Hello friends, Long time no see!
Work life balance has not struck this weekend and I'm smack in the middle of an otherwise amazing forum with colleagues from around the world. Therefore, allow me to break character and bring a little playfulness to ED’s Kona today.
Recently, my friend from Malawi asked me how we navigate health financing advocacy in Kenya. I explained a little about how health is devolved and how we approach budget advocacy at county level. Afterwards, I sent her a one page budget advocacy resource we developed at the Alliance.
It got me thinking.
Over the years, our team and partners have developed quite a number of practical resources, often because we encountered a challenge ourselves, learned something useful, and thought, someone else shouldn't have to start from scratch.
So, for this ED’s Kona, I went back through our resource library and picked 10 resources I find particularly useful and why.
Going through these resources reminded me that our work does not only produce activities and outputs, it also produces knowledge. Sometimes that knowledge is a formal workbook. Sometimes it is a one page explainer. Sometimes it is a collection of people's stories, a visual history, or a practical note capturing what worked and what we would do differently next time.
And perhaps part of our responsibility as civil society organisations is to document more of that knowledge and make it available. Because if we have already learned something the difficult way, someone else really shouldn't have to start from scratch.
Those are ten from our shelf. There are more.
1. Kaa Rada na Bajeti: A one pager on budget advocacy
This is the resource that inspired this post.
Budget advocacy can sound unnecessarily intimidating: CIDPs, ADPs, CFSPs, CBROPs, Controller of Budget, public participation..the acronyms alone almost discouraged me from advocacy when I was starting out.
Kaa Rada na Bajeti breaks the county budget making process down into plain language, how budgets are formulated, approved, implemented and audited, the key documents to look out for, and, importantly, what a young person can actually do; participate in consultations, advocate for youth friendly programmes, monitor implementation and hold leaders accountable.
Why I like it: You shouldn't need to be a public finance expert to understand how public money is being allocated. I love resources that take something technical and make it usable. This one does exactly that.
2. Understanding the Triple Threat through the Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2022
Sometimes the evidence we need for advocacy already exists, the challenge is making it accessible and showing what it means for the issues we work on.
This resource pulls out findings from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey relevant to young people's SRHR, including HIV prevention, teenage pregnancy and related indicators, and pairs the findings with advocacy messages. For example, it highlights disparities in HIV prevention knowledge by age, education and place of residence rather than simply presenting a national figure.
Why I like it: A 500 page survey is useful, but very few advocates have time to carry one into every meeting. I like that this takes national evidence and asks the more useful question, what does this mean for our advocacy?
3. Navigating ODPC registration as a nonprofit
This is one of our very practical ones.
Civil society organisations collect a lot of personal information from programme participants, staff, partners and communities but navigating data protection requirements can feel technical. This guide walks organisations through determining whether they are a data controller, processor or both, preparing the required documents, completing the application and avoiding common registration mistakes.
Why I like it: Because sometimes capacity strengthening isn't a workshop. Sometimes it is simply saying, “We figured this process out, here are the steps so you don't have to struggle through it too.
4. A Mini Handbook on Sexual and Gender Based Violence
This handbook was designed to make information about SGBV understandable and useful to everyone. It explains what SGBV is and covers different forms of violence, consent, rape, survivor support, common myths and misconceptions, and where to seek help.
And I particularly like that the language isn't unnecessarily clinical. It uses familiar examples and even mixes English and Sheng to explain concepts in ways young people can recognise in everyday life.
Why I like it: Information only becomes useful when the people it is intended for can actually understand and use it. And when you're talking about violence, knowing what to do next matters just as much as knowing the definition, the handbook therefore also includes referral and emergency contacts.
5. A Map of the Pleasure Journey in Africa
One of my favourites, partly because it is beautiful.
This visual resource looks back at histories and understandings of sexuality and pleasure across African societies. It challenges the tendency to discuss pleasure and sex positivity as though these ideas arrived on the continent yesterday.
Why I like it: Our conversations about sexuality in Africa and in SRHR programming are often framed almost entirely around risk, morality and what should not happen. I like anything that makes us curious about our own histories and reminds us that African sexuality has always had histories, language, knowledge and complexity of its own.
6. Pleasure 101: A Short Guide to Pleasure and Sex Positive CSE
This guide asks what happens when Comprehensive Sexuality Education goes beyond preventing pregnancy, HIV and violence and also talks about bodily autonomy, communication, consent, relationships and pleasure.
It argues for pleasure as part of sexual wellbeing and shows how pleasure inclusive CSE can move sexuality education away from fear and shame towards agency, informed choice and healthier relationships.
Why I like it: Young people deserve sexuality education that prepares them not only to avoid negative outcomes but to understand their bodies, communicate boundaries and make informed decisions about their sexuality.
7. Strengthening Community Based Organisations: A Best Practice Note
This resource captures lessons from actually working alongside grassroots organisations rather than assuming organisational strengthening means just inviting everyone to a three day training and going home. It's a continuous journey and one that needs time and care.
One of its important lessons is to strengthen the organisation before strengthening its advocacy and to accompany organisations through change rather than simply transferring knowledge.
Why I like it: Because sustainable advocacy requires sustainable organisations. We sometimes invest heavily in guiding CBO’s on what to advocate for without investing enough in the systems, governance and institutional capacity that allow them to keep doing that work after a project ends.
8. Elewa Stories: A Narrative of Change
I have a soft spot for this one because it documents people, not just outputs.
Elewa captures stories from facilitators and SRHR actors involved in strengthening sex-positive, pleasure based CSE in Kenya. The stories show shifts away from fear and stigma and towards agency, informed choice and more open conversations about sexuality.
Why I like it: We are very good in development work at documenting how many people attended something. We are sometimes less good at documenting what actually changed for them. One facilitator in Elewa Stories puts it beautifully: “CSE teaches young people how to understand their bodies, set boundaries, and ask questions safely. That is protection.”
Sometimes the story tells you something the indicator cannot.
9. Your SRHR Policy Advocacy Workbook
This is for anyone who has ever looked at a policy process and wondered, where and how exactly am I supposed to enter this thing?
The workbook explains Kenya's policy making process and the opportunities available to civil society and young people at national and county level. It goes beyond definitions to practical entry points, making submissions, coalition building, contributing evidence, influencing zero drafts, attending drafting sessions, using media, monitoring implementation and tracking resource allocation.
Why I like it: Policy advocacy can look mysterious from the outside. It isn't. There are entry points, actors, processes and moments where influence is possible. Understanding those makes advocacy much more intentional.
10. How to Implement a Youth Accountability Model
This resource documents the Red Card youth accountability approach and provides a practical journey for organisations wanting to support young people to hold decision makers accountable from assessing the community context and building the youth team to designing the campaign, engaging decision-makers and documenting learning.
Why I like it: We talk a lot about “meaningful youth participation.” This resource moves us from saying young people should have a voice to thinking practically about how they can organise, generate evidence, engage power and demand accountability for themselves.
And since I apparently went looking through our own resource library and surprised myself, perhaps that's also my reminder to the rest of the Alliance team to get better at stopping long enough to document the work before we race off to the next thing.
Which one would you pick up first?