Unit rationale, description and aim
Advocacy is a strategic method for achieving positive social change through persuasion and diplomacy, trust and relationship building, education and information, use of communication and media, and strategic partnership and an essential component of international development practice.
Since the 1960s, international non-governmental organisations have pioneered information and media strategies to address human rights abuses and injustice across the world. This subject investigates the practice of human rights-based advocacy from practitioner and interdisciplinary academic perspectives. It focuses attention on the history of transnational activism, its effectiveness and challenges. The subject will discuss in what ways international NGOs target individual states, corporations and other non-state actors. It will also draw on lessons learned from some of the major recent global campaigns focused on topics such as anti-personnel landmines, women’s rights and global poverty. This unit will explore how to develop and implement advocacy strategies to address human rights campaigns. The unit aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop skills and processes of individual and systemic advocacy in settings relevant to international development
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Describe, compare and critique applications of hum...
Learning Outcome 01
Critically evaluate the role of international NGOs...
Learning Outcome 02
Analyse how international NGOs target individual s...
Learning Outcome 03
Develop and implement an advocacy strategy for a h...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
- Understanding advocacy in humanitarian and development contexts
- Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of advocacy campaign strategies and tactics
- Developing an Advocacy Campaign
- Digital and celebrity advocacy
- Monitoring and Evaluating Advocacy
- Managing Risks in Advocacy
- Building Relationships and Securing Partnerships.
- Working with communities in advocacy
- Influencing policy through advocacy
- Indigenous and First Nations responses to advocacy and allyship
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessments in this unit encourage students to undertake practical project-based learning to develop the skills required to create an advocacy campaign. Students learn about and reflect on exemplars of advocacy campaigns via a tutorial presentation and engage with the literature surrounding advocacy via an essay. The schedule provides scaffolded learning with opportunities for students to monitor their own progress, practise their skills and receive feedback.
Overview of assessments
Tutorial Presentation: Case Study of an Advocacy ...
Tutorial Presentation: Case Study of an Advocacy Campaign
This task develops knowledge and judgement of advocacy strategies drawn from human rights based approaches.
20%
Essay This essay assesses students’ analytical s...
Essay
This essay assesses students’ analytical skills to aid in the examination and critique of advocacy campaigns.
40%
Development of an Advocacy Campaign Students syn...
Development of an Advocacy Campaign
Students synthesise knowledge and skills developed through the unit to develop and implement an advocacy strategy for a humanitarian or development situation.
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit engages students in active learning activities, such as reading, writing, discussion and problem-solving to promote analysis, synthesis and evaluation of class content. Students encounter ideas in seminar settings and through discussion, group work and examinations of case studies develop skills in applying these ideas. Students undertake practical project-based learning with the goal of developing their analytical, problem solving, decision making and investigative skills with regard to advocacy campaigns.
This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts, video etc.