Advocating Together: The Power of Alliances for Maternal Health

This toolkit was created to provide guidance for civil society organisations (CSOs) to establish or strengthen alliances for maternal health advocacy. It was produced following a mapping exercise of organisations, partnerships, and networks engaged in maternal health advocacy, as well as the advocacy goals, strategies, resources, and core messages being used by these organisation. "A key recommendation emerging from the mapping activity is for maternal health advocates to 'speak with one voice,' a coordinated mechanism by which the growing and diverse body of advocacy organisations in a country can work together to promote synergy and advance a common message, agenda, and strategy." The toolkit is designed to respond to the recommendation and help organisations more effectively advocate for policy change by working together as an alliance.
The toolkit provides a "step-by-step approach to working with partners in a national-level alliance to advocate for maternal health policy change." It also includes links to resources for additional information and case examples to illustrate some of the advocacy concepts and approaches covered. The toolkit is divided into three major sections, each providing steps CSOs can take.

• Section 1: Analysing the Maternal Health Environment - in order to decide if working with an alliance is advantageous
• Section 2: Working Together in an Advocacy Alliance - by either joining an established alliance or creating a new one
• Section 3: Planning Advocacy Activities as an Alliance - by taking into account the political context and ways an alliance can effectively reach decision-makers.