#86: A Tale of Two NAPs: National Action Plans and Much-Needed Naps

For the past several months, Criterion Institute has been wrestling with a deceptively simple question: how do you finance a National Action Plan (NAP) to end gender-based violence? Most NAPs contain detailed commitments, timelines, settings, and responsibilities, yet many remain chronically underfunded. In this episode, Joy takes listeners inside Criterion's thinking process as the team tried to translate these plans into pathways for finance. Along the way, they discovered that many of the frameworks they relied on for years were excellent at describing landscapes and systems, but less useful when reading a plan line-by-line and asking where money could actually move.

The episode introduces a distinction that became foundational to the work: the difference between an investment case and a financing mechanism. Costing studies and investment cases play an important political role by helping governments understand the economic consequences of violence and the value of prevention. But those arguments alone do not explain how capital moves, who bears risk, what financial structures exist, or how prevention becomes investable. Joy reflects on the false starts, AI-generated dead ends, framework redesigns, and countless synthesis conversations that ultimately led the team toward a more practical framework for financing National Action Plans. The result is not a finished answer, but a clearer way of thinking about how finance, policy, prevention, and systems change intersect.

Episode Highlights

00:00 - Introduction to financing national action plans

01:55 - The challenge of understanding how money moves in plans

02:53 - Distinction between investment case and mechanism

07:06 - Frameworks as tools, not solutions

10:08 - Applying frameworks to real plans and the need for reflection

14:57 - The five categories of financing for national action plans

20:12 - The importance of pauses and reflection in problem-solving

21:12 - Conclusion: frameworks need naps and refinement

Relevant Links

Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn

Joy Anderson's LinkedIn

Dive Deeper

Framework for Financing the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence

This framework is referenced repeatedly throughout the episode as the starting point for understanding how finance can support prevention by integrating GBV as material risk, financing what works, and valuing the future created through prevention.

A Roadmap for Private Investors: Investing to Address Gender-Based Violence

Referenced indirectly in the discussion of how investors operationalize GBV considerations and move from analysis toward action.

Roadmap for Development Finance Institutions: Strategies to Address Gender-Based Violence

Relevant to the episode's discussion about how institutions can incorporate GBV considerations into financial decision-making and capital allocation.

If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:

#67: Financing the Reduction of GBV: From Insights to Infrastructure

Joy explores the intersection of finance and gender-based violence, emphasizing infrastructure, leverage points, and systems change. This episode provides important context for understanding why Criterion's work has increasingly focused on the infrastructure needed to support GBV prevention.

#39: Financial Tools for Social Change: Ending Gender-Based Violence

A foundational episode exploring how financial systems can be used to reduce violence and introducing several strategic approaches that connect directly to discussions in this episode about financing pathways and systems change.

#27: The Core Pillars of Our Strategic Plan: Financing the Reduction of Gender-Based Violence

Provides historical context for Criterion's GBV work and explains why the organization chose to build a deep portfolio of ideas and strategies at the intersection of finance and gender-based violence.

#75: When the Moment Arrives: Acting on Systems Opportunities

Listeners interested in the systems-change dimensions of this episode will find a useful companion conversation on leverage, timing, relationships, and strategic action.

#85: Changing Your Frame Not Your Mind: Ensuring Your Actions Follow What You See

A natural follow-on episode about reframing, changing analysis, and understanding how shifts in perspective ultimately change actions and outcomes within systems.

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