Decision-making on social and economic policies is influenced by information generated from the realities of needs, constraints, and potentials of the youth, women, marginalized/excluded and vulnerable in the society

Advocacy is necessarily a tool for empowerment of the marginalized and excluded especially if it targets them in the identification/analysis of the problem, identification of the solutions and implementation of these solutions

CEDEP has to establish a pro-active advocacy strategy that should start from the grassroots. The monitoring and evaluation of programmes/projects have to incorporate the needs of pursuing an advocacy agenda. Research and publication should be conducted, not solely to project CEDEP’s image but mainly to promote the issues of the marginalized and excluded and achieve the appropriate policies to address these issues

CEDEP’s advocacy strategy has to be pro-active and must be linked with service- delivery activities to the grassroots. Research, programmme monitoring and evaluation, documentation and publication must all be designed to meet the needs of pursuing an advocacy agenda. Since advocacy has not been done systematically there is a need to train all the staff on approaches to advocacy.

Opportunities for funding partnerships to implement advocacy has to be explored with donors such as GIZ, UKAID, USAID and DANIDA. 

Key strategies 

• Adequate and sustained budgetary allocation to mental health service delivery 
• Passage of the Affirmative Action Bill 
• Capacity enhancement of sub-structures of the local governance system
• Improving  equitable  access  to  quality  education for  all  children of  diverse educational  needs;  provision  of  requisite  teaching  and  learning  materials; capacity  development  for  professional  and  specialized  teachers