The value of advocacy in promoting social change: Implementing the new Domestic Violence Act in South Africa

South Africa's first democratic government passed the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) into law in 1998 as part of local and international commitments to p rotecting the human rights of women. Although the Act was welcomed as groun dbreaking legislation, delays in implementing it led to increasing frustrat ion. This paper describes an advocacy campaign conducted by the Soul City i nstitute for Health and Development Communication in partnership with the N ational Network on Violence against Women, to ensure the effective implemen tation of the DVA. Lessons from the campaign stress the importance of coali tion building to draw on diverse strengths, and the use of a combination of advocacy tools, including lobbying media advocacy and social mobilisation to achieve campaign goals. Given the critical role NGOs dealing with victim s/survivors of domestic violence and the justice system played in lobbying for change and drafting the new law, their exclusion from the implementatio n process was ironic. While many advocacy efforts focus on the development of policy and legislation, ongoing efforts are needed to ensure effective i mplementation, the commitment of adequate resources and monitoring to ident ify gaps and propose new solutions. Our experience highlights the important role of policy advocates in connecting the multiple streams at play in the policy and legislative arena.