APCASO has long worked to ensure that community-level advocacy is prioritised as a key element in the development of strategic responses to HIV/AIDS. The “Advocacy from the Ground Up: A Toolkit for Strengthening Local Responses” was developed to increase the capacity of NGOs and CBOs to respond effectively to HIV/AIDS through a coordinated advocacy framework.

The toolkit provides a guide to a wide range of activities with resources and reference materials for both trainers and participants. It is intended to broadly elaborate on the concept of advocacy and how it plays a key role in effective HIV interventions and AIDS services. It is currently being used to structure advocacy capacity initiatives for the ongoing Community Advocacy Initiative (CAI) project.

A user-friendly resource with carefully selected handouts, the toolkit is divided into four volumes:

1. Understanding advocacy

2. Integrating advocacy into your organization

3. Building networks for advocacy

4. Advocacy action tools

The toolkit is made possible by all the focal point organisations, collaborators and participants in the advocacy workshops under the APCASO/AFAO HIV/AIDS Partnership Initiative (AHAPI) project during 2006-08.

Financial support from the AusAID provided through AFAO as part of the Australian HIV/AIDS Partnership Initiative is gratefully acknowledged. The English and Bahasa Indonesia versions are available. Translations in other Asian languages (Chinese, Laotian, Vietnamese) are being finalised and will be available in stages.

Following electronic dissemination, the toolkit was officially launched at the Association of Women in Development (AWID) Conference in South Africa in November 2008.

• Advocacy from the Ground Up: A Toolkit for Strengthening Local Responses  (ENG / BHS )