mobilise support for its ratification. It is a practical guide divided into 3 sections, covering general information about the convention; ratification advocacy tools; and media tools. Essentially this is a step-by-step guide for planning a ratification campaign in different contexts, containing sample letters, publicity materials and other useful resources. The handbook would be of use to anyone with an interest in promoting disability rights

This publication presents the activities and lessons learned from a project which sought to halve malnutrition among preschool children, raise primary school enrollment, reduce dropout and repetition rates, improve psycho-social and cognitive development, and increase the number of mothers practicing appropriate childcare. A strategic communication programme was designed to help mothers and other caregivers adopt new behaviours needed to achieve project outcomes. It helped the project team identify necessary changes in behaviour, knowledge or attitude for all target audiences; frame project-related issues relevant to different stakeholders, such as parliamentarians, mothers, community leaders, educators, and local government administrators; craft persuasive messages according to their needs, concerns and perceptions; and use the most appropriate communication channels. The communication strategy included a: national advocacy effort aimed at parliamentarians, health and education ministry officials, district and community leaders; multi-media campaign that emphasized three behaviour change interventions; training programme for health workers and pre-school teachers on their role; and monitoring and evaluation component to ensure that materials were disseminated via cost-effective channels of communication and that messages reached target audiences. Lessons learned emphasize the value of developing a comprehensive communication strategy during project design.

This accessible reference tool is part of the Rough Guide series, which includes more than 300 titles. It offers a simple introduction to the concepts of development, poverty and poverty alleviation, inequality, fair trade, volunteering, advocacy and activism

A guide to lobbying and advocating in the United States by mobilising others, contacting congressional representatives, and using the media (eg newspapers)

This training resource is designed primarily for people working in the not-for-profit sector, including researchers, scientists, project managers, team members, campaigners, fundraisers, social activists and writers. Divided into three sections: 'Effective Writing: Core Skills', 'Writing for Science', and 'Writing for Advocacy'. 'Effective Writing: Core Skills' helps to develop the skills needed to write clearly and purposefully, organise ideas and express them well. 'Writing for Science' shows how to produce writing for publication in specialist journals. It teaches how to build on the core skills of effective writing and add further skills that apply to this specialised type of writing. This section gives a better chance of getting published, discusses the ethics of authorship, how to respond to editors and correct proofs. 'Writing for Advocacy' contains a wealth of advice on how to win hearts and minds and how to adapt core writing skills to lobbying or campaigning documents. The section looks at articles, leaflets, newsletters, pamphlets, press releases and posters. Extra features include a resource centre with suggestions for further reading and links to useful websites and resources

An extensive annotated bibliography of 100 documents relevant to 'bridging research and policy'. Mainstream literature is supplemented with alternative viewpoints. The bibliography has been divided into three key themes ('bridging research and policy: the political context', 'the actors: networks, organisations, individuals', 'the message and the media'), including 'new' subject areas that may be useful (eg social psychology, media studies, marketing and communication). The entries are listed alphabetically by author, and then cross-indexed by theme, and by academic discipline