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In the time wherein we're today,politics is crown the most important. Plato a philosopher once said,“when we don't take interest in the politics of our state, then the less educated will govern us”. Advocacy can be sent as a powerful tool that can change beliefs and behavior.
In relation to both politics and advocacy in our present world,it will be difficult to politicize without advocating...
The system of government in a state can influence how the politics is advocated to the Masses.
Democracy has become order of the day I most countries,which was define by Abraham Lincoln as“Government of the people,for the people and by the people". In otherwords; people must be voted to fill in a seat. Advocacy comes to play in the form of campaigning and canvassing for support where candidate and campaigners try to influence the people's thought and convincing them to why the should support a particular candidate.

It is important to consider the political context when you do advocacy. For example, in some countries, there may be restrictions even what to advocate and what you say legally. In some context, even, you may not be allowed to operate as an NGO unless you follow the hidden political and cultural rules of that particular country. Of course, I am not talking about an open advocacy.

There has been an exponential growth of restrictiveness for several advocacy programs especially in most developing countries. Critical evaluations and analysis must be put in place in the definition of problems for any advocacy program.

I strongly support your submission. Its important for the people within to analyse their organization set goals and objectives and relate it to what they want to advocate for rather than being influenced by the outsiders.

The political context of a country is very critical and important in the Advocacy world. Some countries especially in Africa they have got cultural norms and values that they cant allow to be messed up around with. So my advise to anyone taking up Advocacy to always examine the political context of your countries and what they are interested in Advocating for

It's important to identify a need. What is affecting the people in the area . This will enable one to get good strategies and approaches on how to solve the need.
As an advocator, one can easily succeed in a restricted kind of area through getting critical ways and steps to solve a challenge and minding on how they approach matters.

Helps to put things in better perspective

Context and defining the problem is crucial. problem can never be solve without first being define.

knowing the cause root of a problem is paramount before seeking for a solution

Understanding the political environment is important to the success of Advocacy

Different advocacy methods should be utilized based on location and political context. A non-profit based in the States advocating for the long term protection, welfare, and intrinsic value of resources should use certain methods to a developed country’s audience and use different advocacy methods in developing countries in which the resources originate. You must consider individual opportunities and freedoms, cultural values and communication methods, as well as political context.

Advocacy in some cases can be very difficult especially in some semi-restrictive environments where you might look like you are supporting a certain political party.

Government policies and stand goes a long way or even stands as the major factor to how far advocacy programs of NGO's can go. Hopefully in the nearest future, we may have an open system but then, how will the actions of NGO's be checked?

Thank you for the insightful presentation.
It is true that the operations of an NGO is highly dependent on the political structure of the country.

Some countries that practices semi open context have come up with ways of stopping some NGos from even establishing itself talk less of advocating. They ensure they put in bottlenecks that will frustrate the NGos during registration of these NGos especially if they discovered that they will create great awareness amongst the citizens. At the end of the day, the NGos get frustrated, park theirs loads and move.

Yes, context is key!
For me, a big risk is for NGOs based in Western Europe with activities and colleagues in more closed environment. THey need to be aware of the local context of each country offices.

Hi my name is Christophe ONAMBELE from Cameroon; this important course will be useful for me and my current organization.

We have difficulty accessing policies

The importance of knowing the political context in advocacy work cannot be overemphasised. It doesn't matter the type of advocacy, you need a favourable political will and context to actualize your goals.

That's very true. Much as contextualization should be done focusing on the beneficiaries, also the political environment to solve problem

I agree with how people fail to say thing out when their problems are not solved, so its luck enough to come up with good strategies of helping this people

Political environment is really crucial but the point is the type of service to be offered, dialogue is very important cause all in all the main aim to improve peoples lives.

Semi open governments does hinder advocacy as well.

Context is essential in advocacy to determine the best approach for advocacy activities. For instance in semi-open contexts where the administration may be hostile to alternative proposals on how for instance equitable expenditures, a one-on-one approach may be suitable if risks associated with media approaches are grave to take.

