Essential Elements of Advocacy

Essential Elements of
Advocacy
Presented by
D. Tola Winjobi (PhD)
@
a 2-day capacity enhancement
workshop on advocacy
organized by Southwest FOIA
Network

A Project
Supported by the Democratic Governance for Development (DGD)
II Project

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF
ADVOCACY
Understanding Essential
Elements of Advocacy in
Engaging the Authorities on FOI
Act: Some Useful Tools for CSOs

Definition/Meaning
WHAT ADVOCACY IS NOT:
Advocacy is not a noise making exercise as some people are wont
to believe. Though it might be necessary to drum the beat of
change into the hearing of the target authorities, this goes
beyond noise making; it is speaking out.
Advocacy is not blind agitation, though it involves the use of
pressure to effect a change.
Though implied, advocacy is not just proposing changes to the
existing policies; it subsumes creating new policies where none
existed before.
Advocacy is not an information-education-entertainment initiative
though it can inform, educate and communicate to the people
the benefits of socio-economic policies that might impact on the
lives of all irrespective of gender or status.

TearFund’s
‘seeking with, and on behalf of, the poor,
to address the underlying causes of
poverty by influencing the decisions of
governments, companies, groups, and
individuals whose policies or actions
affect the poor’ (Tear Fund 1999).

Meaning of advocacy
• The word ‘advocacy’ takes its roots from the Latin ‘ad
vocare’ meaning to speak for someone.
• not only speaking for but also speaking with the
people
• proposing or recommending something or someone
for better options
• It implies identifying a cause, believing in it,
mobilizing and influencing others to support it so as
to change the policy or programme that is negatively
affecting that cause.

Kinds of Advocacy
 The following are common kinds of advocacy; though the list is not
exhaustive:
 Feminist advocacy: focuses campaigning solely on women’s identity
and ideology.
 Gender advocacy: believes in equity of resources between male and
female, young or old.
 Policy advocacy: may be targeted towards the executive or the
legislative arms of government, works towards changing the existing
programme of actions or set of principles and policies or enacting a
new one for the benefit of all especially the common man.
 Legislative advocacy: sometimes used interchangeably with policy
advocacy which may emanate from the executive arm of government,
focuses on working with and using only the parliament to effect a
change in policy or enact a new one.

Kinds of Advocacy (contd)
 Confrontational advocacy: this deals more with strategy of
achieving a change at all cost by all means without
necessarily promoting dialogue.
 Legitimate advocacy: This is advocating for a change
through compliance with recognized rules, standards or
traditions.
 Egocentric advocacy: suggests pressing for a change for a
selfish reason.
 Demonstrative advocacy: This is a type of advocacy in
which the advocates themselves take up the responsibility
of the target of advocacy so as to show deficiency of the
latter or to challenge the latter to take a cue.

 Sectoral advocacy: while focusing on campaigning for a
reform and a change in policies it targets the specific sector
of the economy such as health, water, agriculture,
education, land and housing etc. both in public and private
sectors.
 Economic advocacy: focuses attention on economic issues
affecting the nation such debt cancellation, reform, due
process, pro-poor budgeting, extractive industries etc.
 Social Service advocacy: this is related to both economic
advocacy and sectoral advocacy as the main focus here is
campaigning for social welfare of the people in which
donors, for example, should provide funds directly to the
government who will factor this into the national budget
example is Direct Budget System (DBS).

 Media advocacy deals with strategy of achieving
advocacy goal through the use of media both print and
electronic.
 Other kinds of advocacy are self-explanatory including
self-advocacy, customer advocacy, consumer advocacy,
child advocacy, cycling advocacy, trails advocacy,
prison advocacy, patient advocacy and so on and so
forth.

Purpose and Objectives of
Advocacy
 The main purpose of advocacy is to engage authorities
or governments in dialogue so as to effect a change in
their existing policies, practices, beliefs and ideas that
are anti-people and not poor-responsive.
 In addition where there were no policies before,
advocacy would aim at causing the authorities to enact
new policies on emerging issues that are adversely
affecting the lives of the people.

Purpose (contd)
 Advocacy is necessary in order to: influence the
policy makers as a means of addressing roots and
causes of the particular problem; contribute more
effectively to reducing poverty and preventing
deaths and suffering through the use of wide range
of intervention; reach a large segment of
population and broaden the scope of program
impact; and increase financial and material
support for programmes.

OBJectives of Advocacy
 change laws/policies,
 enact new legislation (e.g. pre-2011 FOIA),
 change position of policy makers and or
authorities,
 change action of policy makers and or
authorities.

