Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions It also provides the NHRI with valuable information and “lessons learned” that can inform future media events that it will stage. There will be a range of other campaign elements – for example, the effectiveness of social media strategies – that the NHRI will need to monitor and evaluate during the course of the campaign. This information should be provided on a regular basis to the campaign steering committee so it can assess whether the overall campaign strategy is still appropriate or whether some parts of the strategy need to change. Campaigns take place in the real world and circumstances can change, often quickly. Regular monitoring and evaluation helps you to chart what is happening and then respond positively and proactively. Measuring your impact Once the campaign has concluded, the NHRI should evaluate the progress that has been made towards its goal since the campaign was launched. This should include documenting intended and unintended outcomes, as well as positive and negative changes.26 You may be able to demonstrate that some or all of your SMART objectives have been achieved, such as changes to laws, policies or practices of government. However, other changes may not be immediately clear, such as the impact of those changes to laws, polices or practices in the day-to-day lives of people and communities. More time may need to pass before these impacts can be fully assessed. Other changes that occurred along the way may have be the result of factors completely separate to the campaign, such as a landmark court decision or a change in government. Be honest in your evaluation about the impact of the campaign and the role of the NHRI and its allies. There are other criteria that the NHRI can use to assess the impact of the campaign, if there is available data to do so. These can include evaluating: • Media response: Review and analyse media coverage of the campaign to assess the amount, accuracy, breadth and nature (positive or negative) of the coverage. Identify new relationships that have been established. Put a dollar figure on how much it would cost to “purchase” the equivalent amount of media coverage based on the advertising rates of those media outlets. • Stakeholder response: Undertake a stakeholder analysis to chart the change in the attitudes and influence of your key stakeholders over the course of the campaign. Identify what role they played in helping to achieve or block positive outcomes and how the NHRI could frame its relationships with them in the future. • Community response: Analyse any available data to determine whether public opinion on the issue has shifted in your favour and identify those factors that may have contributed to this change. • Political response: In addition to obvious changes, such as passing or amending legislation, identify if there has been a shift in attitudes among the Government, parliamentarians or government agencies that may make future progress on the campaign issue more possible. 26 IFEX Network; “Developing a Campaign Strategy: Monitoring and Evaluation”; available at www.ifex.org/campaigns/developing_ campaign_strategy/index6.php. 56 | Chapter 3: Media advocacy