When we talk about “advocacy strategy,” several questions arise, the first and most important of which is usually: What do we mean by “advocacy”? Advocacy is the ability to influence someone to change their behavior.
Advocacy is often the main reason civil society organizations (CSOs) work. Since some government’s actions do not directly impact us, we don’t have the direct power or legal authority to bring about the changes we seek. Other CSOs accompany people and influence them.
Therefore, for CSOs, advocacy can mean:
Influence governments to better conduct their work or to do things they don’t do and should do
For example, suppose we seek to change the regulatory framework to claim a right, or we want more budget for a particular issue. In those cases, our advocacy strategy must influence the members of Congress so that they include our topics of interest in the legislative agenda. Suppose we want governments to comply fully with their international human rights obligations. In that case, we must identify the public servants in charge of these responsibilities and show them good practices in other countries to improve their processes and plans.
An advocacy strategy also relates to agents of change
Agents of change can be organizations or individuals that directly influence social change. For example, collectives of victims of human rights violations or women’s groups. In this case, our advocacy strategy can focus on:
- Training them in the comprehensive normative framework that regulates the exercise and defense of their rights;
- Accompanying them in strengthening their capacities;
- Supporting them in designing their organizational models;
- Expanding their presence in forums and decision-making spaces.
How to conduct a good advocacy strategy?
Each case is unique, so an advocacy strategy must be tailored to each organization. However, there are certain aspects that must be present. These are usually of great help to move forward quickly and efficiently in the advocacy process.
A good analysis of the context
Every advocacy strategy starts with an in-depth analysis to understand the environment’s opportunities and challenges to achieve the changes we want. The key questions for us at this point are:
- Who are the actors and agents of change directly responsible for the changes?
- What are the regulatory framework’s strengths and weaknesses for the exercise and defense of the rights or the actions we want to influence?
- What is the government’s position on this issue?
- Which actors are in favor of the changes?
- Who are against?
- How likely is it that environmental conditions will change soon, and new opportunities or risks will arise?
These are not complex questions, but they force us to analyze our position and identify our allies. We might find points of support that we did not see or had not even considered.
When solving these questions, being open to options and thinking outside the box is essential.
Where do we add value?
Another step in the advocacy strategy is a complete analysis of our organization. The key questions here are:
- Can anyone do the work we are doing better, or are we the only ones who can bring about that change?
- Why are we the ones with the most experience in the issue, or do our strategies indicate that we can reach significant milestones?
The complexity of these questions lies in our need to be objective about our capabilities and possibilities. The first step is to believe that we are the only ones who can achieve the stated objective. We may need to ally with other civil society actors or stakeholders to be stronger and accomplish what we seek more efficiently and effectively.
Conducting a good assessment of our capabilities and resources
The last step of an advocacy strategy is to analyze whether our resources are sufficient to attain our objectives. Here, it is important to consider financial, human, and time resources.
This will allow us to set realistic goals and identify our needs to meet them. For example, this analysis may indicate the need for training in specific strategies or topics or more resources to finance our planned activities.
This can be a serious challenge. We may realize we have a long way to go to achieve our goals. However, it is a key step in understanding our weaknesses and creating a strategy to strengthen them. It also allows us to detect our advantages and use them best.
As shown before, the advocacy strategy is essential to a civil society organization’s work. For COMETA, strategic planning of advocacy objectives must be taken very seriously, as it involves the collective pursuit of policy changes to claim rights.
Remember that we can help you with this process at COMETA. Taking the time to think about and define an advocacy strategy together can be one of the most powerful ways to find the paths that will lead us to leave the mark we seek.Reach out to us, and let’s discuss ways to reimagine what we do and define together a process to facilitate achieving your goals related to your Theory of Change.
