Global Business Plan for Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5 - Advocacy Plan

This 6-page Executive Summary describes research done in preparation for developing an advocacy plan to support the Global Business Plan (GBP), developed to get Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] 4 (reducing maternal mortality) and 5 (reducing child mortality) on track. "This report covers the first phase of the Advocacy Plan. This involved... identifying three donor countries (Norway, [United Kingdom] UK and Japan) and three developing countries/states (Pakistan, Orissa State in India, and Tanzania) to provide information on key issues necessary for the development of a global campaign. This report presents the findings of research and mapping capacity and resources for advocacy; audiences and stakeholders for advocacy; identification of lessons learned from earlier advocacy processes; and analysis of advocacy messages that have/have not worked in the past."


This research on maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) advocacy in the three developing countries was done through face-to-face interviews with a wide range of stakeholders (government, donor, media, non-governmental organisation (NGO), and civil society). Information on donor country perspectives was gathered by telephone interviews with stakeholders in Japan, Norway, and the UK. The following were found to be the key advocacy challenges:

• Communicating key issues on MNCH to civil society as part of social mobilisation: 1) using less exclusive language than that used often by development professionals, and 2) avoiding language and acronyms (such as ‘MDGs’) commonly understood by the development community;
• Raising the priority of MDGs 4 and 5 to an equal footing with current geo-political
  concerns;
• Mobilising development NGOs to focus on MDGs 4 and 5 through direct advocacy to, in turn, mobilise their memberships and increase awareness with civil society and media;
• Ensuring that donor governments monitor expenditure on MDGs 4 and 5 against their commitments;
• Harmonising and coordinating donor-inspired global health initiatives;
• Increasing the prioritisation of MNCH objectives within policy documents;
• Channelling policy commitments into budget support for interventions that will impact on maternal, newborn, and child mortality; and
• Changing cultural beliefs in relation to the importance of the role of healthy mothers and children.

The research found that in the 3 countries there was a limited number of NGOs working on these MDGs; and advocacy efforts were small and not coordinated. The audiences identified for advocacy were parliamentarians and government officials, civil society, and the media. Potential champions were identified in each location, from royalty and celebrities to eminent researchers. However, interviewees in the developing countries also highlighted the need to identify non-celebrity potential champions to emphasise the relevance of MDGs 4 and 5 to all individuals, households, and communities.


Messages, as stated here, need to be stronger, clearer, and more coordinated; and there is a need for greater use to be made of national and international events as opportunities to highlight the unacceptably high levels of mortality among mothers, newborns, and children. For this kind of message content, "data on the scale of the problem and also on progress and success stories is essential....Contrasting the child, newborn and maternal mortality data of developing countries with domestic figures is seen to be a powerful way of highlighting the injustices of the situation, although the developing countries also highlighted the need to ‘bring the message back home’ by making south-south comparisons as well as highlighting district or provincial disparities in mortality rates....Although there was no dispute that MDGs 4 and 5 are intrinsically linked to basic human rights, there was a consensus of opinion that the advocacy campaign should focus strongly on the loss of actual (in the case of mothers) and potential (in the case of newborns and children) human capital, and emphasise the importance of women’s domestic and economic labour to maintaining healthy households. For both civil society and media, simple, powerful, understandable messages are urgently required, plus human interest stories to demonstrate how resources save the lives of mothers and children."


The article concludes that: "There is...a need for a single institution to take on the role of effective leadership to coalesce the network of concerned individuals. There is also a need for a clear and strong externally resonating frame...[and] an urgent need to build advocacy capacity in developing countries. This requires a mix of aid instruments, including financing mechanisms that channel donor funds direct to civil society groups – as a complement to budget support to government. There is also a need for immediate provision of specialist support and strengthening of advocacy skills....This could be achieved by donor funding for specialist technical assistance, including linking advocacy specialists (from global through to community based advocacy) with country-based organisations and individuals." Additional recommendations include: encouragement of journalists, through providing a stream of compelling stories, data, and briefings; developing a "singular, positive brand and associated messaging"; focusing on the advocacy of men and showcasing the positive role of fathers and sons in caring for wives and children; establishment of an international research institute and collaborative forum as a strong institutional lead in data collection and dissemination; and framing the debate on both "the ‘[economic] opportunity cost’ of lives lost or damaged by childbirth, and by poor health", and "the injustice of the drastically reduced life chances of women, babies and children... in the context of resources devoted to providing military hardware to those countries" rather than resources to enhance the lives of mothers and children.