Advocacy

Systems-Level Impact through the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill

In a global context of rising numbers of people affected by increasingly frequent and severe food security crises, CARE advocated for essential amendments in the 2018 Farm Bill to strengthen critical international food aid programs. CARE's advocacy for the 2018 Farm Bill was rooted in its focus on gender equality and systems change, which in this case meant advocating for a shift away from monetization in support of CARE’s long-term goals for transforming food aid from a commodity-centric model to one that enhances effectiveness, efficiency, and focus on systems change.

Central to CARE’s asks in the 2018 Farm Bill were efforts to end the mandate of monetization and provide greater certainty in the use of the Community Development Funds. Both of these asks would strengthen Food for Peace, a program authorized in the Farm Bill that provides in-kind food aid directly to communities and supports community self-sufficiency. CARE recognized the 2018 Farm Bill reforms, including ending mandatory monetization and expanding Community Development Funds, could strengthen local food systems, empower farmers, and build community resilience by prioritizing sustainable and effective food aid delivery. Read More...

Arts for Gender Equality Fellowship (A4GE)

This report details the Arts for Gender Equality Fellowship (A4GE), an initiative launched in 2023 by CARE with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. The fellowship aims to leverage the power of art to promote gender equality, empower women, and ignite social change. It brings together a cohort of global artists who use various forms of artistic expression—such as poetry, painting, photography, and performance art—to challenge societal norms, address gender-based violence, and raise awareness of women’s rights and leadership. These artists are strategically positioned to evoke empathy, spark critical conversations, and inspire collective action through their work. The project aims to create safe spaces for these artists while ensuring their work reaches a global audience to catalyze cultural shifts that traditional approaches may not achieve. Moving forward, the fellowship envisions working closely with women-led organizations to further CARE's goal of empowering 50 million women and girls to achieve greater gender equality by challenging structural inequalities.

Donor: Rockefeller Foundation
Total Page Count: 14 Read More...

CARE’s Fast and Fair COVID-19 campaign: Comprehensive local-to-global impact

Report available in English, French and Spanish

In November 2020, CARE launched the Fast and Fair campaign to push for fairness and efficiency in the global COVID-19 vaccination effort. We skillfully leveraged our global reach and influence to build and maintain support for more comprehensive funding for vaccine delivery while working hand-in-hand with national and local governments in 34 countries to get the vaccines into the arms of those most in need. Our advocacy and influencing of US and global policy, along with our deep engagement in communities and years of programming investments drove systems-level change that contributed to 21.2 million people getting fully vaccinated in 29 countries. To determine the comprehensive impact of the Fast and Fair campaign, we utilized country case studies, internal program data, and an external evaluation. These sources all affirmed CARE's advocacy and influencing contributions to the global vaccination effort, resulting in millions of vaccinations at the last mile. Read More...

Fast and Fair Country Case Studies: Mini Advocacy and Influencing Impact Reporting (AIIR) Tool Analysis

Fast and Fair Country Case Studies: Mini Advocacy and Influencing Impact Reporting (AIIR) Tool Analysis Read More...

Global Covid-19 Supplemental Campaign: A case study to assess the efficacy of CARE and the coalition’s advocacy strategies

Between December 2021 and late March 2022, CARE and five close allies led an ad hoc coalition advocating for US government approval of $17B in supplemental funding for global COVID-19 relief, specifically for resources to support vaccine delivery and front-line health workers. The purpose of this case study is to assess the effectiveness of the advocacy strategies employed by CARE and allies and draw out lessons to (1) inform future campaigning and (2) better integrate this type of assessment in CARE’s MEL activities. Read More...

Fighting for the Least Vaccinated

The global vaccination effort was generally considered inequitable and ineffective. Vaccination rates mostly followed an income-based pattern both in terms of onset of large-scale vaccination efforts and numbers of people vaccinated. Despite global efforts to address vaccine inequity, vaccination coverage in low-income countries has remained low, though the gap is shrinking. CARE USA, an international poverty fighting and human rights organization, began its Fast and Fair COVID vaccine initiative and advocacy campaign in late 2020 –relatively early in the pandemic period. As the campaign’s name suggests, CARE wanted to help steer the global vaccination effort down the path of fairness and efficiency. This evaluation is an assessment of whether and to what extent CARE, in collaboration with its partners, achieved its objectives Read More...

