The Nutrition Cluster was established in 2006 as part of the Humanitarian Reform process. It is a partnership that aims to safeguard and improve the nutritional status of emergency affected populations by ensuring an appropriate Nutrition in Emergency (NiE) response at country level that is predictable, timely, effective, and at scale.
Within the context of the Nutrition Cluster Strategic Plan 2014-2016, a series of consultations were carried out to develop the Nutrition Cluster Advocacy Strategic Framework 2016-2019, ensuring it was relevant and grounded in the experiences of the Nutrition Cluster.
The Nutrition Cluster Advocacy Strategic Framework 2016-2019 provides high level overall strategic direction and focus to guide the further development of Nutrition Cluster advocacy at all levels. This toolkit intends to assist the Cluster Lead Agency (CLA), UNICEF, Nutrition Cluster Coordinators, Information Management Officers, and Nutrition Cluster partners at country and global levels to develop, implement and monitor the parts of the Global Nutrition Advocacy Strategic Framework 2016-2019 that relate to them.
The Nutrition Cluster Advocacy Toolkit is not meant as a stand-alone guide on how to carry out advocacy activities. Instead, it is a practical guide for advocacy. It provides key questions for reflection, basic advocacy pointers and some advocacy tools to support Nutrition Cluster partners through the different stages of the advocacy cycle with a specific focus on advocacy for nutrition in humanitarian contexts. Previous advocacy experiences from the Nutrition Cluster and its partner organisations are used to illustrate the different areas in which advocacy can work.
Key Elements
Fundamentally, advocacy is a set of organised activities aimed at influencing the policies and actions of those in power to achieve positive outcomes. While there can be many different definitions of advocacy, some of its key elements are as follows:
- It is about influencing policies, practice, attitudes and the political enabling environment
- It aims to achieve lasting and positive outcomes in peoples’ lives
- It is strategic. It is planned. It is with clear goals and objectives
- It is a long term process rather than a one-off event
- It is not an end in itself
- It draws legitimacy and credibility from knowledge and experience (evidence-base)
You can download this Toolkit for free here.
