OUR THEORY OF CHANGE

At CGH, our vision is a world where everyone enjoys the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and wellbeing. We contribute to the realisation of that vision by engaging with the people who shape key policies and determine resource allocations, encouraging them to go further, faster and smarter in pursuit of a healthier, more equitable world.

 

For more people to access quality healthcare, governments need to mobilise increased funding and continually revise policies to ensure they are based on the latest evidence and respond to an evolving national context. In a constrained political and financial space, this doesn't happen without someone, somewhere, advocating for change. 

 

CGH emerged from a research project that interrogated the foundations of some of the most effective campaigns, and tried to understand them in the context of the numerous academic theories about how policy change happens in the real world. 

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Based on these learnings, our theory of change is informed by the multiple streams theory developed by John Kingdon and the work of Christopher Wlezien on salience. 

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To put it simply, in order for a policy to change or resources to be mobilised, you need three things: 

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• The issue needs to be perceived as generally important to society 

• The responsible decision-maker must be personally motivated 

• There is a reasonable and clear policy or financial ask 

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Campaigners can use a wide range of tactics to influence all of these core components, depending on who they are, their resources, and what they want to achieve. The most effective campaigns deploy multiple tactics across the 'campaign wheel' to build momentum over time.

 

What matters most is that there is a clear strategy that responds to a particular context. 

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At CGH, we are working to apply this theory of change to a range of different issues, and with a range of different partners. In doing this work, we are constantly assessing our impact, testing new, evidence-informed methodologies, and sharing our tools, research and evaluations to allow others to build and strengthen their own campaigns.