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AdvocAid has grown significantly since 2006 in terms of the scope and reach of our work. We recognise now is the time to prioritise our internal areas to prepare us for this next phase of our organisation’s development and to ensure we can continue to work as effectively as possible.

We will continue to develop our processes and systems for effectiveness and efficiency. By strengthening how we use creative external communications, we will increase our reach and impact both directly with women and girls and indirectly through our work with the government, judiciary, supporters, donors, wider partners and stakeholders. And we will work to increase and diversify our funding, so as to provide the long-term financial sustainability, and nimble and adaptive programming that Women’s Rights Organisations thrive on.

Continuing to strengthen the organisation’s processes and systems for effectiveness and efficiency

This is a key component of our new strategy as we recognise how critical it is for our continued development and sustainability as an organisation. Over the next five years we will focus on a number of areas, guided by regular organisational assessments and the practical challenges we face in delivering our work. These areas will include further development of our Monitoring and Evaluation framework and special emphasis on strengthening our Accountability and Learning capacity; our data and knowledge management and security; organisational management and financial procedures; and the systems to track our contacts, partnerships and wider stakeholders.

Strengthening how we use creative communications to support achievement of our strategic directions

AdvocAid has built up a strong communications presence in Sierra Leone both through traditional media including television and radio series, social media including Facebook and WhatsApp, and creative media including murals. Over the coming five years we will build on this base to enable our communications to become more effective for our legal advocacy work, growing our reach to increase our supporter and individual donor base, and linking our communications with our vital work in legal education and empowerment. Approaching communications through the power of storytelling will be an important focus for us, as well as a concerted effort to shift the narrative around incarceration through language used by ourselves and others.

Increasing and diversifying our fundraising

AdvocAid has steadily grown its income since 2006 and has been increasingly able to secure funding from large institutional donors and a growing number of individual supporters. However, our organisation continues to face challenges in meeting the demand from women and girls for its work, covering core costs, and being able to adapt to challenging financial times (economic crises, Ebola and most recently COVID-19). We will work to increase both our reserves and unrestricted funding to provide stability for the organisation and our staff, programmes, and the women and girls we work with. We also need more flexible funds available to be able to adapt and innovate outside or ahead of the strategies and goals of the main donors, and thus truly be responsive to the needs of those we work for.