Advocacy: A Guide For Small and Diaspora Ngos
Advocacy: A Guide For Small and Diaspora Ngos
Advocacy: A Guide For Small and Diaspora Ngos
Jenny Ross
October 2013
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Introduction
Understanding advocacy and how to use advocacy approaches and tools can help
organisation’s to increase their impact. However often the technical language that
surrounds advocacy, and concerns about risk, can make it seem more difficult and
complicated than it really is.
1. What is advocacy?
2. Why do advocacy?
3. How can an advocacy strategy be developed?
1. What is advocacy?
There are multiple definitions of advocacy but central to many is an understanding that by
working with institutions, changes can be made in policy or implementation of policy that
are more sustainable and on a larger scale than an organisation can achieve through
direct service delivery or capacity building.
For example, if an organisation is working with orphans and vulnerable children in five
villages it can change the lives of the children that it works with directly. However, if the
organisation also engages in advocacy and changes local or national policy it could
potentially impact on many more children and the change in their lives will not be
dependent on the involvement of the organisation.
Although the focus in advocacy is often on changing policy and practice (the
implementation of existing policies) there is often an effort to strengthen the capacity of
civil society to engage with policy makers and to try and transform power relations.
This can make some Governments hostile to civil society organisations engaging in
‘advocacy’ or ‘campaigning’ and in some countries legislation prevents it. In these
situations it can be helpful to use alternative language to describe advocacy activities e.g.
influencing, strategic engagement, relationship building or communication with key
stakeholders. Using alternatives can help smooth discussions about advocacy strategy.
Definition of advocacy:
‘A systematic and strategic approach to influencing governmental and
institutional policy and practice change’
Often when people think about advocacy they think about the kind of activities that an
organisation or group of activists can undertake. These could include:
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2. Why do advocacy?
2.1 Benefits of advocacy
The benefits of advocacy can be understood to include the following:
Sphere of concern
Sphere
of
control
For example, when implementing a HIV/AIDS programme, a doctor may have control over
a number of key factors which influence the success of the programme (e.g. recruitment
and training of staff, stocking of drugs, engagement with national health programmes).
However, there are a range of other factors which affect the outcome of the programme
that may concern the doctor but over which he/she may have no control. These are within
his/her sphere of concern – they could include national health policy, content of nurse
training, pay and remuneration for health workers, health charging, levels of nutrition of
payments etc.
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Advocacy is one way of expanding our sphere of control by trying to influence more widely
the factors that affect the success of our direct activities. For example, it may be that the
HIV/AIDS programme is struggling because well trained nurses do not want to work in the
rural areas where the programme is being implemented – so the doctor could advocate for
an additional payment for those nurses who work in rural areas.
Concerns about risk should not prevent your organisation from engaging in advocacy but it
is important to think through what is appropriate in terms of your issue and context. In
many countries it may not be effective to take a confrontational approach to the
government and a more collaborative approach may be more effective. Advocacy and
campaigning doesn’t have to mean strikes or marching on the streets (an outsider
approach). An insider approach that involves engagement and behind-the-scenes
discussions to persuade decision makers to change their position can have a large impact.
Legitimacy is one of the most crucial concepts in advocacy. If you are going to ask
decision makers and other stakeholders to engage with you in policy discussions and you
are going to hold them accountable for their actions then they will ask: ‘who are you and
why should I listen to you?’
2.4 Accountability
Understanding and being able to explain to whom your advocacy work is accountable is
critical in order to manage risks relating to advocacy. You should be prepared to answer
questions about your organisation’s governance, how it is managed, who controls it and
how decisions are made (e.g. how do you involve citizens and beneficiaries?).
If you are representing others, there are some basic questions to ask:
• Have they asked you (directly or indirectly) to advocate for them?
• Have they given input into your position and do they have on-going input?
• Are they happy with your strategy?
Sometimes NGOs and CSOs have been accused of being driven by ‘foreign’ and ‘western’
interests as a result of their lines of accountability and governance. Having a funding base
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that comes predominantly from foreign donors can also provide some ammunition to
Governments who want to discredit the advocacy issue or organisation.
Others (e.g. development NGOs, donors) may support these groups to be their
own advocates but sometimes this support can skew the priorities of the
individuals and organisations involved. Leadership and decision making needs to
stay with the community.
Again NGOs that do joint advocacy and campaigning with affected communities
need to be careful not to dominate or drive the process (as they often have the
money, status and knowledge). The question of who leads and who makes
decisions is critical.
