Marilou McPhedran, Canadian human right activist, explains her model of evidence-based advocacy that makes a link between gathering evidence to support an advocacy position.

There is a misconception that the passage of a law is an endpoint, a cause for celebration.  The predominant perspective is that the power to implement the law lies with bureaucrats but the truth is that if we don’t see advocacy at the community level, the law is probably not being implemented. Moreover, as advocates, if we are not investing in the kind of evidence that we to bring to make our case, then we are weakening our own positions.

Marilou’s model of evidence-based advocacy is based on the idea of respect between academia and governments for the enormous expertise and knowledge that lies within civil society, particularly community-based women rights groups. How do we make it work:
(i) Build flexible and resilient partnerships and coalitions with women’s groups – involve them early on in designing the research so that you can ask the relevant questions;
(ii) Continue to link advocacy to law-making, and ask the right questions so that the evidence can support the advocacy;
(iii) Set up long-term and short-term benchmarks that are achievable, and give a sense of accomplishment, without breeding complacency;
(iv) Plan for the long-term – five to 10 years – because it is only possible to track systemic change this way;
(v) In the absence of opportunities for face-to-face collaborations, take advantage of technology-based solutions;
(vi) Tap into students and the academic community who can be very interested in using their skills and learnings to work with groups on the ground.