Climate Learning and Advocacy for Resilience (CLAR) Programme

Climate Learning and Advocacy for Resilience (CLAR) was a CARE Denmark global programme that during the years 2018-2021 provided technical support to CARE country programmes. The overall objective of CLAR was “Adaptive capacity and resilience of vulnerable communities to climate change impacts, risks and uncertainties has increased.” The programme had three interrelated specific objectives, focusing on (1) demonstrating good practice, innovation and impact in climate resilience, and generating new evidence and learning, (2) improving capacity and influence among CSOs and networks on global and national policies, plans and projects on climate change adaptation and finance, and (3) strengthening of climate knowledge brokering for multi-stakeholder, cross-discipline and South-South learning and coordination.
The intention with CLAR was to link practical approaches and outcomes in climate change adaptation work with influencing policy and planning processes, in particular national adaptation plans (NAPs) and finance. CLAR was to add value to CARE country programmes through the provision of technical support for integration of climate change adaptation implementation as well as cross-country learning and knowledge sharing. CLAR targeted both local, national, and global policy spaces to promote pro-poor, equitable and effective adaptation policies, and mechanisms. Through the Southern Voices on Adaptation (SVA) advocacy community of practice, CLAR supported the sharing of experiences and best practices in different contexts on how to influence adaptation policies and adaptation finance. Read More...

CARE West Africa: Women’s Collective Voice – Global Report FY2017-21

The CARE West Africa: Women’s Collective Voice - Global Report FY2017-21 outlines the Women on the Move (WOM) initiative, which empowers women and girls through the mobilization of savings groups, known as solidarity groups, to assert their rights and enhance their socio-economic status. By fostering connections among these groups and building alliances with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), the initiative promotes gender equality and social justice. The report highlights the ambitious goal of positively impacting 8 million women and girls by increasing their participation in decision-making processes and advocating for policies that benefit them. Notable successes include partnerships with private sector actors, such as Mars Wrigley Confectionery, and the integration of the Village Savings & Loan model into national strategies across several West African countries. Additionally, the WOM initiative has strengthened women’s leadership during crises, such as COVID-19, and improved their access to formal financial institutions, showcasing the transformative power of collective action in achieving gender justice.

Total Page Count: 26 Read More...

Midterm project evaluation: Enhancing social protection by empowering CSOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina

General objective:
‘Enhance the role of civil society actors in BiH, in providing services for marginalized populations and participating in design and implementation of relevant policies.’

Expected results:
O1 Strengthened organisational capacity and management of 7 targeted civil society organisations (CSOs) in BiH.

O2 Service provision of 7 targeted CSOs improved to meet the needs of their target groups (TG).

O3 7 targeted CSOs have strengthened their advocacy position and improved policies in specific areas of their mandate.
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CARE International Advocacy and Influencing: A Review of Pathways to Success

This report constitutes a review of 208 advocacy and influencing initiatives that reported having successfully influenced policies, plans and budgets. A sample of 31 cases were included in for review. These comprised influencing outcomes across 16 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and Europe. We estimate that outcomes these initiatives influenced have so far improved the lives of more than 4.2 million people, with the potential for future impacts for a further 116 million people. 20 cases were from national or local level policy, plan or budget influence in the global South, and 11 case from the global North, influencing donor strategies or international negotiations.

Overall, the top 4 strategies employed across the North and the global South were: (i) lobbying-decision-makers; (ii) coalition building; (iii) public forums and (iv) method replication. Twice as common as any other strategy was lobbying decision-makers. This was also judged to be the most effective strategy in both the South and the North. 23 initiatives employed some form of lobbying decision-makers, and in 19 of these it was ranked as the most influential strategy. This lobbying was commonly a form of “insider” approach where CARE and partners already had a good relationship with government line ministries, having built credibility and trust over a number of years. Particularly in the South, advocacy efforts were part of a strategy over more than five years. Such efforts demonstrate that long-term investment is required for policy change to materialise into impact. The main tactics or strategies which did not feature strongly were activism and campaigning such as marches, petitions and use of social media, and evidence for the use of research was also uneven. We consider why this may be the case in greater detail toward the end of the paper
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Keywords

Adolescents Agriculture AIDS Basic and Girls' Education Cash Vouchers Child Health Child Nutrition Civil Society and Governance Climate Change Conflict Mitigation COVID 19 COVID 19 RGA Disaster Risk Reduction Economic Development Education Emergency and Humanitarian Aid Entrepreneurship Environment FFBS Food Security Gender Gender Based Violence Gender Equality Health Livelihoods Maternal Migrants and Refugees Natural Resources Nexus Nutrition Resilience RGA Sexual Sexual and Reproductive Health Shelter Social Norms Usaid Vaccination Value Chain VSLA WASH Water Women's Economic Empowerment Women's Empowerment Youth