How to increase budget allocations for SRHR at the local level

Advocating for increased budget allocation should be structured and well-organised.

It can support:

• greater allocation of resources for SRHR
• improved transparency and management of resources dedicated to SRHR
• greater accountability of funders

Budget advocacy allows your organisation to be involved in how the government allocates and spends its resources and how these resources meet the needs of different population groups. Budget advocacy for health includes strategic communications and campaigning, to change the way public resources are used in the delivery of health services.

At the local level, this often involves the use of social mobilisation of communities to drive change at the most decentralised levels – linking citizens with policy making via local elected representatives.

In turn, this can boost national advocacy by offering examples and case studies that can be adopted at the national level.

We conducted a situation analysis as a prelude to the development of the Community Development Plan in the local authorities of Savalou and Bante.

We successfully advocated for the inclusion of a budget line for family planning of CFA100,000.

We established a consultation framework at the city level for women’s empowerment in Savalou and Bante, to ensure gender-sensitive policies and budgets and monitoring of commitments.

Our advocacy meetings with the local council in Bante led to the creation of a direct budget line for family planning.

Local level advocacy is a very powerful strategy as key decision-makers at the decentralised level:

• are more accessible than decision-makers at the national level, both in terms of calendars and costs
• feel more accountable towards their constituents and this drives them to take action
• communities and stakeholders feel empowered as they can be directly involved in advocacy
• relationships developed or sustained with decentralised and deconcentrated authorities are key to mobilising key actors
• monitoring commitments is easier as key actors are involved from the start in advocacy efforts

• Take part in all processes linked to the creation or monitoring and evaluation of strategic documents at your level (e.g. City Development Plans, Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, etc.)
• Make sure you are involved in data collection for your local-level statistics (share reports from NGOs with city councils and deconcentrated and decentralised authorities)
• To more effectively mobilise key actors for advocacy, timing is key: avoid weekends or any other social event (burial, baptism, wedding)
• Link social and political mobilisation: obtaining a critical mass of allies within communities (women’s groups, youth movements, religious leaders) will add weight to your advocacy efforts.