This document discusses advocacy and how information and communication technologies (ICT) can be used as tools for advocacy. It defines advocacy as actions that support or argue for a cause and outlines several examples of advocacy work, including organizing, educating, researching, informing, encouraging, training, lobbying, and taking actions. It then discusses developing an advocacy strategy, outlining nine questions to consider, such as identifying goals, stakeholders, and effective communication channels. Finally, it discusses different ICT tools that can be used for advocacy, including social media, blogs, RSS feeds, instant messaging, and text messaging.

1. ICT AS MEDIUM
ADVOCACY and
DEVELOPMENTAL
COMMUNICATION

2. ADVOCACY
*”Any action that speaks in favor
of, recommends, argues for a
cause, supports or defends, or
pleads on behalf of others”
-Alliance for Justice

3. •Its aim is to be heard and
create change in
governance, attitudes,
power, social relations
and institutional
functions. Activities that
comprise advocacy work

4. Here are examples of advocacy works in
the different fields which can serve as
basis for you to implement your own
advocacy:
1. ORGANIZING >social work
students organize activities as
part of a national campaign to
end gun violence.

5. 2. EDUCATING >Mr. Efren Pena
florida Jr., a teacher, who founded
the Dynamic Teen Company which
pioneered the of the “pushcart
classroom”, wherein pushcarts
contained school materials such as
books, pens, tables, and chairs, and
then used on Saturdays to recreate
school settings in unconventional
locations such as the cemetery or
trash dump.

6. 3. RESEARCHING >UNESCO has
conducted research in the areas
of mobile reading and mobile
learning policies and has published
the results which can serve as an
input in building policies involving
the use of mobile technology for
learning to further improve
quality of education.

7. 4. INFORMING >VSO Philippines
partnered with volunteer organization,
Gualandi Volunteer Service
Programmed, to raise awareness of
deaf people and their rights as citizen.
They did this with local volunteer-
interpreters through mainstreaming
of Filipino Sign Language in TV
news broadcasts in partnership
with ABS-CBN in four key cities
and regions of the Philippines.

8. 5. ENCOURAGING >BBB
(Brains, Beauty, and Breast-
feeding Inc.), an organization
advocating breastfeeding in
partnership with UNICEF
encourages mothers to opt for
exclusive breast-feeding.

9. 6. TRAINING >Faculty
members conduct community
extension activities such as
Computer Literacy Trainings
to help the government in its
program on “digital literacy
for all”.

10. 7. LOBBYING >One major effort of
women’s groups in the Philippines
immediately after EDSA was the lobby
for gender concerns to become integral
to the formulation of the 1987
Philippines Constitution. From their
efforts, a provision recognizing
“women’s equality with men before the
law” was agreed upon by the
Constitutional Commission.

11. 8. TAKING ACTIONS >The Philippine
Alliance of Human Rights Advocates
(PAHRA) was formed as an alliance of
individuals, institutions and
organizations committed to the
promotion, protection and realization
of human rights in the Philippines.

12. Developing an Advocacy Strategy
•To have an effective advocacy, you must start
developing a strategy Developing an advocacy strategy
involves the means of identifying how to achieve your
short-term goals as you continue to realize your long-
term vision.

13. Here are NINE QUESTIONS
for planning your strategy
developed by Jim Schultz,
founder and executive director of
the Democracy Center, which was
adapted by UNICEF, other
organization in the world are also
in this context.

14. 1. What do we want?
•You should start understanding the
situation. Identify the problems that
need to be addressed and prioritized.
After which, have a closer analysis of
its background. In this Way you can
look at how problems can be solved.

15. 2. Who can make it happen?
•You should understand stakeholders, their
relative power and how change happens. After
having identified what you want, understand
the people whom you need to make your
advocacy works. The stakeholders can be an
individual, institution or groups who are likely
to gain or affected from the proposed changes,
or those who has the power so you can
influence the negative ones to become positive.

16. 3. What do they need to hear?
•You should understand what
will motivate your target
audience. Find the best ways
of getting their attention and
influencing them.

17. 4. Who they need to hear it from?
•You should identify the right
messenger for your audience. The
impact of a message depends largely
on who communicates it so you must
choose those who have influence or
power over the target audience to
bring about the desired change.

18. 5. How can we make sure they hear it?
• You should identify processes, opportunities and entry
points. You should determine the ways of delivering your
advocacy message. This is where Information and
Communications Technology comes in. ICT can be a very
good platform to communicate your advocacy message.
The most popular tools for communicating your advocacy
message include press releases, events, news conferences,
letters to editors, TV or radio interviews, newsletters,
briefs, conferences, seminars and workshops. However,
ICT is increasingly becoming prevalent such as the use of
websites, blogs and social media.

19. 6. What do we have? & 7. What do we
want?
•You should recognize capacities
and gaps. This involves
assessing your advantages,
challenges, threats,
opportunities, and next steps.

20. 8. How do we begin to take action?
•You should set goals and interim
outcomes and develop an action
plan. You identify the steps to
take in order to put everything in
action.

21. 9. How can we tell if it’s working?
•You should monitor and evaluate
advocacy. In this way, you can determine
what strategies need to be discarded and
need to be retained. You can do this by
listing down all your activities, its
success indicators and the
corresponding strategic results.

22. ICT ADVOCACY TOOLS
•Smartphones and other revolutionary gadgets
are now selling like hotcakes. Free social media
access, unlicalls and unlitexts from
telecommunication providers are available
anytime. With these, ICT can be an effective tool
for communicating your advocacy messages.
Let’s look at these available ICT tools and
determine which one will work best to help you
meet your advocacy goals and mission.

23. SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS
• There are several social media networks available
nowadays and one of the most popular of them is
facebook. Facebook can be a suitable platform for your
advocacy activities. It enables you to form an advocacy
group, keep your members informed of the latest
developments and provide adequate facilities for
members to communicate, share thoughts and ideas,
and introduce or invite others to join the cause in
question (willis, B., 2013). Other social media
networks which can also be used as advocacy tools are
Twitter, MySpace, and youtube.

24. BLOG SITES
•Can likewise be good advocacy tools.
Blog Sites include WordPress, Blogger,
Tumblr and others. They allow users
to create websites or blogs that are
customizable and easily used for
sharing text, photos, and videos.

25. RSS FEEDS (RICH SITE SUMMARY)
•Uses a family of standard web feed formats to
publish frequently updated information such
as blog entries, News Headlines, Audio or
Video. This can also be a good advocacy tool as
it allows users to publish a message or content
on their usual blog or website and all members
of the group or other interested individuals are
instantly informed of the publication via the
RSS FEED LINK.

26. INSTANT MESSAGING
•Include Skype, Meebo and others.
These tools allow users to
communicate in real time via
voice or text chat and provide the
opportunity to participate in
conference calls.

27. TEXT MESSAGING
•Through the use of mobile phones can likewise
be an effective tool for your advocacy concerns.
Telecommunication companies keep providing
the people with several options to avail of
unlimited text messaging and even calls in a
more affordable price. Advocacy groups can
take advantage of these promos to
communicate their cause.