Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course in Cape Town, South Africa
Classroom training in Cape Town · next cohort Oct 26, 2026 · from USD 3,800
Advocacy rarely produces tidy numbers. Policies change slowly, many actors claim credit and the link between a campaign and a new law is hard to prove. Programme teams and donors still need evidence that influence work is worth funding. Over five days you learn methods built for this kind of change: theories of change for advocacy, policy influence pathways, outcome harvesting, contribution analysis, process tracing and most significant change stories. You also design indicators for policy dialogue, coalition strength and public engagement, and use stakeholder mapping and power analysis to decide what to track.
A full day looks at partnerships, covering how to assess trust, shared results, value for money and the quality of working relationships between organisations, consortia and government bodies. The final sessions turn findings into learning briefs, donor reports and adaptive decisions. Exercises draw on campaigns in health, land rights, education and public finance. Monitoring and evaluation officers, advocacy and policy managers, programme directors, partnership leads and donor staff in NGOs and development agencies will find the content directly applicable. Afterwards you can produce a monitoring framework for an advocacy or partnership initiative and defend its evidence to funders.
At a Glance
Training in Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Town is South Africa's legislative capital and a centre for finance, technology and tourism.
More about training in Cape Town →- Format
- Classroom, in Cape Town
- Duration
- Mon - Fri (5 Days)
- Fee
- USD 3,800
- Next start dates
- Oct 26, 2026, Nov 23, 2026, Dec 21, 2026
- Certificate
- Certificate of Completion
- Airport
- Cape Town International (CPT)
- Time zone
- South Africa Standard Time (UTC+2)
- Currency
- South African rand (ZAR). Fees are listed in USD.
- Business districts
- Foreshore and CBD, V&A Waterfront, Century City and Claremont
About this course
Civil society organisations, networks and development agencies invest heavily in changing policies, budgets and public attitudes, and in building coalitions to do it. Yet evaluations of this work often fall back on counting meetings and publications, which says little about whether decision makers actually shifted. Funders increasingly ask for credible evidence of influence and of the added value of partnering, and weak answers put future funding at risk.
This training course equips participants to monitor and evaluate work where results are indirect, delayed and shared. It starts by clarifying what advocacy is trying to change and how, using theories of change and policy influence pathways. It then introduces approaches suited to complex change, including outcome harvesting, contribution analysis, process tracing, policy tracking and media and social media analysis, alongside practical indicator design. A dedicated section deals with partnerships and coalitions, looking at relationship quality, shared accountability, capacity strengthening and the cost and benefit of collaboration.
Participants work through case material from real-world campaign settings and develop their own monitoring plans during the sessions. They finish with a framework, a set of tools and a communication approach that turns messy evidence into clear findings for boards, partners and donors.
Training Objectives
Participants completing this course will be able to:
- Build a theory of change for an advocacy or policy influence initiative.
- Map stakeholders and decision makers and analyse power to focus monitoring effort.
- Select qualitative and quantitative indicators for policy change, public engagement and coalition strength.
- Apply outcome harvesting and most significant change to capture unplanned results.
- Use contribution analysis and process tracing to test claims about influence.
- Assess the health, value and results of partnerships and consortia.
- Manage ethical and safety concerns when evaluating sensitive advocacy work.
- Translate findings into learning, adaptation and donor reporting.
What you'll learn
Key Takeaways
By the close of the programme, participants hold:
- A theory of change and pathway diagram for their own advocacy initiative.
- A draft monitoring framework with indicators suited to hard-to-measure results.
- Step-by-step guides for outcome harvesting and contribution analysis.
- A partnership assessment tool they can use with consortium members.
- A template for a learning brief that links evidence to decisions.
Training Methodology
Sessions favour doing over lecturing, with methods taught through application. The format includes:
- Case files from health, land, education and budget advocacy campaigns
- Guided practice with outcome harvesting and contribution analysis templates
- Group clinics where each participant builds a framework for a live initiative
- Peer review of indicators and evidence claims
- Short facilitator inputs on ethics and data quality
Day 1: Evaluating Influence and Change
- What makes advocacy and policy work difficult to measure
- Types of advocacy: lobbying, campaigning, public mobilisation and research uptake
- Building a theory of change and influence pathways
- Stakeholder mapping and power analysis
- Setting evaluation questions that matter to funders and partners
- Exercise: drafting a theory of change for a land rights campaign
Day 2: Indicators and Monitoring Systems
- Indicators for agenda setting, policy adoption and implementation
- Measuring public awareness, media coverage and online engagement
- Coalition and network strength measures
- Policy and budget tracking tools
- Setting up a monitoring log and evidence trail
- Exercise: building an indicator set for a health financing campaign
Day 3: Methods for Complex Results
- Outcome harvesting step by step
- Most significant change stories
- Contribution analysis and testing alternative explanations
- Process tracing and evidence tests
- Handling attribution claims and counterfactual thinking
- Exercise: harvesting outcomes from a set of campaign records
Day 4: Assessing Partnerships and Coalitions
- Partnership principles: trust, equity, transparency and mutual accountability
- Assessing partnership health with surveys and reflective workshops
- Results and value for money of collaboration
- Capacity strengthening of local partners
- Network analysis basics for tracking relationships
- Exercise: scoring a consortium using a partnership assessment tool
Day 5: Learning, Reporting and Ethics
- Ethics, consent and risks when evaluating sensitive advocacy
- Analysing and synthesising mixed evidence
- Writing findings for donors, boards and policy audiences
- Learning reviews and adaptive management
- Communicating influence results with honesty about uncertainty
- Participants present their draft monitoring plans
This course is suited to people who plan, run, fund or assess influencing and partnership work, such as:
- Monitoring, evaluation and learning officers in NGOs
- Advocacy, campaigns and policy managers
- Programme managers in coalitions and civil society networks
- Partnership and alliance managers
- Donor and development agency programme officers
- Government staff engaged in policy dialogue with civil society
- Research and think-tank staff working on policy uptake
- Independent evaluators and consultants
Vision Reach Global Consultancy issues a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion to every participant who attends the programme and completes the practical assignments, recognising their skills in evaluating advocacy and partnerships.
