Remember, this is not your vision. This is the time to set goals for your specific advocacy campaign or project. These goals need to address your problem. These goals are set for a limited time frame. You and your team may want to explore and use the Advocacy Evaluation Toolkit. This resource can help you evaluate your advocacy.

Develop a medium to longer-term goal (3 to 5 years)

Return to your problem statement. Consider how each of the human rights-based tactical aims might address your problem. Identify which aim will best address your problem: prevention, intervention, promotion or restorative. 

You may find it useful to use the “SMART” framework to develop a campaign or project goal. Develop your goal statement. Then check if the goal statement meets the “SMART” requirements.

• STRATEGIC and SPECIFIC: Your goal is strategic. Your team understands which human rights-based tactical aim will address your problem statement. Your goal statement is specific. Your team has a clear understanding of what you seek to accomplish.  
• MEASURABLE: Your team will be able to determine the degree of your success in reaching your goal. 
• ACHIEVABLE: Your goal provides a challenge for your team to accomplish. But the goal is attainable to reach with your resources. 
• RELEVANT: Your goal helps to address your identified problem. Your human rights-based tactical aim provides your team with important guidance.
• TIME-BOUND: Your goal has a limited timeframe. Consider the time required for your team to achieve this goal with your resources.

Identify immediate outcomes you want your advocacy to achieve

Consider the four important outcome areas for achieving successful human rights-based advocacy: research, internal capacity building, mobilization and engaging decision makers. The Advocacy Evaluation Toolkit provides a worksheet for Choosing Outcomes and Success Markers to identify targets for your goals. This can help you better understand the impact you want. This is where you can strengthen your initiative. 

Who in your human relationship terrain can help you reach your goal? They may be addressing the problem from the same or different human rights-based tactical aim. Where do you see opportunities for working with others? Building collaborations? Sharing information or resources? 

You will be able to track this information. You can know when you need to change course and celebrate successes.

Identify “targets” or “actors” to achieve your selected outcomes 

Use your tactical map and spectrum of allies to identify others working on your identified problem.  Explore this researched list of advocacy outcomes to help you identify your targets for action. This list provides common advocacy outcomes in the areas of research, internal capacity building, mobilization and engaging decision makers. These ideas can help you identify:

• Who on your spectrum of allies can help you reach your goal. 
• What you want or hope for them to do.
• How they can help you reach your goal. 

It is also important to know when you have succeeded in your advocacy. Creating good success markers helps you to know when you have succeeded. Be sure to keep in mind how each of these outcomes contribute to achieving your medium or long-term goal.

Explore and choose tactics to move your “targets” or “actors” to take action

The key to success is choosing effective tactics to reach your specific goals. You need tactics that will move each target toward your desired outcome.  It is especially helpful to verify the position of your target on your spectrum of allies. It is important to know if your target is actually a “passive ally” rather than an “active ally”. Different kinds of tactics are needed depending on the target’s position on the spectrum of allies. 

The Spectrum of Allies Measure of Change worksheet will help you verify the position of your target. You can use this same worksheet to track the effectiveness of your tactics. 

This is where your knowledge of tactics is important. Your outcomes and success markers can give good ideas for tactics that might be effective. Your knowledge of tactics can shape the strategy you choose. 

Tactics manifest differently. It is very important to remember that tactical choices and implementation are influenced by:

• Target: the position on the spectrum, characteristics of the target, position of power, etc.
• Capacity of your team: resources, allies and support networks – national or international, legal limitations, etc. 
• Opponent analysis: potential risks, safety and security harms to you and your team
• Context: social, political, cultural impacts of using the tactic 

The importance here is to decide whether or not a tactic is appropriate for the target. If the tactic will work for reaching the immediate goal. If your team can carry out the tactic given your resources. If the tactic is appropriate for your context. You have determined the risks to carrying out the tactic. You have assessed that the dangers do not outweigh the benefits.

Use the online Tactical Mapping Tool to track your goals, outcomes, and targets for your tactics. Use the New Tactics Online Searchable Tactics Database to expand your knowledge of tactics.  These tactic ideas come from around the world. Consider how a tactic idea can be adapted to your context and identified problem.  This will help you determine your tactics and use your limited resources effectively. 

Strategic and tactical thinking is essential to effective human rights advocacy.

Done exploring tactics? Continue to Step 5 of our methodology: Take Action.

RESOURCES

Article: The Need for New Tactics

This brief article is featured in the New Tactics book, New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners (pages 12 – 18). It provides an excellent overview with strategic insights for human rights advocates. It highlights historical roots of human rights tactical actions. Expanding our strategic and tactical thinking capacities is essential to diversify, adapt, innovate and implement effective tactics. 

Worksheet: Choosing Outcomes and Success Markers

This is a guide for selecting Outcomes and Success Markers for a campaign’s advocacy actions. It can assist you and your team in identifying targets and tactics for action. Use this guide to identify good Outcomes and Success Markers. These are key parts for evaluating a campaign’s success.

Worksheet: Guidance for a More Manageable Human Rights-Based Advocacy Evaluation

Evaluation can support and help advance advocacy work. A challenge is that evaluation plans can become too difficult to use and manage. Use this guide to help you create a good evaluation plan for your advocacy.

Worksheet: Spectrum of Allies Measure of Change

The goal of advocacy is to identify and move people (targets) closer to your position and goals for action. This helps you assess changes in the position of your advocacy targets before and after your tactical actions. Use this guide to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your tactics. And celebrate your successes!