They may also have greater and faster influence with powerful actors. Wherever
possible, affected communities should be consulted on both the solutions being
recommended and advocacy strategy being pursued. Where there is a difference
of opinion, these should be acknowledged.
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BOND How To Guide to Advocacy and Campaigning by Ian Chandler July 2010
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If your organisation is new to advocacy or has limited resources you may want to look at
your existing strategic plan or delivery activities and think about where you could have
more impact through advocacy. There may be many issues that you could undertake
advocacy on but you may want to focus on one or two changes. Advocacy can be time-
consuming and often you have to make a long-term commitment in order to see the
change so don’t spread your attention too thinly.
In thinking through development of an advocacy strategy, begin with the problem or issue
that you want to address and then dedicate some time to analysis. This helps you to
deepen your understanding – unpack the issues, identify any gaps in the evidence and
areas where change may be most transformational.
Step 1: write the main problem/concern in the centre of a large sheet of flip chart paper.
Step 2: using arrows, as in a flow chart, add the causes of the main problem onto the chart
below the main problem, with arrows leading to the problem.
Step 3: for each of the causes, write the factors that lead to them, again using arrows to
show how each one contributes.
Step 4: draw arrows leading upwards from the main problem to the various
results/consequences of that problem.
Step 6: keep adding causes and results, with arrows showing how they contribute to each
set until you can think of no more.
This exercise helps participants to visualise the links between the main issue, the resultant
problems, and the root causes.
An alternative if you are working through the analysis on your own or with a smaller group,
is to use a simple grid or problem analysis framework.
Step 1: break the issue down into component parts or sub-issues, and list them in the first
column.
Step 2: for each sub-issue, identify the consequences of the problem, the causes, and the
possible solutions.
For example, if the selected advocacy issue is access to drinking water supplies in a rural
region, an initial analysis of the cause may focus on the insufficient number of boreholes in
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For more information about this tool and to see an example read:
http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/6461.pdf
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rural communities. However, a deeper analysis of the causes of the problem should also
consider why there are insufficient boreholes in the area: there may be issues of ethnic
bias, of politically-motivated funding decisions, of gender bias and so on. Even deeper
analysis may reveal structural constraints such as the debt burden on the national
economy preventing sufficient spending on rural water supply, and so on.
The repeated asking of the question ‘why?’ helps in this process of digging deeper to
provide a full analysis of the problem.
ARV drugs are too Patent law Policy makers don’t Reduce the price of ARV
expensive prevents cheaper believe that it is drugs by changing patent
drugs being possible to provide law and encouraging
produced. ARVs in low generic production.
Profit motive for income settings. Show that it is possible
pharmaceutical to provide ARVs in low
companies. income setting.
Proposing solutions:
If you are going to engage in discussions with decision makers around your solution it can
be important to ‘test’ it for any weaknesses.
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a) Understanding the context for change
A very simple way to think through your context and make sure you are taking it into
consideration in relation to your advocacy strategy is to use the PESTLE framework. This
is often used in strategic planning processes.
PESTLE stands for the (P)olitical, (E)conomic, (S)ocial, (T)echnological, (L)egal and
(E)nvironmental context. It can also be useful to add in an extra ‘I’ (PESTLEI) which
covers the (I)nternational context – the involvement of international donors or agencies in
your context.
In turn think about each element of the context (the political, then the economic…) and
think about how it affects your issue. For example, there may be elections coming up
(political context) or there may be a high rate of inflation which affects the price of food
(economic context).
Once you have been through each of the elements (PESTLEI), sit back and reflect on
what it tells you about your context and what you need to consider in relation to your
advocacy strategy. For example, election time can potentially be a good time to advocate
as political parties may want to include your ideas in their manifestos but also on the other
hand there may be greater instability, politicians may be distracted and civil society space
may be constrained.
First list all of the potential stakeholders that are involved your issue currently and would
need to be involved in the change you want to see.
• National Government
• Local Government
• Business and the private sector
• Civil society organisations
• Professional bodies
• Religious or community leaders
• Media
• International donors and international organisations
You will probably need to do some research in order to identify individuals within
organisations as we influence people not institutions. For example, if you identify that the
Daily Nation is an important media stakeholder, you may need to think about who at the
Daily Nation you need to influence – is it the Editor, the health columnist or the opinion
page editor? Once you have identified the individuals, you may want to gather other
information which helps you to understand their interests so that you can better target your
advocacy and understand whether they are allies or opponents of your ideas.
