What is advocacy at Save the Children?

Advocacy is integral to Save the Children’s commitment to improving the lives of children.  Advocacy is defined as a set of organised activities designed to influence the policies and actions of others to achieve lasting and positive change for children.

Advocacy involves influencing the people who have decision-making power to create changes in attitudes, behaviour, policies or legislation so that they have a positive effect on children’s lives. This can be achieved through working with or directly lobbying decision-makers, including government, or by creating external pressure on decision-makers by raising public awareness of an issue through the media, campaigns or education.

At Save the Children, we act on behalf of children to influence the policies and actions of others in order to improve the lives of children.  Advocacy is about speaking out for children as well as empowering them to speak out for themselves.  It also means building the capacity and supporting the development of individuals, families and communities so they can advocate for change and hold governments accountable.  At Save the Children, our advocacy is based on the voices and priorities of the children and families we serve in communities around the world.

Save the Children's advocacy is also about making sure that policies designed to benefit children are put into practice.
It is a long-term process with specific objectives and clear goals in the short, medium and long-term.  Advocacy is not an end in itself but rather the means to an end – namely, achieving positive lasting change for children.

We encourage our supporters to advocate for children by getting involved and putting pressure on decision-makers to change policies and practices, both locally and globally, to make children's rights a reality. An example of this is Save the Children's stance on supporting a National Children's Commission. 

We also encourage our supporters to write to their locally elected representative in government about issues which impact the lives of children. For helpful tips on writing to your local representative, click here.

To see what stance we take on issues that affect the lives of children and young people check out all our position papers.