Secondary Objectives
In the process of carrying out each or all of the above
objectives, we could be carrying out and achieving other
objectives that we might or we might not have planned for.
Secondary objectives could be
 increasing social organization and participation,
 strengthening CSOs (NGOs, CBOs, FBOs)etc alliance,
 increasing public awareness,
 increasing media awareness on an issue that is not
necessarily germane to the issue on focus,
 or increasing access to policy-makers by the poor masses.

Qualities of an Advocate
Whether as a group or as an individual, there are certain qualities
an advocate should possess. These include but are not limited to:
Being passionate;
Being diplomatic;
Being persuasive;
Being sensitive
Being tactful;
Being resilient;
Being credible;
Being dependable;
Being knowledgeable;
Being resourceful;
Being strategic;
Being pleasant;
Having communication
skills and;
Using lobbying skills

Stakeholders Analysis
WITHIN GOVERNMENT OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT
The legislature: various committees
The executive: ministries and
departments (health, education, water,
sanitation etc)
The judiciary
The auditor-general’s office
The statistics office
Commissions
Boards
Agencies
Parastaltals
Military/Police
Customs/Immigration
Nigerian Security and Civil Defence
Corps
Etc etc
The intended beneficiaries
The general public ( CSOs ,NGOs,
CBOs, CDAs, Faith-based groups,
Media (print, electronic +soc )
Private sector
Religious organizations
Business groups
Community leaders
Private individuals (wealthy)
Professionals like teachers, nurses,
Universities and research centres
Trade unions
Activists
Donors
Etc etc

Stakeholders (contd)
ALLIES/SUPPORTERS
A further analysis could be done
through asking some questions
based on two key groups of people or
OPPONENTS
individuals – the supporters and
opposition. A matrix below
could help:
Questions to raise may include:
Who will gain if we achieve our goal?
Who are the beneficiaries?
Who already supports the issue?
What are the strengths, strategies and
relationships of the supporters?
Are there religious groups that support
our cause?
Which agencies, ministries, departments
in government will gain if the goal is
reached?
Do officials support the goal in private
but not in public?
Are there allies from private/commercial
sector e.g media?
Are there some allies from unexpected
sectors?
Questions to raise may include:
Which groups will lose, or think
they will lose if our goal is
achieved?
What is their relationship with
other groups?
Which agencies, ministries,
departments in government will
lose if the goal is reached?
Which officials oppose the goal
diplomatically?
Is there opposition from private
sector?

Methods/strategies/tools
Advocacy methods might be used synonymously with
tools or strategies for the purpose of this discourse. In
order to make advocacy effective, it should be
communicated through a variety of methods and
activities. It is vital when advocating to use methods
that complement each other in order to have the
greatest impact on the widest selection of targets
possible because if methods are not coordinated,
resources can be wasted and objectives undermined. It
is also important to represent the interests and views
of the widest selection of people as advocacy
sometimes is a game of number.

LOBBYING
“Lobbying”, derived from the word “lobby”, is a tool used in
advocacy by the pressure group that tries to influence a
politician on a particular issue. Lobbying involves two or
more people. It is building of alliances in order to exert
pressure on decision-makers and accomplish expected
results; it can sway decision-making in a favorable way for
the best interest of the community; and it also plays a
major role for organizations striving to influence
government policies towards their interests. Therefore,
lobbying is considered as an action consisting of
conducting interventions intended to influence directly or
indirectly the development, implementation or revision
processes of legislative (or executive) measures, standards
and rules.

Different kinds of
lobbying strategy
Lobbying a decision-making body: Initiating a bill for
legislation could emanate from any arm of government or the
public =The executive bill or The legislature or members of
the public
At whatever level the bill is initiated lobbying might be
necessary in order to fast-track the bill into law or
make the executive accede to it. Lobbying could take
place within the legislature among the lawmakers
themselves or within a particular committee or
between one committee and the other while members
of the public could also lobby the legislators in their
surgeries or in the house of parliament.

Lobbying Decision-makers contd.
This strategy calls for five different functions of the
members of parliament that can be used by pressure
groups:
 Contribute to improving a bill in committee
 Question decision-makers
 Liaise with the executive on behalf of his constituency
 Make suggestions
 Assist the executives
 Remind authorities

DIRECT LOBBYING
 Direct lobbying: This is an approach built on personal
communication between the lobbyists and the lobbied. Personal
communication subsumes: presentation, contact, meetings, letters,
informal conversation, telephone conversation and so on. It involves
getting one’s position across to the decision-makers without an
intermediary.
The techniques used in direct lobbying are:
 Oral presentation;
 A letter to a VIP;
 Informational meeting;
 Approach to support committees and;
 Contact with Clubs, Associations or Foundations etc.
 An example of a situation in which direct lobbying could be useful is
when a personal contact is made to, for example, the Chairman House
Committee on Legal Matter so as to pressure her committee to enact a
bill on FOIA in the state.