Choose Where You Want to Learn
Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course Venues
South AfricaCape TownNext Oct 26· 13 dates$3,800Viewing- South AfricaPretoriaNext Nov 2· 13 dates$3,200
- South AfricaJohannesburgNext Nov 2· 13 dates$3,400
KenyaNairobiNext Nov 9· 13 dates$1,500- KenyaMombasaNext Oct 26· 13 dates$1,600
- KenyaNaivashaNext Nov 2· 13 dates$1,500
- KenyaKisumuNext Oct 26· 13 dates$1,500
- KenyaMachakosNext Nov 2· 13 dates$1,600
UgandaKampalaNext Nov 2· 13 dates$1,900
RwandaKigaliNext Oct 26· 13 dates$1,900
TanzaniaArushaNext Nov 9· 13 dates$1,900- TanzaniaDodomaNext Oct 26· 13 dates$1,800
- TanzaniaDar es SalaamNext Oct 26· 13 dates$2,000
- TanzaniaZanzibarNext Nov 16· 13 dates$2,600
NigeriaLagosNext Nov 16· 13 dates$2,800- NigeriaAbujaNext Nov 9· 13 dates$2,800
UAEDubaiNext Oct 26· 13 dates$3,800
GhanaAccraNext Nov 16· 13 dates$4,500
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Frequently Asked Questions About Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course in Cape Town
Everything you need to know about this course before you register.
Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course runs as classroom training in Cape Town, South Africa, in Monday-to-Friday cohorts that start every four weeks. The venue, daily timings and joining details are sent in your Joining Instructions email ahead of the start date.
The next Cape Town cohort starts on October 26, 2026, and a new intake follows every four weeks. Pick a date under "Upcoming sessions in Cape Town" above and click Register; your seat is confirmed once payment or a signed purchase order is received.
The classroom fee for Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course in Cape Town is USD 3,800 per delegate, covering tuition and course materials. Register 3 or more delegates together and a 5% team discount is applied automatically.
Yes. Besides Cape Town, Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course runs as classroom training in Pretoria and Johannesburg. It also runs as live online training you can join from anywhere in South Africa, and in-house at your organisation's own premises.
Yes — Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course can be delivered at your offices in Cape Town or at a venue you choose, on dates that suit your team, with case studies tailored to your sector. Message our training advisors to request a proposal.
By the end of the Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships programme, you'll be able to build a theory of change for an advocacy or policy influence initiative, map stakeholders and decision makers and analyse power to focus monitoring effort, select qualitative and quantitative indicators for policy change, public engagement and coalition strength, and apply outcome harvesting and most significant change to capture unplanned results. The full breakdown of topics is covered session by session in the Course Outline tab above.
This course is suited to people who plan, run, fund or assess influencing and partnership work, such as: Monitoring, evaluation and learning officers in NGOs, Advocacy, campaigns and policy managers, Programme managers in coalitions and civil society networks, Partnership and alliance managers, Donor and development agency programme officers, Government staff engaged in policy dialogue with civil society, Research and think-tank staff working on policy uptake, and Independent evaluators and consultants.
Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course typically runs as 5 Days. It's available as in-person classroom, live virtual, and in-house corporate training — every course can also be delivered on-site for your team on dates that suit you.
Yes — delegates who meet the attendance requirement receive a Certificate of Completion for Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course from Vision Reach Global Consultancy, issued in the name you register with, so double-check the spelling at checkout.
Monitoring and Evaluation of Advocacy, Policy Influence & Partnerships Training Course is pitched at intermediate professionals. If you're unsure whether it's the right fit for your current role or background, message our training advisors before you register and they'll help you confirm.
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What Our Clients Say
VRG brings strategic discipline to complex organizational challenges. Their approach is structured, data-driven, and outcome-focused.
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