Bridging the Gap: Strategic Framing and Budget Advocacy in Tanzania

This research seeks to identify tools by which budget analysis and advocacy, specifically that of print media, can more effectively reach target audiences, particularly in contexts of high illiteracy and innumeracy. This has been done by evaluating a selection of budget advocacy materials produced by HakiElimu in Tanzania in 2009 and 2010 alongside certain core elements of the FrameWorks Institute’s Strategic Frame Analysis™. Additional contextual and evaluative inputs have been provided by key informants and a sample group. The findings suggest that strategic framing can assist budget advocacy in becoming more understandable, more appealing to target audiences, and more effective at inspiring citizens to take action. The research concludes that reframed, solution-oriented advocacy is contributory if not critical to raising Tanzania’s budget advocacy out of the crisis story and “blame frame” and into more productive modes of citizen-government social change.