INDIRECT LOBBYING
 Indirect Lobbying: This strategy aims at achieving the same result as
in direct lobbying but with the help of an intermediary but one is more
efficient than the other. In the example given above, the chair of the
House Committee on health is a woman, her committee is a committee
that is directly involved in enacting such bills on health-related issues,
and the committee was approached directly. However, an issue might
be on increasing budgetary allocation to education to 26 percent, for
instance. A group of two or three “unskilled” lobbyists might decide to
approach a lawyer to draft such a bill on their behalf for the benefit of
the community and submit it to the House of Representatives through
the Speaker’s Office or the Clerk of the House. The Speaker might
assign this bill to the appropriate committee to handle it and for
subsequent presentations (readings).

Lobbying (contd.)
 The 3-man lobbyists do not make any move about the
bill other than the job given to the lawyer. Lobbying
only takes place at the instance of the lawyer who uses
his professional skills to draft the bill and persuades
the Speaker’s office to help submit the bill to the
appropriate house committee for hearing. More
indirect method is for the lobbyists to approach the
family members, friends, and associates of any of the
legislators requesting them to engage the latter in such
(legislative) matter of interest since they are likely to
listen in deference to such relations and cronies.

Community Leaders
 Lobbying community leaders: (Gate keepers)
 Among the community leaders are the traditional rulers,
the heads of the households, heads of towns’ unions,
political leaders, heads of markets and trade groups, and
religious leaders. The non-state actors could approach
these people so as to lobby them to support a legislation
that would impact on the wellbeing of the community.
 To influence the community leaders on issues dealing with
tradition, one should know how to develop arguments
drawing from their own references since they are keepers of
tradition in their own right. For instance, one needs tact
and wisdom to convince the traditional leaders the need to
support the legislative campaign on the harmful effect of
the female genital mutilation or widowhood practices, for
example, as the practices are rooted in the tradition of the
people. However, it is important to prove to them that their
status is not threatened.

Public Opinion
 Lobbying aimed at public opinion: The best methods of
lobbying are often those that are discreet as described
above. Some of the time, those methods do not succeed
because of the “unskillful” manner lobbying is handled by
the personalities involved or because of lack of
understanding or the ulterior motive of the authorities
concerned. However, when it is clear that the latter factor
overbears the former, then public opinions should be
resorted to in order to influence the decision-makers.
 In this case, every available strategy at the disposal of the
lobbyists could be used. This includes media campaign,
mass protest, mass mobilization, propaganda, letter
writing, petition, strike action, stakeholder lobbying etc. A
combination of these methods are being used in Nigeria to
garner support for and pressure the National Assembly to
pass the Freedom of Information Bill.

Collaborat
ing/partnering
 These are situational agreements in order to defend a
common interest or to oppose a common opponent. It is a
forming a group of organizations or individuals committed
to working in the long-term on the issue of advocacy. There
are two types of collaborating:
 Collaboration of individuals: it is made up of a large
pool of volunteers with strong personal commitment;
freedom to come in consensus on issues without external
influences.
 Collaboration of organizations: this type of
collaboration is made up of organizations. Each
organization comes with its strength, followers, resources,
expertise and reputation.

Collaboration Contd.
 The main advantages of collaboration are:
 There is strength in numbers, achieving goals that single
organization or individual cannot.
 More publicity.
 Expanded pool of resources and varied skills.
 Expanded knowledge/support base.
 A leadership/staff with good diplomacy and negotiating
skill.
 To be successful in advocacy, it is important to build
alliances. This allows for uniting forces, better
complementing each other’s effort and having more
leverage. This requires trust relation between the advocacy
group and its allies. Building alliances is carried out in five
stages

Contd.
 Identification and choice of partners
 Getting to know the partners through its name,
mode of operation, orientations, strategies,
activities and interests.
 Sharing the objectives with the partners and
taking interest in achieving the same objectives.
 Definition of each partner’s participation.
 Managing and maintaining partnership once it is
established6.

