Advocacy and Campaigning



World Blind Union Office

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WBU External Resource Paper

Advocacy and Campaigning

Author: WBU Advocacy Coordinator

Replaces: 2003 Resource Paper

Date Reviewed: 2015

Approval: WBU Officers – May 2015

1. Purpose

The purpose of this resource paper is to promote a common understanding of the meaning and value of advocacy and campaigning for WBU members and to enable them to adopt effective strategies and approaches for their advocacy efforts. The rationale for updating this paper includes: 1) advances in methodologies and strategies related to advocacy and campaigning; 2) adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which includes a wide range of new opportunities for advocacy; 3) increasing importance and effectiveness of self-advocacy efforts; and 4) the need to update the previous resource paper (initially developed in 2003).

Advocacy and campaigning have become increasingly important in combatting discrimination and in working to improve the lives of persons who are blind or partially sighted. Legislative and policy initiatives at the international and national levels are vital components of effective advocacy. In addition the adoption of the UNCRPD has created many new opportunities to advance the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in general and of persons who are blind or partially sighted in particular. The UNCRPD has created an unprecedented opportunity for blind and partially sighted individuals to advocate on their own behalf and to negotiate with multiple stakeholders toward improving the quality of their lives. 

2. Introduction

Advocacy is a carefully considered, planned process to influence multiple stakeholders in order to achieve specified outcomes. Within the development context, it may include representing the needs and interests of disadvantaged and marginalized groups before those who have the power to make or influence change. Specific organizations and groups have specific definitions of advocacy that promote their particular interests. Regardless of the methods an organization employs, it is important to be aware of the diversity of advocacy strategies that can be used effectively. Each has its merits, but each is also dependent on its context, that is, the nature and type of the organization advocating for change.

An advocacy campaign is a planned project over a given period of time to achieve specific advocacy goals. Therefore, campaigning can be seen as the process of advancing advocacy. Campaigning does not necessarily mean engaging with the public; the nature and type of the engagement is a strategic decision. Some campaigning may use an ‘insider’ approach, engaging solely with decision makers and their immediate advisors. The process of engaging with the public to generate and/or mobilize support for an advocacy campaign may be called ‘public campaigning’ as contrasted with the one-on-one approach of engaging directly with decision makers.

Advocacy is a Latin term made up of two words “Ad” and “Voca” which means “amplify” and “Voice” thus advocacy is the process of amplifying the voices of the voiceless.  “Advocacy” is often defined by agencies and individuals as a “Systematic and serious process of amplifying the voices of the voiceless”. It focuses on resisting unequal and unjust power relations in a just manner. It is a value driven political process and knowledge based activism”.  This perspective is incorporated into this resource paper as part of the description of the strategies associated with advocacy and campaigning.

3. WBU Principles with respect to Advocacy

• We adopt the “Social and human rights model of disability and strive toward ending attitudinal, institutional and environmental barriers”.

• We are committed to promoting the dignity of the individual and accepting “Disability as part of human diversity” and to practicing the principle of “Nothing about us without us”.

• * We are fully convinced that Poverty is both a cause and consequence of disability, and strive to have a clear bias in favor of the most marginalized and excluded persons, such as Women and Girls, children, the elderly, and the poorest of the poor and we are committed to promoting specific initiatives to attain equity and justice.

• We believe in the talents and potential of people with disabilities and in their ability to be involved actively in making decisions regarding all services, programs and supports affecting their lives. 

• The WBU and its member organizations will advocate with relevant stakeholders at the national, regional and global levels to secure the full and equal human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons who are blind or partially sighted.

• While the WBU is committed to collaborating with other organizations of people with disabilities and others on overarching disability issues, only the World Blind Union and its member organizations have the knowledge and expertise to advocate on behalf of the rights of blind and partially sighted persons.

• We believe our advocacy and campaigning approaches must reflect the national and cultural diversity of our members.

4. Advocacy Campaign Planning Framework

Effective advocacy is critical to the success of national and international efforts to realize the objectives of the WBU and its members.  Only by securing the support of key actors, whether they are local health providers, national governments, or development partners, can we hope to bring about the changes we seek. 

Advocacy is not a specialist art. All of us have the potential to become powerful advocates. But good advocacy requires clarity of purpose, thorough preparation, imagination, follow-through on plans and the occasional spot of luck!

