Advocacy

Concepts of Advocacy

What is Advocacy?

• An Activity
  • Media campaigns
  • Public Speaking
  • Commissioning
  • Publishing Research
  • Conducting Polls
  • Lobbying
• By an individual or Group
• Aims to influence decisions within
  • Political Systems
  • Economic Systems
  • Social Systems
  • Institutions
• Changing "What is" into "What should be"

Approaches and Ways that we can advocate and initiate change in Society

• Question the way policy is administered
• Participate in the agenda setting as they raise significant Issues
• Target Political Systems because those systems are not responding to peoples' needs
• Are inclusive and engaging
• Propose Policy solutions
• Open up Space for Public Argumentation
• Ensure people, especially those vulnerable are able to
  • Have their voice heard on issues that are important to them
  • Defend and safeguard their rights
  • Have their views and wishes genuinely considered when decisions are being made about their lives
• Support and enable people to
  • Express their views and concerns
  • Access Information and Services
  • Defend and promote their rights and responsibilities
  • Explore Choices and Options

Forms and Methods of Advocacy

• Budget Advocacy
  • Ensure proactive engagement of civil Society Organisations with government budget to make government more accountable to the people and promote transparency
  • Enables citizens and social action groups to compel the govt. to be more alert to the needs and aspirations of people in general and the deprived sections of the community
• Bureaucratic Advocacy
  • People considered 'experts' have more chance to succeed at presenting their issues to decision makers by influencing the agenda.
• Express Versus Issue Advocacy
  • Debate whether a group is expressly making their desire known that voters should cast votes in a particular way or if a group has a long-term issue that isn't campaign and election season specific
• Health Advocacy
  • Support and promotes Health care rights as well as enhance community health and policy initiatives that focus on availability, safety and quality of care.
• Ideological Advocacy
  • Advancing ideas
• Interest-group Advocacy
  • Use of lobbying to do mass advocacy
• Legislative Advocacy
  • reliance on legislative process as part of strategy to create change
• Mass Advocacy
  • Action taken by large groups using petitions, demonstrations etc
• Media Advocacy
  • Strategic use of mass media as a resource to advance a social or public policy initiative

What are the different Contexts of Advocacy?

• Legal/ Law
• Political
• Social Care
• Inclusion

Reference

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy