Advocacy
– the basics
Advocacy involves influencing what other people believe, think
and do so that change happens the way you want it to.
Advocacy is more likely to be successful when many people are
involved.
Advocacy can be in response to someone else’s agenda
(reactive) or it can be designed to set the agenda (proactive).
Most successful advocacy is carefully planned rather than just
happening.
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An effective advocacy programme will have answers to the
following questions:
- What do you want to change?
- How can change come about?
- Who can help you to bring about change?
- What methods will you use?
- Who will do what by when?
- How effective is your strategy, and where do you need to
adapt?
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Here are some common but different definitions of advocacy:
- to highlight and solve problems
- putting a problem on the agenda, providing a solution to that
problem, and building support for acting on both the problem and
the solution
- to influence public interest
- an organised, systematic, intentional influencing process on
matters of public interest
- to influence government policy
- action aimed at changing the policies, positions and programmes
of governments, institutions or organisations
- to promote democracy
- a social change process affecting attitudes, social
relationships and power relations, which strengthens civil society
and opens up democratic processes
- Which definition comes closest to what you want to do?
- What else would you like to include in your definition?
- Does everybody else in you organisations agree?
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