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The Advocacy Accelerator at Women Deliver
June 2016
In May, over 5,000 people from countries across
the globe gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark for
the Women Deliver 2016 Conference. The energy
and excitement coursing through the Bella Center
provided the perfect backdrop for the launch of
the Advocacy Accelerator, an emerging platform
for virtual and in-person learning, exchange, and
support for high-impact country-based advocacy.
Over the three-day conference, the Advocacy
Accelerator Exhibition Booth welcomed hundreds
of visitors and shared more than 180 of their photo
messages about what is possible with strong
advocacy via Twitter at #StrongAdvocacy and on
the walls of the booth.
Over thirty advocates participated in seven
intimate Advocacy Exchange discussions held in
the lounge area of the booth. These country-led
sessions offered advocates from around the world
the opportunity to learn, share, and connect
around specific regional and topical challenges and
opportunities for mobilizing communities and
engaging with policymakers.
One of the most vibrant discussions was led and
attended by youth who discussed what is needed
for them to have a more meaningful role in
informing and influencing the policies that affect
them. Two major themes that emerged from the
discussion were the desire for platforms that
promote greater alignment and learning between
youth advocates from across sectors and
geographies and to strengthen the capacity of
youth in both “hard” (e.g., research) and “soft”
(e.g., communications, negotiation, self-esteem)
advocacy skills. The youth exchange ended with an
appeal to the Advocacy Accelerator to ensure that
there is a space specifically designed to support
and strengthen youth leadership and engagement
in advocacy.
Over 180 visitors to the booth described what they thought was
possible with strong advocacy.
The Advocacy Accelerator booth hosted seven country-led
advocacy dialogues in the comfortable lounge area with a sofa
and chocolates!
Youth engaged in lively discussions of how to maximize their
influence and impact.

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Accountability was another common theme throughout the Advocacy Exchanges, starting with a dynamic
discussion of how scorecards can be designed and used to promote transparency and accountability of
government actions and ending in discussions of accountability for the rights of women in maternity care and a
session conducted in Spanish on accountability to ensure government action in Latin America. Advocacy
Exchanges, conducted in both English and French, also offered opportunities for local advocates to learn more
about and discuss civil society efforts to inform and engage with the Global Financing Facility for RMNCAH.
Despite the early hour, over fifty advocates and their supporters engaged with and heard from donors and
advocacy experts at the 7am event Maximizing advocacy impact: Shifting paradigms and practices hosted by
Catalysts for Change and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Participants and panelists alike, used the
release of the new report Strengthening country-based advocacy for maximum impact: What will it take? to
frame discussions of the greatest challenges and opportunities for stronger country-based advocacy. Through
an interactive exercise, attendees were asked to identify critical challenges and opportunities to country-based
advocacy capacity-strengthening, as well as specific recommendations for donors working in this space. A
document summarizing these findings have been posted on the Advocacy Accelerator Facebook page, and we
continue to engage the Advocacy Accelerator community in the discussion.
From left to right, Nigerian advocates discuss the use of scorecards to hold governments accountable; a Ugandan midwife describes
actions she is taking to protect the rights of women in pregnancy; and Latin American advocates discuss accountability in their region.
Advocacy exchanges also included discussions of how advocates can better inform the Global Financing Facility for RMNCAH; one for
French-speaking African advocates from Senegal and Burkina Faso (left) and another for advocates form Nigeria and Kenya (right).

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The Advocacy Accelerator community is growing and we thank all those who participated at Women Deliver. If
you haven’t already done so, we invite you to join the more than 80 members of the Advocacy Accelerator
Facebook Group and 200 Advocacy Accelerator Twitter followers to help inform and grow this exciting new
advocacy strengthening platform.
For more information about the Advocacy Accelerator
visit www.AdvocacyAccelerator.org.
Participants at the event Maximizing advocacy impact: Shifting paradigms and practices provide their perspectives on what
donors can do differently to strengthen country advocacy capacity and impact.
Emmanuel Mugisha from PATH Uganda (second from left) and Maty Dia from PMNCH in Senegal (far right) share their
perspectives on the challenges and opportunities to strengthening country-based advocacy impact, while Helena Choi from the
Hewlett Foundation (second from right) describes how donors are shifting strategies and practices to better support such efforts.