Title: Negotiating effectiveness: The politics of results in advocacy for development and its evaluation

Description: This thesis analyses how advocacy effectiveness is given meaning in the practices of advocacy for development, and how this is affected by the politics of results in its evaluation. Hence, aiming to answer the following research question: How does the practice of advocacy for development give meaning to effectiveness, and how do the politics of results play out in the evaluation of advocacy? With advocacy gaining ever more ground in the development world, the issue of (measuring) effectiveness becomes increasingly relevant. Advocacy for development is a growing trend as key players in international development increasingly realise that the pursuit and achievement of effectiveness in terms of structural change and development are political processes that require strategies such as advocacy (Hudson, 2002; Jolly et al., 2004; Jones, 2011; Keck and Sikkink, 1998; Kremer et al., 2009; Teles and Schmitt, 2011).

Supervisors: Dorothea Hilhorst, Margit van Wessel

Key Publications:

• Negotiating effectiveness: The politics of results in advocacy for development and its evaluation PhD thesis, Wageningen University, 2018.
• Arensman, A, M. van Wessel and D. Hilhorst (2016): Does local ownership bring about effectiveness? The case of a transnational advocacy network, Third World Quarterly, Vol 38 (6), pp 1310-1326 DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2016.1257908;
• Arensman, B, J. Barrett, A.J. van Bodegom, D. Hilhorst, D. Klaver, E. Rasch, W. Richert, C. van Waegeningh, A. Wagemakers, M. van Wessel (2015) MFS II Joint Evaluation of International Lobbying and Advocacy. Endline Report, commissioned by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 668 pp.

More information: https://www.wur.nl/en/activity/Negotiating-effectiveness-The-politics-of-results-in-advocacy-for-development-and-its-evaluation-1.htm