Mobilizing Funding: Translating investment case evidence into effective budget advocacy

Presented By:

Cornerstone

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Ministry of Finance, Government of South Africa

GIZ German Cooperation

The investment case for ending child abuse and neglect is increasingly recognised as a powerful tool for strengthening advocacy, informing policy choices, and demonstrating that prevention is not only a rights-based obligation, but also a sound social and economic investment. However, in many contexts, strong data, compelling cost estimates and persuasive return-on-investment findings do not automatically translate into budget allocations, financing commitments, or implementation at scale. The challenge, therefore, is not only to generate investment case evidence, but to use it strategically – to identify the right budget entry points, to speak to the priorities of Ministries of Finance and Planning, and to align advocacy with national planning and budgeting cycles.

This breakout session will focus on the practical question of how investment case evidence can be translated into effective budget advocacy for ending child abuse and neglect. Building on the Masterclass, participants will explore how cost of inaction estimates, ROI evidence, and other investment case outputs can be used to strengthen policy dialogue, support national and subnational budget processes, and make the case for financing prevention-oriented child protection systems and interventions. The session will move beyond general advocacy messaging to examine the institutional and political economy realities of public financing: who needs to be persuaded, what evidence they need, when advocacy should happen, and how it should be framed.

Rise Up Session Date and Time:

June 26, 2026 11:00 am

Country or Region Focus:

Africa

Type of Session:

Interactive workshop session / applied budget advocacy lab

Public Health Pillar Focus:

A National Action, Capacity Building, and Scaled Solutions, Data Driven and Evidence Based Solutions

Speakers

Simon Halvey, Senior Economist, Cornerstone Economic Research (South Africa)
Carmen Abdoll, Senior Economist, Cornerstone Economic Research (South Africa)
Velisubuhle Buti, Director, National Treasury (South Africa)

Session Aims

To explore how investment case evidence on the cost of child abuse and neglect and the returns to prevention can be translated into practical budget advocacy messages and financing strategies.
To identify key budget entry points, institutional audiences and political economy considerations for mobilising public resources for the prevention of child abuse and neglect.
To support participants in thinking through how evidence, advocacy briefs and modelling tools can be used to move from policy commitment to funded implementation.

Session Format

This session will be structured as an interactive budget advocacy lab. It will build directly on the Masterclass session by asking participants to consider how the investment case evidence and tools can be used in real-world financing and budget advocacy processes.

The session will be structured thusly (if 45 minutes):

5 minutes of framing by the facilitator, summarising the key investment case messages from the Masterclass and introducing the central question: how do we move from evidence to budget allocation?
Simultaneous (starting at the same time as the framing) 10-minute Mentimeter-based reflection on the main barriers that prevent child protection stakeholders from influencing budgets, including timing, institutional mandates, political incentives, fragmented financing and weak links between national action plans and budget processes.
5 minutes of feedback on the Mentimeter reflection, briefly highlighting key barriers identified.
20 minutes of participatory group work in which participants develop a short budget advocacy strategy using a hypothetical or real investment case finding. Through open engagement, participants will identify the target audience, the financing ask, the relevant budget entry point, and the core message needed to advance the ask.
10 minutes for closing reflections, including key lessons for using investment case evidence in the lead-up to Manila 2026.

Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how economic evidence can be used strategically in budget advocacy, and with practical ideas for converting investment case findings into financing messages, policy dialogue and resource mobilisation strategies.