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An example of a stakeholder analysis:
Having the stakeholder analysis can be useful but it is difficult to visualise and understand
how the various stakeholders relate to each other and also how your organisation or you
as an individual can actually influence the decision-maker either directly or indirectly.
For example, there could be a range of different ways to influence the decision-maker –
Mrs Santos at the Ministry of Public Health (above).
• You could request a meeting with the public health minister directly.
• You could focus on increasing press coverage that will influence the Minister.
• You could engage with the parliamentary committee on health who would produce a
report that would be sent to the Minister.
• You could engage religious leaders within the Catholic Church who may be able to
influence the Minister.
• You could form an alliance with the professional association (midwives, nurses and
obstetricians and gynaecologists).
The most effective advocacy strategy might be to use a combination of all the above
approaches in order to develop momentum and pressure for change.
Your core message is a short summary of your advocacy issue and your strategy for
addressing it. It tells the audience (the person you are talking to, who is reading your
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advocacy materials) what you want to achieve and by when. The core message should
explain why the change is important and how change can happen. It should be short and
persuasive.
Remember advocacy messages are not just about informing your audience, they are also
about persuading and influencing them.
In the 4th century B.C. the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about the key ingredients of a
persuasive message in ‘On Rhetoric’, this included his theory on the three persuasive
appeals. Most advice from modern books can be traced back to these three appeals.
He called them:
Ethos: Establishing the credibility of your organisation to speak on this issue, explaining
your or their experience to establish that you are informed, knowledgeable and
trustworthy.
Pathos: If your message is written or spoken you may use a human story related to the
consequences of your advocacy issue to elicit an emotional response or you may use a
visual image. You need to be clear about what emotion you are trying to stimulate in your
audience – is it anger, sadness, desire to act, surprise etc.
Logos: A need to ensure that your message is logical and makes sense to the audience.
You could include facts, statistics and short pieces of evidence. Your audience needs to
understand from your message how your proposed solution to the problem will make a
difference.
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Tailor your message to the audience:
Having developed your core message it is critical to tailor your message to your audiences
and also ensure that you are clear about what actions you are asking each audience to
take.
Decision-makers
Nationally, diarrhoea accounts for 20% of under-five child mortality and intestinal
parasitic infections continue to undermine maternal and child nutritional status,
physical and mental development. A small investment in clean drinking water and
low-cost sanitation facilities will yield a large return in terms of child and adult
health and survival. We would like to request a meeting with you to discuss this
issue further.
Media
Wangai is 6 years old. His mother walks 5 km each morning to the nearest clean
water point to collect drinking water for the family. However, when Wangai and his
friends are thirsty, they drink from the nearby river bed, where the cattle and goats
drink. Wangai’s family have no latrine and use the riverbed in the early morning
before it is light. Wangai has two brothers and one sister: he had another two
sisters but both died of dysentery before they were four years old.
Wangai has visited his cousin who lives in the nearby town, where there is a good
water supply and each house has a latrine. He has seen that his cousin’s family do
not fall ill and his aunt has lost no babies because of sickness. He wishes there
were similar facilities in his village.
General public
Clean water saves lives: water-borne diseases and poor sanitation today claim
thousands of lives in rural Tanzania. Each village should have at least one
borehole and adequate latrines. Talk to your local councillor today to find out how
you can help to bring life-saving support that is needed.
3.4 How are you going win the argument or deliver the message?
Your advocacy activities need to be selected to have the maximum impact for the
lowest cost or investment (so not just money but also your time and other resources).
There may be a range of different ways to influence a decision maker – you could hold a
conference with all key stakeholders and invite the decision maker to speak (this would be
a large investment) or you could simply request a meeting and prepare a briefing (smaller
investment).
If you are running an existing programme you may just want to look at your planned
activities and see how you can add to them to achieve advocacy impact. For example, if
you are planning an event in the community could you ask the local MP or relevant
minister to give the opening address? Or if you have collected some good data or
information as part of your monitoring and evaluation, could you turn that into a research
report or policy briefing?
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Your activities need to be appropriate for your organisation, your context, your issue, your
audience, your message and your resources and assets! Some activities may be
appropriate in one context or for a particular message (e.g. a march or petition) but would
be counterproductive or ineffective in another. It is important to learn from other’s
experiences and your own about what works but be confident in your analysis of what
makes sense in the context of your strategy.
Possible Activities
You may want to set out an annual plan for your advocacy which is focused around key
opportunities for advocacy (e.g. a national conference on your issue or consultation
around a new piece of legislation or policy guidance) and also your existing programmatic
activities.