Yes more over in countries where neglegence is at it's best along with corruption

What to advocate for, how to advocate have to begin by evaluating the environment that persons operate to guage the effectiveness of any strategy employed.In some instances the problems may be the same in different locations but how to approach solutions and pursue advocacy will be determined by the unique environment that an organization operates. The strategy of advocacy to achieve solutions will heavily rely on the openness or restrictive nature of the political environment since advocacy should never be employed in a way that leave the community worse off. Reprisals due to advocacy activities or tactics must not have been foreseen all along unless it is a last resort.

Context as discussed above is everything in advocacy. Knowing when to talk and when to listen. When to shout and when to be subtle. Fantastic

Often we can get so caught up in wanting to solve the problem that we get right to work and don't stop for a moment to define the problem in clear terms, like Module 1 discusses. This can lead to improperly allocated resources and energy. I will certainly be taking this back to my colleagues to discuss and help plan our efforts.

Its very important to first understand the type of political climate in the country where the organization is operating so that advocacy can be planned and this helps one to digest a problem in need of the advocacy strategy so that advocacy is planned and implemented

Indeed it is good to understand what is worth advocating for and understand the context.

Indeed the need to adequately understand the political environment of one's country can not be over emphasized as it helps immensely in giving out proficient and effective advocacy.
Having the right understanding of what the political environment is,gives a first hand experience of how and what an effective advocacy should be with a prepared mind of the challenges.

Inclusivity and understanding the problems encountered by someone experiencing that daily reality is critical to successful advocacy. Oftentimes, we think we know the full extent of the problem and by talking to persons, you realise that you have barely begun to scratch the surface. Also, persons don't like 'solutions' being imposed on them. It's therefore important to make your target group/beneficiary, a part of developing the solution(s).

That's where relationship-building and story-telling are useful. Helping governing authorities to see and know "persons" as opposed to nameless "people" by definition invites those authorities to have personal owenership in the advocacy.

It is like working in sales, the more creative you are the more you sell. It is not about the product or ways to sell it, it is about understanding your customers and how they feel.

It is like working in sales, the more creative you are the more you sell. It is not about the product or ways to sell it, it is about understanding your customers and how they feel.

It is like working in sales, the more creative you are the more you sell. It is not about the product or ways to sell it, it is about understanding your customers and how they feel.

Every advoacy effort should refelct the kind of political context it is to be implemented. Truth is, an advoacy is as strong, effective, and successful as the amount of cognizant its strategy gave the political context. when yoou understand the political contex, it will go a long way in helping you design a tailor-made strategy and keep in view the principle of self preservation in order to mitigate any risk that may arise.

Again, understanding the kind of issues an NGO is out to handle (Behaviour change, improving public service, governace challenges etc) is key, this will ripple through the advocacy as it will help in answering the 5 Ws and the H of the advoacy.

As project managers, we should determine all the political and social factors that would limit or strengthen the advocacy process at all levels. Otherwise, political factors may lead to fall the NGOs activities and make restricted rules.

The open context is of critical advantageous, such that the public interest are met with regards to the transparency in governance of their country, however semi open context help those practising advocacy to implement strategies which make them skilful and taticful like the self preservation strategy. Which makes them extra careful to deliver their advocacy.

Understanding and analysis of the political context is vital o the establishment of an effective advocacy strategies or programmes where it covers the policy environment, policy system and the organization and people involved.

I believe advocacy can be put in context to determine how hostile the political atmosphere will be. For instance in my part of the world, advocacy for something like menstrual hygiene will attract little to no political attention unlike advocacies for political reforms, constitutional reforms or economic indications.

The work of an NGO is strongly dependent upon the government- internally and externally. This must be clearly defined before proceeding with advocacy efforts.

I agree, with the statement. Is always important to contextualize advocacy approaches by analyzing the root cause of the problem. The process should involve people themselves who are affected, working together with the technocrats.
It should be advocacy with the people.

