An Array of Influential Factors for Analyzing Policy Advocacy

Abstract

This article presents an analytic approach to assessing the relationship between policy advocacy activities and outcomes for discrete episodes of advocacy, using a holistic array of factors that affect the relationship between advocacy and policy change. The factors pertain to not only advocacy organizational structure and strategies, but also the policy environment, the policy issue and available options to address it, and technical assistance that advocates receive. By focusing on the entire context in which advocates operate, this approach can be used to assess both advocacy campaign strategies and the broader contextual factors that contribute to advocacy outcomes. The array of factors also facilitates analytic generalizability across advocacy episodes, as evaluators can compare the role of similar factors across advocacy efforts. This analytic approach is illustrated by its application to a multiple case study evaluation of Voices for Healthy Kids.