Given Hapunda

253 a. Accelerating collective momentum and social change; b. Fostering inclusivity (shared goals, aspirations, language and action); c. Heightening credibility and legitimacy; d. Engaging highly motivated individuals as credible spokespersons; e. Reducing stigma and isolation; f. Increasing effective management and allocation of resources and effort; g. Enhancing transparency and accountability; h. Engaging decision-makers and key influencers; i. Urging stakeholders and citizens to act. Step 5: Developing Persuasive Messages - At the core of developing advocacy messages, is the question, what do they want to hear ? Messages should be crafted in such a way that they would convince decision-makers and influencers to act or call for action. Revisit your advocacy goal and objectives so that the message you design takes account of them. In addition, consider the audience and the message that would be appealing and motivate them to act. Ultimately, a good advocacy message will have two basic components, an appeal to what is right and an appeal to the audience self-interest (UNICEF, 2010). Your message should be like an elevator-pitch, a succinct and persuasive sales pitch. Remember “less is more”. You may risk losing support and attention if you cannot communicate in less than one minute what you desire to change. Therefore, make your concerns clear. This means that you first craft your primary message, a universally- compelling statement which then can be followed by secondary messages that support or explains your primary message. Good messages include statement + evidence + example + goal + action desired (see Focus Box 8: Girl Empowerment above). Secondary messages can include examples of countries that have empowered girls and have made gender equality strides and how they did it. In our example, the opening sentence is both the message statement and primary message. Other sentences are part of the secondary statement and include evidence, example, goal and action desired. Focus Box 8: Advocacy Message: Example on Girl Empowerment Girls are by far more likely to drop out of school as a result, more are likely to suffer from poverty, diseases and infringement of human rights. Data shows that 36% of girls compared to 19% boys drop out of school between the ages of 14-18. Consequently, more girls are out of employment, affected by HIV and suffer from human rights violations. Our goal is to see increase in the number of females completing school and participating in decision making. To achieve this, government must mainstream enrolment and retention of girls, increase scholarship and positions of women in decision making positions.