The Aspen Institute

From 2009 to 2016, APEP and CARE USA partnered to develop a set of tools for evaluating policy advocacy. Our efforts were part of the nascent, but growing, field of advocacy evaluation, which grapples with the challenge of measuring advocates’ contributions to complex policymaking and policy implementation processes. This report shares what we learned from our experience piloting two tools focused on the US Government’s implementation of key policies on gender-based violence (GBV) and child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). The Gender Scorecard for U.S. Administration Officials is a systematic approach to tracking the extent to which officials engage in actions aligned with CARE’s policy implementation goals. The Quality of Discourse tool uses content analysis to assess the extent to which officials’ public statements reflect CARE’s messaging on the complex causes and consequences of CEFM, and potential strategies for addressing it. The goal of these tools was to help CARE monitor policy implementation progress – and, where possible, to assess CARE’s contribution.