Running a Successful

Advocacy Campaign

“ICT Policy for Civil society”

 5 sessions on advocacy

 1. What is advocacy – definitions

and types
 2. Advocacy campaigns – steps to
mount a campaign
 3. How laws and policies are made
 4. Tactics and lobbying
 5. Presentation of cases

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Outcomes for this session
You will be able to:

 Identify and analyse models for running

a successful advocacy campaign

 Develop skills for running an advocacy

campaign

 In small groups – in this session and as

homework - plan a campaign

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Launching an advocacy campaign
is serious business.

Here are some things for

you to ponder before we go any
further:

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Planning for Advocacy is
Different to Other Strategies

It involves:
 Getting the powerful to make
changes not necessarily in their
short term interests.
 Working in the public eye.
 Sticking your neck out.

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 When Is It Best to Use
Advocacy?
When a broad range of support from different stakeholders is
needed to solve a problem

When policies need to change – institutional, national

When conventional methods have failed to effect change

When there is a good chance to garner public support for change

Advocacy

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 No one sector has all the expertise
or possible perspectives on an issue.

Public interest policies and laws can

best be changed through
collaboration among different
sectors: civil society, business and
government.

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Exercises
 Sit together in the same small groups
as in the previous session
 Remember the ICT issue you selected
for your advocacy campaign
 You will work on these issues for the
rest of the session – sometimes in small
groups sometimes with everyone

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 A 6 Step model for an
advocacy campaign
 1. Select an issue that needs to be
addressed?
 2. How can you find out more about it?
 3. What are the goals of your campaign?
 4. Which players are you targeting?
 5. What is the message of your
campaign?
 6. What strategy will achieve your goals?

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers
 Working out the 6 steps

The rest of this session will prepare

you for your evening assignment.
We will work through some of the
steps here – the assignment will
bring them all together into a draft
advocacy campaign on the issue
chosen by each group in the
previous session.

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Step 1 – What is the issue

 Unpack the issue!

 Have you explored all angles?
 What values are in play?
 What different motivations are
involved?
 What are the possible unintended
consequences?

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Examples of unintended
consequences
A group may develop a campaign for the installation of
landlines to a particular area. It is important to look at
the potential impact of success from all angles. If one of
the motivational factors is to combat unemployment
and develop small business opportunity it will be
important to develop and agree on a process that
enables new business people to open phone shops for
people who are not able to afford a home phone.
Otherwise the small business elite that already exists
will be the only beneficiaries because they can afford
the start up costs. If one of the motivational factors is
to particularly target female entrants to small business
to combat the reality of no-income one parent
households that are a result of migrant labour or death,
then it will be important to develop measures to ensure
equitable, or even biased gender participation.

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Step 2 Information
gathering
 What do you need to know more
about?
 Facts? Opinions of interested groups?
 What sources exist?
 Internet, libraries, NGOs, government
departments
 How can you access them?
 Who will do the research?

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Campaign
Research
Areas

In your small group write down six things that

you need more information about before you
can implement the campaign. For each area
make a note in the box about the following:
 does this information already exist?
 where does the information exist?
 how will we gather new information?

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

The following URL is a site that was found that
provides background papers on a wide
variety of ICT issues.
http://www.internetpolicy.net/practices/

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Visual Presentation of
Information
Here are some maps that
provide information about
the distribution of
information and
communication technology
in Africa. This kind of
information could assist you
in making a presentation,
for example in the context
of the World Summit on the
Information Society to be
held in Geneva, Switzerland
in December 2003.

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers
 Step 3. Vision and Goals
 The vision is your view of what the
world will look like if your
campaign is successful
 Sketch it out
 Goals are steps that must be
achieved to realise the vision
 Identify long and short term goals
and those that affect policy and
process

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Think about your vision again
 Identify the core elements
 What aspects are not open to
compromise?
 Where might compromise be
possible?
 Write down the core vision and
goals of agreed by your group.

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Step 4. The players

 Where does the power lie with

respect to your advocacy issue?
 Whose behaviour do you need to
change?
 Who are your allies?
 Who are your opponents?

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Can you identify other
players?
 Opposition leaders
Politicians – local,  Speechwriters
provincial, national  Media
Business leaders  Women’s organisations
Community groups  Ministry officials
Political parties  Voters
Labour organisations  United Nations agencies
Academics  Other governments
Professionals  Multinationals
 Direct service
organisations
 Opinion leaders
 Funders

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Definitions of power
 Ability to do or act
 Socially or legally sanctioned
domination
 Collective power (whole is greater than
the part)
 Power of inner conviction
 Empowerment – gaining the power to
change through interaction with others

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Persuasion and alliances
 Identify different ways of
communicating with those you
need to persuade
 Understand their point of view
 Identify arguments
 Build alliances
 Aim for non-confrontational
discussions

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 5. The message
 What is your case?
 What is your audience ready to
hear?
 How can you tailor your message
to different audiences without
compromising its key elements?
 Who should deliver your message
to each audience?

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

What Do You Want to Say?
In your groups, identify six individuals or
groups who would oppose your campaign.
Write them in the opponent boxes on this
diagram. In each box write a strategy or
tactic for dealing with the opponent.

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 What Do You Want to Say

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Developing your message

 Learn about the strategies &

tactics of your opponents
 Use them to develop counter
arguments
 Find common ground
 Use it to develop negotiating
positions

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 6. The Strategy

 What steps need to be taken to

achieve your goals?
 How have you changed people’s
views on other issues?
 What resources do you require?
 How will you obtain them?

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Step 6

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers

 Homework

 In your small groups think about

the 6 steps of an advocacy
campaign that we have reviewed
here
 Prepare a first draft of an advocacy
campaign to work on in following
sessions and for later presentation

ICT Policy for Civil Society Train of Trainers