YOU ARE HERE:
Advocacy card - Working from inside the system
One of the most effective steps for influencing change is to work from ‘inside the system’ – by participating in decision-making bodies. This can be very useful, but it is not easy. There is a danger of being used as a ‘token’ representative.
Decisions affecting your advocacy issue or problem are made in many different fora, i.e., local council committees, sub-committees and working groups, joint committees between different public services (for example, health and education, advisory committees to government ministries), trade associations, company boardrooms, trade unions, committees of religious leaders, school boards of governors, district health committees, employment tribunals, social welfare committees – and many more.
It is important to know how and where the decisions are made. The next step is to learn how people can take a seat at the table in these meetings and to influence their decisions. Are representatives elected, selected or co-opted?
It is also important to take full advantage of any official positions already enjoyed by members of your organisation or coalition.
A representative needs to be well prepared, focused and supported by those who you represent and are accountable to.
Advantages
- You can influence decisions in a sustained, long-term way.
- It is often easier to have an influence ‘inside the system’ than outside it.
- You can gain access to more information, to see realistic was to influence change.
- It is a great opportunity to build relationships with decision-makers
- Your organisation can gain more respect and credibility.
Disadvantages
- Some decision-making bodies are not open to change.
- You may feel isolated.
- You will be associated with decisions with which you may disagree.
- The decision-making body may have different values to the values of your organisation.
- You may be encouraged to identify more with the decision-makers than with the people you represent.
Skills-building activity
Objective: By the end of this session participants will be able to identify key skills of effective representation for working from inside the system
Preparation time: 2 hours
Resources: ‘How to...’ Handout
Instructions
Timing: 1 hour 30 minutes
1 Introduce the topic and explain the objective of the activity to the participants.
2 Invite participants to describe their experiences of participating in decision-making bodies – for example, committees, standing conferences, company boards of directors, committees of trade unions or professional associations, religious bodies, etc.
- How easy is it to raise HIV/AIDS issues as a member of these bodies?
3 Explain that participants will be role-playing a committee meeting in which one person is representing an NGO or CBO involved in HIV/AIDS work. HIV/AIDS is not the main focus of the committee’s work. The task for that representative is to persuade the committee to take action in support of an advocacy objective.
4 Ask participants to form small groups of five to seven people, to practise a five-minute roleplay. Ask at least one group to show a bad example, and at least one group to show a good example, of advocating in a committee meeting. If appropriate, give the participants a copy of the ‘How to...’ part of this card to help them.
5 Ask one group to present their bad example, and one to present their good example.
6 After the presentations, lead a discussion on taking part in decision-making bodies, using the following kinds of questions:
- What were the differences between the two meetings we saw?
- What are the main barriers to raising an advocacy issue in a meeting of a decision-making body? What strategies can overcome those barriers?
- What are the advantages of choosing a representative who is directly affected by the issue or problem?
Invite any other comments or experiences of face-to-face advocacy.
7 If there is time, ask the group to make a list of advice for advocacy work from ‘inside’ the decision-making system.
Example: Working from inside the system
Seat on sub-committee helps Kenyan NGOs input into national policy
The director of a Kenyan NGO coalition was given a seat on a Ministry of Health subcommittee during the development of the country’s first comprehensive national policy on HIV/AIDS.
The Kenya AIDS NGO Consortium (KANCO) worked closely with the various Ministry of Health sub-committees to inform their members and to advocate for the consortium’s recommendations. Allan Ragi, the Director of KANCO, even represented KANCO as a member of the sub-committee responsible for the strategies and interventions section of the national policy.
As a result of this collaboration between the consortium and the government, all of KANCO’s eight priority issues were addressed in the final document, adopted in 1997.
Reference: Making Prevention Work, Global Lessons Learned from the AIDS Control and Prevention (AIDSCAP) Project 1991-1997.
Advice
- Try to prepare before a meeting, by going through the agenda and planning what to say.
- Try to use facts and figures, personal testimony and other evidence to support your points.
- Try to report back to the people you represent, soon after the meeting.
- Try to get to know other committee members.
- Try to assist the committee in its work – they will be more likely to support your proposals.
- Try not to follow personal/political objectives at the expense of the people who you represent.
- Try not to keep your seat on a committee if you no longer have time to attend meetings – let someone else use that valuable opportunity.
- Try not to ‘ambush’ committee members with surprise controversial proposals unless you are sure it is the best tactic.
How to...work from inside the system
Find out where and how decisions are made
- Make a list of all the decision-making bodies you know that could possibly be relevant to your advocacy issue (this could be similar to a list of advocacy ‘targets’). Include central and local government bodies, NGO sector, business, professional associations, religious organisations – don’t rule anything out.
- Find out how to join each decision-making body – are members selected, elected or coopted, or how many shares in a company do they need to buy?
- Nominate or suggest your representatives for relevant bodies.
Make the most of opportunities
List all decision-making bodies on which your organisation or coalition is represented. Ensure that these positions are being fully used for your advocacy objective.
Choose good representatives
Select representatives carefully. If possible, they should have direct experience of the advocacy issue or problem, and should be reliable and confident.
Support the representative
- Support the representative to speak for the best interests of other people affected by the issue or problem. This will put them in a stronger position in meetings, when they can confidently speak on behalf of ten, one hundred or thousands of people affected by the same issue, rather than speaking only as an individual.
- Hold support meetings before the committee, agreeing key points for your representative to make and gathering supporting information.
- Hold debriefing sessions after meetings.
- Representatives should report back regularly to the people who chose them.
- Ensure that representatives on committees, boards, etc., are treated in the same way as other members – for example, financially or in terms of decision-making powers.
- Provide training in assertiveness, negotiation and the issues of the committee.
Using your role on decision-making bodies
- Being a member of a committee or other decision-making body is a long-term form of advocacy. It takes time to understand how the body works, to build relationships with members and to inform and persuade them about your advocacy objective.
- The decision-making body is an advocacy target, and therefore needs to be researched. What is its mission? Who are the other members? How does it function? How is it influenced? What are its limitations?
- Learn what are the primary issues for the other members of this group. Offer to assist them with their issues. Find areas of agreement, on which to build trust.
- Get to know the other members. Each person is an advocacy ‘target’ who needs to be persuaded. You will also feel more confident if you know the other people.
- Avoid areas of disagreement or conflict among group members if possible. Try not to be seen as supporting one side or another.
- Represent fairly the people who chose you.
- Often it is necessary to compromise to reach a decision. Compromise is different from betrayal. Compromise means that each person gives and takes to move beyond the differences that are stopping progress. It is important to be seen as a person who can negotiate and compromise when necessary.
- Persevere!
Reference: Adapted from A Parent’s Guide: Serving on Boards and Committees by Sherri Coles http://www.nichcy.org/pubs/parent/pa11txt.htm
Source: Advocacy in Action
This is an extract from Advocacy in Action: a toolkit to support NGOs and CBOs responding to HIV/AIDS, developed in collaboration with the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) and published by the International HIV/AIDS
Alliance in June 2002.
To view the whole report follow this link.
To download this section, complete with graphics, in pdf format (which requires Adobe Acrobat software to read it) follow this link (file size 1.0 Mbytes).