This section aims to explain the key elements of the advocacy and campaigning process.  Of course, not all elements will necessarily apply to all advocacy challenges. But we hope that it will be a helpful aid to the design, and successful implementation, of your particular advocacy strategy. Planning is very important to increase the rate of success in the process of advocacy and campaigning. Here are some important components of the planning framework:

• Advocacy can be broadly classified into five categories:

• Legislative, executive, media and judiciary advocacy

• Self-advocacy

• Policy and program advocacy

• People centric advocacy

• Advocacy for and by people

4.1 Identifying problems

The first phase is to know exactly what it is that we want to change. It is not enough to just have a general direction – we need clear, focused and precise objectives. We need to agree on what we want to change first before thinking about developing strategies and action plans.

4.2 Prioritizing the problems depending upon the urgency and availability of resources

There may be a number of problems we want to address, but resource constraints (financial, human and time) will limit our ability to address all the problems we face. Therefore we need to prioritize the issues we will address, depending on their urgency, relative importance and on the availability of resources.

4.3 Framing the issue within a human rights context

Once the problems have been prioritized, each should be framed as an issue to be addressed. The difference between a problem and an issue can be understood in this way:  A problem may be framed in a simple manner while the issue represents the magnitude of the problem and articulates the violation of human rights of an individual or a group. For example, the lack of textbooks in braille is a problem but the issue is that a student’s right to education is impeded which is a violation of the student’s human rights.

4.4 Setting the long term objective

After each issue has been framed, we need to articulate the long term objective, which is the advocacy and campaigning goal or what we want to achieve.

4.5 Setting short term objectives or immediate remedies

The long-term goal or objective can be further broken down into short-term objectives or solutions that need to be achieved in order to progress towards the achievement of the long-term objective.

4.6 Stakeholders analysis

A Stakeholder analysis is important to determine: who should be the target of our advocacy and campaigning efforts; who might be our supporters and partners in our advocacy efforts; who are likely to oppose our efforts; and to determine who are likely to be “fence-sitters”.

4.7 Designing strategies

Once objectives are clear, one can then move to the second phase – identifying the strategy that is most likely to succeed. The temptation is to rush to designing campaigning activities; this should only be done once the strategy is determined.  For example: What advocacy and campaigning tactics will we use? Which audiences will we target? What messages will we use to bind our campaign together? We may need a separate but compatible strategy for different objectives and target decision makers.

Here are some examples of activities that can be undertaken as part of the strategy:

• Enacting or amending the legal and policy framework

• Capacity building, sensitization and training of stakeholders of strategic relevance

• Building alliances with other networks and groups and federations, both of people with and without disabilities

• Campaigning techniques including: letter writing campaigns, signature petitions, email campaigns, use of social media, mass media outreach, SMS campaigns, etc.

• Filing petitions in the court of law

• Demonstrations, rallies and protests

4.8 Preparing the action plan

With clear strategies, we are now in a position to develop action plans – the third phase. Here we want to devise the most effective ways of engaging our target audiences. While influencing strategies should stay constant until we achieve our objectives (unless our monitoring reveals that they are just not working, in which case a new strategy may be called for), action plans should be continuously updated in light of how our audiences are reacting and other changes or factors in the campaigning environment.

4.9 Devising a monitoring mechanism

Throughout the implementation of our action plans we should monitor and evaluate progress. As a result of this monitoring and evaluation, the action plans can be adjusted and the strategy revised as appropriate until the objectives are achieved.

Then one can look again at what we want to change and start the Advocacy & Campaigning Cycle all over again!

4.10 Follow up

To ensure that the process runs smoothly, efficiently and effectively, there needs to be a clear process of management and coordination. Each of the first three phases in the Planning cycle can be broken down into steps that will provide a pathway to help navigate the choices that need to be made in planning an effective campaign.  And although a sequence is implied, there may be some movement backwards and forwards as new information and analysis prompt a re-think of earlier steps.

5. Some Examples of Advocacy Undertaken by the World Blind Union in recent years

Advocacy and campaigning are dependent on situations and issues that arise from time to time. We have listed below some examples of advocacy campaigns that the WBU has engaged in as a reference for our members:

• Reflecting the perspectives of persons who are blind and partially sighted in documents related to policy and practice – particularly with respect to UN agencies, treaty bodies and other relevant international or regional bodies;

• Encouraging members to advocate with national governments and other relevant stakeholders in a number of areas, for example: the promotion of eye health and prevention of avoidable blindness; the provision of rehabilitation services including assistive devices and technology; the enhancing of access to education, employment, community participation, recreation, arts and cultural life, etc.;

• Engaging the media to provide adequate space and to raise awareness of the issues and concerns of persons who are blind and partially sighted;

• Advocating for the Signing, ratification and implementation of the UNCRPD;

• Advocating for the Signing, ratification and implementation of the Marrakesh treaty;

• Advocating for the inclusion of disability in the Post 2015 development agenda.

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