Introduction
A face-to-face meeting with a targeted decision-maker (also known as ‘lobbying’) is one of the most frequently used advocacy methodologies and is often the starting point in a series of activities.

Personal contact provides the opportunity to build relationships with decision-makers, which could prove very useful in future. Try to set up a channel for regular contacts.

It is important to choose the right time for meeting decision-makers, when your issue or problem is already on their agenda or most likely to be taken up – for example, before an important vote – or when they are able to take action in support of your advocacy – for example, during the budget-setting process, or at the time of an annual meeting.

Try to imagine how the issue or problem looks from the decision-maker’s point of view. Why should they support your advocacy objective? How can they benefit from taking the action you are requesting? This can be answered more easily if you have fully researched the ‘target person’ you are meeting.

Make realistic requests. Show the decision-maker that there is widespread support for your advocacy objective. Encourage allies to also lobby the same decision-maker, giving the same message (use briefing notes to ensure the message is the same – see Advocacy in Action Card 2). It is difficult for officials to ignore large numbers of advocates.

Do not be satisfied with vague expressions of support. Return to two basic questions:

• Does the decision-maker agree that things need to change?

• What are they willing to do to make change happen?

Advantages

• It shows the human face of the issue or problem to decision-makers, especially if people directly affected by the issue are involved.

• No need for literacy.

• Good for involving people at community level.

• It an opportunity to express emotions and share personal experiences.

• It allows you to discuss the issue rather than just present you position.

• Creates a personal connection which is more likely to lead to things being done.

Disadvantages

• The message could fail to make an impact if the decision-maker takes a personal dislike to the messenger(s).

• A decision-maker with greater negotiating skills could make the meeting a waste of time, or could persuade you to agree to actions you later regret.

Skills-building activity
Objective: By the end of this session participants will be able to lobby a decision-maker in a face-to-face meeting

Preparation time: 30 minutes
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 In plenary ask the participants:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of holding face-to-face meetings for advocacy work?

3 Divide the participants up into small groups of four to six people. Assign to the groups different topical issues that they might advocate about – for example, provision of treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS at a local hospital; face-to-face meeting with the hospital managers to overcome this discrimination.

4 Ask at least one group to role-play a meeting in which the decision-maker opposes the advocacy objective. Ask at least one other group to role-play a meeting in which the decision-maker is neutral or uninterested in the advocacy objective.

5 Ask participants to practise preparing to hold a face-to-face meeting with an influential person. They should identify two or more people to act as the ‘advocate(s)’ and two or more people to act as the influential people. Give each group these guidelines:

• prepare your case with facts and evidence to support what you will say

• identify what the decision-maker might argue their case, and plan your replies

• consider how you want to behave during the meeting and why

• decide what, if anything, you should take to the meeting.

6 Depending on the number of participants and time available, either ask:
a) some, or all, of the groups to perform a 10 minute role-play of the face-to-face meeting they have prepared for the whole group, or
b) each group to role-play their meetings without an audience.

7 Lead a plenary discussion about face-to-face meetings for advocacy work, based on the following kinds of questions:

• Who was more persuasive and why?

• How could the advocates have improved their lobbying?

• How might you follow-up a face-to-face meeting?

• What did you learn about face-to-face meetings from the role-plays?

• What are the advantages of having people directly affected by the issue or problem at such a meeting?

8. Invite any other comments or experiences of face-to-face advocacy.

Facilitators’ notes

• If time allows, ask each group or pair to list some advice (‘Try to...’ and ‘Try not to...’ points) for face-to-face advocacy.

• If the skills session on position papers and briefing notes is not part of the workshop, some participants can prepare a position paper for this activity.

• In some circumstances it may be possible to do some real advocacy work in the form of a face-to-face meeting. However, this will only be possible if the beneficiaries have been involved in the planning of the action, and if some or all of the participants can carefully plan and agree a course of action with legitimacy from their organisations and within the time available.

Example: Lobbying or face-to-face meetings
Workshop participants meet city administrator to oppose mandatory testing

During an advocacy workshop held in the Philippines in 1998, participants read in the local press that the Mayor of Davao City planned to introduce mandatory HIV testing of ‘Guest Relations Officers’ (sex workers). This contradicted the Philippine AIDS Law that was passed in February 1998.

A request was made for an audience with the mayor, to explain the harmful effects of mandatory testing and highlight that this acted against the recently passed AIDS Law. Iwag Dabaw, one of the NGOs at the workshop, had built good relations with city officials through its previous external relations work and was able to arrange a meeting with the city administrator.

In preparation for the meeting, the participants with experience of working with sex workers and of gender and power relations drafted a position paper on mandatory HIV testing and a covering letter. The group presented their draft to all the participants at the workshop, and made revisions after comments from other participants and resource persons. The whole group worked together to improve the documents and everyone signed the letter. The group prepared for the meeting with discussion, identification of a lead spokesperson and support team, sequencing and logistical arrangements.