I agree, with the statement. Is always important to contextualize advocacy approaches by analyzing the root cause of the problem. The process should involve people themselves who are affected, working together with the technocrats.
It should be advocacy with the people.

I am Ballé Emmanuel

What about advocacy that is not so related with the government. For instance, teen advocacy.

Effective advocacy has been a challenge especially in restrictive and semi-open contexts because of the influence of the government laws and policies that set a barrier to how most NGOs operate.
The NGO world however needs to seek ways to achieve results in the best ways possible while maintaining minimal clashes with the governments in which they operate. The question is how...

In my line of work and those clients the company I represent are involved with need to maintain a high level of secrecy and all operations are classified. I am a Registered Foreign Agent through a division of the Department of Justice called FARA.
We engage in gathering sensitive information which is used to assess the conditions in countries throughout the Horn of Africa and for these reasons, all is conducted with high restrictions.

You are thinking right and it is true

Understanding, conceptualizing, and stating the problem clearly is indeed quite important. In my experience, the problem leads to the formation of a group or task force. This group/team will then work through some of the problems or barriers that interfere with solving the problem. The barriers that prevent the problem from being solved become their own problem, leading the group off-track. This is exactly why it is so important to keep the original problem in mind.

Sometimes we have broke solutions because the problem and the context are just misunderstood...

Persuading others can be a tough job, I always ask myself, " How do I get the attention of those I'm fighting for and with, to those who don't even know there's a fight. I understand the importance of being inclusive. But when it comes to gentrification, there's is no unity amongst homeowners and renters.
Gentrification is inclusive and does discriminate, it affects whole communities. Tenants' rents go up, and homeowners property taxes go up as well, leaving everyone eligible for displacement. I can't seem to bring these two groups together; two separate meetings have to be arranged.
It took me quite a few years to realize that politics are involved in everything and that all of our causes are about moral consciousness.

Currently facing this issue at my organization, we're still trying to figure out what measures to take to protect ourselves from any backlash we might face as a result of our advocacy.

Political context is massively important and also is something that can hinder NGO progress in the long term. I work with an organization in Tanzania in which one of the projects involves protecting girls from FGM. Although Tanzania officially banned the practice by law in 1998, a good few decades ago now, the political context in which it was once acceptable does not just change like that. The cultural norms/ expectations are reflected in the politics of a country and vice versa, yet cultural standards and expectations are a much more gradually changing concept than a simple change of law. NGOs in Tanzania, for example, are not fighting necessarily against the government of a country and therefore are not necessarily fighting in a closed system in which the government controls the parameters of what they can do, but in a way fighting against the people themselves. The government of Tanzania legally forbids FGM, but it is the rural tribes that still practice it as it is a cultural 'right of passage' that will not change because the law is changed. Therefore NGOs in this context are not really restricted in how they advocate for change but need to focus on persuasion and education of the very communities they are trying to help to try and change these cultural expectations that are considered 'right' within the culture but are harmful and dangerous to their members.

Understanding, conceptualizing, and stating the problem clearly is indeed quite important. In my experience, the problem leads to the formation of a group or task force. This group/team will then work through some of the problems or barriers that interfere with solving the problem. The barriers that prevent the problem from being solved become their own problem, leading the group off-track. This is exactly why it is so important to keep the original problem in mind.

Political context is massively important and also is something that can hinder NGO progress in the long term. I work with an organization in Tanzania in which one of the projects involves protecting girls from FGM. Although Tanzania officially banned the practice by law in 1998, a good few decades ago now, the political context in which it was once acceptable does not just change like that. The cultural norms/ expectations are reflected in the politics of a country and vice versa, yet cultural standards and expectations are a much more gradually changing concept than a simple change of law. NGOs in Tanzania, for example, are not fighting necessarily against the government of a country and therefore are not necessarily fighting in a closed system in which the government controls the parameters of what they can do, but in a way fighting against the people themselves. The government of Tanzania legally forbids FGM, but it is the rural tribes that still practice it as it is a cultural 'right of passage' that will not change because the law is changed. Therefore NGOs in this context are not really restricted in how they advocate for change but need to focus on persuasion and education of the very communities they are trying to help to try and change these cultural expectations that are considered 'right' within the culture but are harmful and dangerous to their members.