• Develop and evidence your argument (or core message) e.g. research,
networking, policy analysis, attending conferences, engaging with experts and
academics.
• Putting your case to decision makers directly e.g. lobbying, meetings, events
and roundtables.
• Build pressure or momentum for change e.g. alliance or coalition building,
media briefings, marches.
Often in the early stage of an action plan you may want to focus on building and
developing your argument before you enter into direct discussions with decision makers or
using the media to make your messages public. This can help you to address any
weaknesses in your argument before you expose it to scrutiny.
It may be the case that initially decision makers are not interested in having a direct
discussion with you about your issue as it isn’t important enough to them so you need to
focus on generating momentum and pressure for change. You may need to build alliances
or generate media coverage of your issue before the decision makers will meet with you.
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Key point on impact or profile
Confusion can arise within organisations when thinking about advocacy and
campaigns particularly when organisations mistake increased profile of the
organisation for impact or change.
You can design many activities to do both but sometimes you may have a big
impact (but not be able to take credit for it) and in some instances you may gain a
lot of profile for your organisation but not have any impact on the issue.
3.5 How will you know if you are making progress or have succeeded?
Knowing whether you are making progress or have achieved success is important for
advocacy. This element of your strategy is more commonly known as monitoring and
evaluation. It can help to improve effectiveness, strengthen impact, keep the focus on
learning and increase accountability to donors and other key stakeholders.
In monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in general there are three critical questions:
This can be particularly difficult in advocacy where often decision makers do not want to
admit that they have been influenced and also where many organisations may be working
on the same issue.
This makes it critical to keep your M&E process simple. For example, it is important to be
clear about what you are trying to achieve overall with your advocacy and how each of
your activities will contribute to that overall objective3.
When planning your activities, it is important to write down what you expect the outcome
to be and any assumptions you have made about why that will happen. You may also
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For further information about monitoring and evaluation please consult the PLP M&E toolkit: http://cgi-
africa.org/resources/.
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want to document any risks associated with the activity and how you plan to manage
them.
A simple way of institutionalising M&E is then to conduct ‘after action reviews’ after each
activity. If you schedule these into your planning then it can be a really helpful way of
documenting evidence and learning and also consolidating and sharing views between
key partners. It can also help you with reporting to donors or sharing experience within
your organisation.
Convene a meeting for key people involved in the activity – whether a research report, a
conference or a lobbying meeting. Make sure you make it clear that you are meeting in a
spirit of learning and it is important that people are honest and open. In advocacy often the
context changes and our activities do not have the impact that we expect. The most
important thing is to learn from this.
Don’t be daunted – just start by thinking about how you can integrate advocacy within your
existing project or programme activities, for example, by inviting key stakeholders to
community events or by using your monitoring and evaluation information to produce a
report to share with parliamentarians.
Good luck!
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Further background reading
Books
A New Weave of Power, People & Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen
Participation. VeneKlasen, Lisa with Valerie Miller, World Neighbors, Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, USA:, 2002, ISBN 0-942716-17-5, 346 pp.
Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) toolkits, ODI, eg: Mapping the Political
Context: A Toolkit for Civil Society Organisations; Tools for Policy Impact: A Handbook for
Researchers http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/156.pdf
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Tax Justice for Advocacy: A Toolkit for Civil Society Tax Justice Network, SOMO,
Christian Aid, ActionAid, 2011. Contains useful and practical materials for advocacy in
general. http://www.christianaid.org.uk/images/completetaxadvocacytoolkit.pdf
Making Change Happen: Advocacy and Citizen Participation, Cindy Clark, INTRAC 04
May 2004, from INTRAC website at
http://www.intrac.org/resources.php?action=resource&id=192
Generating political priority for public health causes in developing countries, Jeremy
Shiffman, Center for Global Development, 2007.
http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/13821/
Capacity Building for Advocacy, Chris Stalker with Dale Sandberg, INTRAC, Praxis Paper
25, Jan 2011 http://www.intrac.org/data/files/resources/698/Praxis-Paper-25-Capacity-
Building-for-Advocacy.pdf
Tracking Progress in Advocacy: Why and How to Monitor and Evaluate Advocacy
Projects and Programmes, Maureen O’Flynn, INTRAC M&E Paper 4, October 2009
http://www.intrac.org/data/files/resources/672/Tracking-Progress-in-Advocacy-Why-and-How-
to-Monitor-and-Evaluate-Advocacy-Projects-and-Programmes.pdf
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