NGO support toolkit (English)  >  Institutional Change 

Advocacy

Advocacy is a process to bring about change in the attitudes, practices, policies and laws of influential individuals, groups and institutions. NGOs and CBOs have a crucial role in advocating for political and social leadership. NGO/CBO support providers (NSPs) in turn have a role in facilitating collective action to address issues and ensure that their voices and experiences inform policy discussion and decision making. Furthermore, NSPs may have a role in advocating directly to other stakeholders and institutions to change their thinking or practices where necessary.

Advocacy work is often most effective if it is based on quality policy development, backed by operations research or documented evidence with specific recommendations for action. The use of concise, non-technical summaries are useful tools for influencing decision makers.

A key target for advocacy work are the policy makers within governments and donors, but significant change can also be instigated by targeting the policy ‘influencers’ who advise the policy makers. Advocacy work with this target has to be tied into processes of political change and the agendas of international institutions. Knowing what is happening in the international arena will allow NSPs to influence these institutions as they review existing legislation and policies. NSPs can also play an important role in getting donors and governments to recognise and support the work of the NGO/CBO sector. Becoming involved in policy committees and government working groups is often one of the most useful mechanisms for directly effecting change.

Advocacy can occur at multiple levels: local, national and international. Examples of some common advocacy issues taken on by NSPs and their partner organisations include: systematic social discrimination and stigma; access to services and treatments; and changes in attitudes, practices, laws and policies which are discriminatory or put people at increased risk of HIV transmission.

Sometimes programme strategies may include an advocacy component. At its most practical level, advocacy by NSPs is about pushing for changes that will help the NSP and its NGO/CBO partners do their work better or simply benefit their clients or beneficiaries. For partner organisations, local-level advocacy may include activities such as campaigns calling for better sexually transmitted infections service, persuading the local television station to broadcast positive images of people living with HIV/AIDS, or prevent people living with HIV/AIDS from being discriminated against and turned away by community hospitals. Whatever the cause, it should always serve to support the NGO’s/CBO’s programmatic activities.

There are different organisational approaches to advocacy. An organisation may set itself in opposition to target audiences and challenge them to change their policies or practices. This is often described as activism. Alternatively, it could work in partnership with some targets to bring about change together. In this regard, NSPs may try to maintain a more neutral and detached position than their partner organisations, who are at the frontline of implementation and are therefore able to reflect upon and present opposing points of view.

Advocacy can be reactive or proactive. Many NGOs and CBOs carry out reactive advocacy work, responding to issues or problems as they arise. As they become more experienced, their advocacy may become more proactive, identifying less obvious or abstract practices that hinder their work.

Issues to consider

• A key question for NSPs is whether to do direct advocacy work, or build the capacity of others to do so. While there is a strong argument for NSPs to use their position of influence to contribute to advocacy, they should reflect on their mission and determine where to focus their energies. In the long term it may be more effective to build national and local advocacy capacity, perhaps by building the skills of a few specialised organisations.
• NGOs and CBOs may have an opposing view to governments and donors, and advocacy work can threaten their fundraising activities. NSPs may have greater independence to do advocacy work without facing direct repercussions.
• Issues of representation and legitimacy are important in advocacy work. NSPs should ensure they remain representative and accountable to their partners and beneficiaries and not just advocate for their own interests.
• NSPs often operate within consortiums and can contribute to the advocacy efforts carried out by other organisations, and vice versa. Collaboration will facilitate delivery of clear advocacy messages and help to avoid duplication of efforts.
• The success of advocacy work can often be hard to measure and attribute. One way is to use simple qualitative methods, such as undertaking assessments of existing policies, interviewing policy makers and measuring funding levels prior to advocacy work. Even when a clear outcome is recognised after an advocacy campaign, it may be the result of a number of factors or the combined work of many organisations' activities.

Related themes

Policy

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