Learning about Advocacy, A Case-Study of Challenges, Everyday Practices

Advocacy has become an important area of development support. Simultaneously, the interest in learning-oriented monitoring of advocacy programmes has increased. Starting from the premise that learning has sociopolitical dimensions, this article explores how the challenges and contradictions of such monitoring present themselves in Latin American advocacy activities supported by a Danish NGO. Our case-study demonstrates that two largely separate monitoring systems coexist. Side by side with a conventional formal and indicator-based monitoring system, project staff and stakeholders have developed a more informal and dialogical mode of monitoring advocacy. Although the latter has potential advantages from a learning perspective, the article demonstrates that its actual contribution to organizational learning is suboptimal and points to several sociopolitical obstacles and influences that lead to limited learning.The article concludes that the improvement of learning-oriented monitoring first and foremost requires affirmative `political' action and leadership towards widening the space for learning and reflexivity.