​Advocacy for family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights has a strong track record of achievements. Yet how do aspirations for a resilient local civil society align with donor investments and values like local ownership and sustainability?

A new brief tackles this question and lays out options for how donors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and governments can adopt approaches that better support local ownership of health, development, and human rights advocacy. It also a proposes a model global investment mechanism with the key elements needed to advance and sustain a meaningful advocacy effort.

The recommendations in The Future of Advocacy: Local Ownership, Sustainability, and Grant-making build on an extensive literature review and a series of consultations with more than 170 experts representing NGOs, donors, and academia. It focuses on family planning and reproductive health and rights, but findings and conclusions also apply to other health sectors and to development in general.