Along with a local sex worker group, Lawig Bubai, the group met the city administrator at City Hall to explain the content of their position paper, and requested that he pass the paper to the mayor. Two local journalists attended the meeting.

The mayor was persuaded and did not impose the mandatory HIV testing. The meeting also received coverage in two local newspapers.

After the meeting, the group reviewed and analysed how the meeting had gone.

The exercise illustrated several points to the participants:

• Preparation for a meeting is as important as the meeting itself

• Opportunities for advocacy are often unplanned, so be prepared for unforeseen events

• Advocacy work is often done under time pressures and as reactions to events.

Reference: Adapted from an advocacy workshop, International HIV/AIDS Alliance and International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), Philippines, November 1998.

Advice

• Try to begin by praising the decisionmaker for any past support on your issue.

• Try to begin by pointing out areas of agreement and mutual interest with the decision-maker.

• Try to listen, as well as talk – you need to hear what your target thinks.

• Try to link your objective to an issue the decision-maker cares about.

• Try to know more about the issue than the decision-maker! Gain a reputation for being knowledgeable.

• Try to be willing to negotiate, but be clear about how far you will compromise.

• Try to decide who will say what, if there is more than one of you.

• Try to end by summarising what the decision-maker has said or promised.

• Try not to ask the decision-maker to do more than one thing at a time, unless he or she seems very eager to help you.

• Try not to confuse the decision-maker with too many messages.

• Try not to give too much information – for example, graphs, statistics.

• Try not to use technical terms or jargon.

• Try not to give false or misleading information – it can cause you problems in future.

How to...lobby/hold a face-to-face meeting
Establish ‘points of entry’
Think creatively about how you can get a meeting with the target person. Is there something you have in common? For example, if a friend of yours attends the same mosque as the decision-maker, ask your friend to introduce you to them so that you can negotiate a time to meet, or alternatively use the opportunity as a face-to-face meeting in itself.

Ask for a meeting
Send a letter explaining what your advocacy goal is and why you would like a meeting. Follow up with a phone call. Often you will not get a meeting with the ‘direct target’ but with one of their staff (an ‘indirect target’). Always meet with the staff, and treat them in the same way you would treat the decision-maker.

Invite them to see the issue or problem themselves
Invite them out of their office to see the issue or problem first-hand and to show them why you need their support. If the decision-maker cannot leave their office, try taking your issue to them – bring people directly affected by the issue to your meeting, show a short video addressing the issue or take a few photographs with you. If you have a friend who knows the decision-maker or someone on their staff, ask your friend to send the letter or make the phone call to support your views.

Preparing for meetings

Step 1: Know your target
Analyse your target, using the questions/table headings in Step 4 of the advocacy framework (Section 2).

Step 2: Focus on your message

Choose your main objective and develop a simple message from it:

• What you want to achieve

• Why you want to achieve it (the benefits of taking action, and/or the negative effects of doing nothing; evidence for the problem – statistics and anecdotes)

• How you propose to achieve it

• What action you want the target person to take.

Write a short position paper (see Advocacy in Action Card 2) to give to the decision-maker, to remind them of your points.

Step 3: Choose the right messenger
Often the messenger is as important as the message. If a friend arranged the meeting, ask them to come to the meeting with you. Or someone directly affected by the issue or problem may be able to ‘personalise’ the issue and get the decision-maker’s attention. Make sure the messenger has appropriate negotiation skills and appropriate attitude to result in a positive outcome.

Step 4 : Practise!
Rehearse your message with colleagues or friends. Ask someone to role-play the meeting, pretending to be the decision-maker, asking difficult questions.


Write to the person who you met, thanking them for the meeting (even if the person was not helpful), briefly repeating your key points and any supporting comments made by the target person, especially any promises to take action. Tell the target person what you plan to do next, promise to keep them informed, and express the hope that you will be able to work together on the issue in future.

Reference: Adapted from An Introduction to Advocacy by Ritu Sharma (SARA Project).

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).

 

Resources for working with groups

Advocacy toolkit

• Advocacy toolkit - Contents
• Advocacy toolkit - Introduction
• Advocacy toolkit - Introducing advocacy
• Advocacy toolkit - Planning and implementing advocacy work
• Advocacy toolkit - Planning and implementing, steps 1-4
• Advocacy toolkit - Planning and implementing, steps 5-8
• Advocacy toolkit - Planning and implementing, handouts
• Advocacy toolkit - Including advocacy in an organisations work
• Advocacy cards - Introduction
• Advocacy card - Analysing and influencing legislation or policies
• Advocacy card - Preparing a briefing note or position paper
• Advocacy card - Working from inside the system
• Advocacy card - Lobbying or face-to-face meetings
• Advocacy card - Writing and delivering a presentation
• Advocacy card - Persuading through drama
• Advocacy card - Writing and using a press release
• Advocacy card - Carrying out a media interview
• Advocacy card - Preparing a press conference
• Advocacy toolkit - Other advocacy resources