The CIARD partners are pleased to announce the new Advocacy Toolkit on Opening Agricultural Knowledge for All, which is offered to organizations and individuals in support of their efforts to raise awareness, advocate, and influence others.  The Toolkit is aimed at researchers, scientists, managers, and information/communication professionals with an interest in opening up agricultural knowledge.

The Toolkit is published in wiki format, with the intention that it will be enhanced and developed by CIARD partners and stakeholders.  There are pages on designing approaches, selecting targets, building a case methods and tools, using evidence to support advocacy, and some case studies.  This Toolkit was prepared with input from various CIARD partners, and particularly the CGIAR, FAO, GFAR, and the regional research forums in Asia/Pacific (APAARI), and Latin America and the Caribbean (FORAGRO/IICA), and the Near East (AARINENA). 

Visitors to the Toolkit may be at various stages of developing and undertaking advocacy and may require different support and information to support their advocacy work. Any user can navigate through the Toolkit according to his needs using the following 10 tools:

• Tool 1.- What is advocacy and why it is useful
• Tool 2.- How to build an advocacy case for an organization
• Tool 3.- What evidence to use to support advocacy 
• Tool 4.- When and where to advocate
• Tool 5.- How to plan and develop a strategic approach to advocacy
• Tool 6.- How to select and target key decision-makers
• Tool 7.- Methods and tools to support advocacy
• Tool 8.- Top 10 tips for advocacy
• Tool 9.- Examples of advocacy - case studies
• Tool 10.- References and resources used in this Toolkit

The Toolkit can be found at  http://www.ciard.net/advocacytoolkit