Media work
 Media work is also a very important method of
advocacy; the media work has the chance to
influence the image of the government because
most governments care about their image. Because
the media is the maker and shaper of images, their
role is then very important in making advocacy
successful. There are three types of media:
 Print media ( news paper, journals, magazine etc)
 Electronic media ( television and radio)
 Social media (twitters, facebook, netlog, etc)

Media contd.
 The media can play a key role in:
 Building awareness and changing public opinion on issues
 Generate action from its audience
 Put direct pressure on government by placing it in the
spotlight
 Protect and enhance reputation
 Investigate and expose issues
 Influence government policy, both directly and through its
power to influence and mobilize opinions.
 Different campaign demands different media strategy, it is
therefore important to identify target audience and find
the specific media that will best reach an audience or a
number of different audiences and media strategy should
specify about what action is needed7.

Campaigning
 Campaigning is choosing a specific course of
action on the basis of available information and
resources which will be most effective in achieving
identified objectives. It is an organized course of
action to achieve change by convincing the target
audience. When campaigning, the following
principles must be put into consideration: focus,
clarity, credibility, relevance, timing and
commitment.

Mobilization
 Mobilization is a very important method of
advocacy that subsumes synergizing the critical
masses of the people, financial, material and
technical resources for a common purpose. In
simple terms, the types of resources concerned are
individuals, groups, money, contribution in kind,
labour, expertise and administrative support,
including premises for meetings, supplies and
equipment10.
 It is important to mobilize the community that will
benefit from the change. Among the benefit of
community mobilization is that it improves
program design, quality result and evaluation. Also,
it increases community ownership and community,
individual and group capacity to identify and satisfy
their needs9.

Resource Mobilisation
 Resource mobilization is also playing a vital role in
advocacy because without resources, advocacy
could not survive. In order to maintain this effort
in long term, time and energy must be invested to
secure the necessary funds and resources. Types of
resources and sources that could be used:

Mobilisation (Contd.) Personal contributions which comprises subscriptions,
contributions in kind, income generating activities, from
all the members of the advocacy group.
 External contributions which comprise donation,
legacies, sponsoring, collections, contributions from
institutions, companies and various organizations that
have been approached.
 Letter writing
It is a written message packaged and sent to someone for a
purpose including the conventional messages sent by post and
email messages sent through the internet. A large number of
letters can be a good way of demonstrating the extent of
awareness and concern in the society about certain issue.
Individual letter can demonstrate a depth knowledge and
personal concern, while letters from eminent people can have a
particularly great impact. However, letter-writing is such a
flexible technique that it can be used in many different ways.
Letters can be directed to the necessary authority to make a
change on the issue addressed11.


Petition
 Petition is a written document signed by a large number of
people that asks somebody in a position of authority to do
or change something. Petition is also used as an advocacy
method. It has a tradition in public protest that goes back
many centuries. Some of the benefits of petition are:
 It can provide a good focus for group and public activities.
 It is a simple way of allowing people to express their
support.
 It can illustrate the level of public/community on an issue.
 It is easy and cheap to organize12.

choosing appropriate
advocacy methods
There are no simple rules for choosing the best advocacy
methods. Your choice will depend on many factors:
a) the target person/group/institution;
b) the advocacy issue;
c) your advocacy objective;
d) the evidence to support your objective;
e) the skills and resources of your coalition; and
f) timing - for example, external political events, when a law
is still in draft form, immediately before a budgeting
process, time of year, stage of advocacy process.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN COMMUNITY
MOBILISATION ON ADVOCACY CONCERN
FACTORS TO CONSIDER CONDITIONS THAT
FACILITATE ADVOCACY
CONDITIONS THAT
INHIBIT ADVOCACY
Magnitude of the problem
Political support
Socio-cultural context
Resources (time, money, skills
of staff, and community,
equipment and supplies)
Organization
Feasibility of response
History of community
participation
Accessibility (geography,
climate etc
Representativeness of other
areas in the country
Remarks:
Weigh your pros and cons to draw

Supported by the Democratic Governance for Development (DGD)
II Project

THANK YOU
D. Tola Winjobi (PhD)
Southwest Coordinator, FOIA
Network
Convener, Campaign2015+ International
Principal Coordinator, CAFSO-WRAG for Development
Plot 5, Akingbade Street, Off Old Ife Road
Box 15060, Agodi Post Office, Ibadan, NIGERIA
+234 8082008222+234 8030618326
tolawinjobi58@yahoo.com
cafsowinco58@yahoo.co.uk
campaign2015@gmail.com

Essential Elements of Advocacy

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