In an era of Trump, Brexit, the global gag rule and increased spending of official development assistance domestically, advocacy campaigns highlighting the benefits and value of investing in development and developing countries are increasingly important.
It is not just an era of stagnated politics, but fake news and targeted news, with social media responsible for telling people at both extremes of politics what they want to hear. Making inroads into these groups can be very difficult.
But for advocacy campaigns to make a bigger impact, experts are urging that strategies be developed as part of the campaign to include measurements of impact. And by sharing these outcomes among the development community, future campaigns can avoid what did not work, expand on what did and be better prepared for barriers to making an impact.