Events » The Real Worlds Strategies (RWS) Project - [1-2 Jun 2004]

ADVOCACY AS AN IMPERATIVE FOR CSOS IN EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT: Some Basics

1.0 What is advocacy?
Described as systematic, planned and well organized set of activities, efforts and or processes geared towards influencing policy and practice change.

2.0 What are some of the key elements of advocacy?
Advocacy is all about changing attitudes, cultures, trends, traditions or bringing in new ways, new thinking and new styles of life. Advocacy therefore has much to do with influencing (through campaigning and lobbying) policy makers, communities, planners and politicians to respond to demands, needs and aspirations of ordinary people – the poor. It is geared towards making development responsive, people driven and pro-poor. Advocacy will largely depend on political environment, policy regime, socio-cultural context, capacity, expertise/skills and interests of actors, civic space and opportunities available.

3.0 Examples of Advocacy Strategies
Advocacy strategies are often classified into two main areas; campaigning and lobbying. Examples here include;

4.0 What are some of the fundamentals of Advocacy?
Advocacy can be done by individual citizens, organizations, networks, alliances and coalitions. However the success of any advocacy work depends to a large extent on numbers and a strong constituency. This is why the idea of networks, alliances and coalitions has become fashionable in advocacy initiatives. For any advocacy work to succeed the following are key fundamentals to be observed.

a) Power: this will stem from our research capacities, expertise/skills, allies, alliances, strategies, the kind of information we have and the constituency behind us. All these should help us garner the necessary technical, social and political influence.

b) Integrity: the leadership and management of any advocacy effort must be of high integrity in order to win trust and confidence of the government, public and media.

c) Credibility: how well targeted is your campaign plan, how focused are you, how far can you be believed, how much evidence do you have to back your arguments, what is the caliber and credibility of your allies and your leaders?

d) Accountability: how transparent and accountable are your structures, the leadership of the campaign/coalition is accountable to whom, what feedback mechanisms do you have to/from your constituency, are you managing your resources well?

e) Communication & information flow: what information and communication system exists between your leadership and your constituency, how do you gather, manage and process information, how do you generate issues from members and do you make sure that your campaigns are informed by the pressing needs of your members, allies and partners.

5.0 Steps in Advocacy work
a) Identity: Understanding who you are, getting your vision and mission set, identifying your goals and objectives. Who are you, what do you want and where do you want to go.

b) Problem statement: get the main problem outlined, what are the key issues around the problem, what are the root causes of the problem, who is affected by the problem, what is the nature and extent of the effect.

c) Social mapping: map out to know who are the main players and their location. Mobilize them to support the initiative.

d) Stakeholder analysis: do a critical evaluation of the environment to know the interest and positions of various stakeholders, how is policy and legislative environment looking like, what is the possible structure of your constituency – allies, partners, members, targets. Know your political and socio-economic context.

e) Strategy development: plan and build consensus on the kind of strategies you want to employ. Set out activities, timelines, resource implications, indicators and levels of responsibilities in a broad campaign plan. After planning and consensus you move to full fledged action – implementation of the plan.

f) M&E: as you implement remember to document your experiences. You should also have an inbuilt M&E mechanism which will help in consistent monitoring of progress being made.

Discussion notes by ANDIWO
For ANCEFA RWS Planning Workshop in Malawi – June 2004