Looking Back and Moving Forward - Solid Ground Campaign

Written by Anne Shaffer Myers, Advocacy Campaigns Director, Habitat for Humanity International

This blog post was originally published on the Solid Ground Campaign blog here  The Solid Ground campaign has officially reached its midway point. Since our launch on International Women’s Day in March 2016, our advocacy efforts have made a tangible difference around the world, and I’m excited about the opportunity for greater impact moving forward as our advocacy efforts grow. Habitat for Humanity organizations and partners are now implementing the campaign in 37 countries, advocating for access to land for shelter by improving land rights, fighting for gender equality in land, upgrading slums and creating disaster-resilient communities. And it’s working. Because of the hard work of those implementing the campaign and dedication of supporters like you, we have increased access to land for shelter for nearly 2 million people in countries around the world. We have engaged thousands of members in our Habitat for Humanity network, partner organizations and collaborators across the globe in critical learning opportunities to further how we can address the issue of access to land better together. We took an initial investment in the campaign and have now doubled it many times, most recently having received a Development Education and Awareness Raising grant from the European Union to build critical understanding and engagement of Europeans in support of urban issues, global housing and land. We have awarded 25 challenge grants to 17 of our Habitat for Humanity national organizations enrolled in the campaign to spur and accelerate advocacy on the issue of access to land for shelter. I could not be more proud of the work we have accomplished over the past two years. And I look forward to what is in store for the coming years. We have just completed work with some outstanding external consultants to complete a mid-term review of the campaign, and now we are working in conjunction with implementers and partners to create an actualization plan for the second half of the campaign based on their findings and recommendations. I’m pleased to invite you into that process. We don’t have everything figured out, but I want to share a few of our plans that excite me most.

• We will work to better connect global efforts by being more strategic about our partnerships, aligning with other campaigns and improving our communication. The more united our voices, the better.
• We’re going to dig even deeper into land policy issues, providing more learning opportunities for our network and partners, providing more research on solidgroundcampaign.org and more.
• We will take advantage of global moments, such as the upcoming United Nations High-Level Political Forum, to provide an opportunity for our network to link local and global advocacy efforts and priorities.
• Throughout the second half of the campaign, we will continue to strengthen ongoing fundraising efforts and explore new possibilities so that we can maximize our impact.
• Stories are powerful, and we’re going to share more. It can be easy to get lost in the weeds of policy and jargon when talking about access to land, but it’s important to remember that, at the end of the day, we advocate for people.