Tools & Guides
In this page, using the filters on your left, you can find toolkits, handbooks and guides on the following topics:
- community-led development and community mobilization/organizing
- legal and accountability mechanisms
- Indigenous Peoples and free, prior and informed consent
- monitoring and impact assessment
- extractive industries; forests and dams; forced displacement
- gender and development finance
- human rights defenders
- advocacy guides on specific DFIs, such as ADB, AfDB, IFC, World Bank, EBRD, EIB, Chinese finance
- communications and campaigns strategies
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Advocacy in Restricted Spaces: A Toolkit for Civil Society (2020)
Lifeline – Created by the Lifeline Embattled CSO Assistance Fund, a consortium led by Freedom House, the Advocacy in Restricted Spaces toolkit is intended for use by grassroots, national, and regional civil society organizations that want to engage in advocacy in restrictive environments. The toolkit includes:
- A step-by-step guide for advocacy planning that stresses risk mitigation and intersectionality.
– 10 tactics that can be used in restrictive spaces, such as Engaging with Unlikely Allies; Addressing Slander, Stereotypes, and Stigmatization; and Creative Cultural Resistance.
– 16 case studies with real-world examples of how civil society organizations achieved success with their advocacy, highlighting how traditionally marginalized groups have engaged in advocacy, including women’s rights activists, LGBTI communities, and ethnic minorities.
– Links to more than 50 external resources related to advocacy planning and security, with annexes related to digital security, well-being, risk assessment, and stakeholder mapping to enable civil society organizations to prevent and mitigate threats at each stage of their campaigning.
Rising to the populist challenge: a new playbook for human rights actors (2018)
Dejusticia – This book collects and analyzes a repertoire of responses by human rights organizations to the crackdown against civil society in the populist context.
Written by scholars and advocates in challenging political settings from around the world, it offers ideas and inspiration to their peers in the human rights community who are grappling with and resisting the erosion of democracy and rights.
Women’s Rights Campaigning: Info-Activism Toolkit (2014)
Tactical Tech – This online toolkit advises women rights defenders and community based organisations who want to use technology tools and practices in their campaigning. It includes tips and guidance on communications strategies to grab attention, tell a story and inspire action; an overview of communication tools and digital security strategies; and examples of successful campaigns led by women activists around the world.
Witness – Video Advocacy Toolkit
Witness – Visit the WITNESS Library to download free resources for video activists, trainers and their allies. Includes video and PDF downloads of core WITNESS training materials and how-to guides, on topics such as: video production, video advocacy, storytelling for change, video distribution, safety and security, digital security, filming protests and forced evictions.
Visit also Witness’website in Arabic, French, Portuguese and Spanish for translated materials.