Thank you for the book recommendation.

The political context is very important, especially knowing the political agenda of the stakeholders in turn, since it is possible to visualize the possible windows of opportunity to promote a public policy, as well as the possible obstacles to be faced.

The political context can tell a lot about societies and also about the causes their people have to advocate for. Also, it can tell about how the advocacy is taking place.

Advocacy help in solving the problem of the organisation in different way and is good to go .

Advocacy is the good part which help in building the potential level of the organisation

Each context creates different opportunities for change, and also can be affected differently by the change. Effective advocacy is based on a good understanding of the local context and the issue we are going to resolve. Even though, advocacy is based on persuading and lobbying, it puts some pressure on decision makers and those targeted for behavioral change. Thus, the political environment, and understanding the openness and closeness of the space is critically important before doing advocacy. For eg. in my country there was restrictive law on CSO advocacy. But now there law was revised and improved. However, the practice is still challenging. So, it is very important to assess the situation properly.

I greatly appreciate this module because it has helped me to understand the different political environments that we have and I wish many people learned this course before they decided to open up an advocacy organization, they would do the right thing but most time we open up organizations and put advocacy as one of our core activities without understanding it fully. So I appreciate you for this course and I must extend this knowledge to my peers and other organizations that need this information.

The two concepts are interlinked.

I love this lesson

I think that it is helpful to also consider how open the organization is that you work at as well as seeking to understand the context of openness within the political, cultural and historical moment you find yourself in. You may find that you are working in a culture or society that is semi-open but work within an organization that is more restrictive based on the nature of the work you do and whom you are accountable to which may be more restrictive at a system or policy-making level than if you were doing the same work at the grassroots level.

Contextualizing advocacy approaches are necessary because most times we try to solve problems using the wrong approach or mostly not getting the nature of the problems that are organizations are advocating. Personally, I believed that my country was restrictive but following this lecture has made me understand that it is semi-open which honestly isn't as bad. Now I know how best to go about advocacy for the problems my organization is trying to solve.

Understanding the operating context through an inclusive dialogue definitely helps in identifying the most strategic entry points for engagement and deciding where to focus the advocacy work.

For sure it is important to consider all the environnement of the problem. Restriction, barrier can block all action

Hi Am Mourine from Nairobi Kenya, am excited to be part of training. I must say am learning alot as far Community Advocacy is concerned.
This module l have learnt a range of new things including among others, importance of political environment in Advocacy work

Yes, I agree with your statement. The political environmental affects how the groups success will go!

There are many factors to take in count to change any situation, political is the main since it can be a bottleneck to achieve the goal we have. That is why identifying how is the political context will conduct to better results in advocacy.

political context is critical to set up project, not the same reality from one country to another one , mostly in some african and asian countries

After reading the script I realized that, looking at the context of the environment which you want to work on is very crucial.

This is why it is important to conduct a situational analysis including a thorough desk review and interviews with key stakeholders to better under the context and root cause of the problems.

Also the culture of the host community should also be put in serious consideration.

It is very important to understand the political environment as an NGO before deciding what to do. Advocacy has always been a key strategy in achieving goals of an organisation taking into consideration the political atmosphere of that economy

I do think it is very important so that it can help you come with a clear strategy to work out the problem successful.

unfortunately in most countries, they operate on a semi-opened political context where what is supposed to be is not what is. Laws exist just for some people, placing another set of people above them. promises are made but in most cases not fulfilled. it therefore very important to understand the political context in the country we operate our advocacy work.

Advocacy is a passionate activity greatly limited by a country's political context. It's sad

Very true

first understand your context whether open, restrictive or semi-open. once you master this you will know how to maneuver with the politics of your country in order to be safe

Inclusivity and getting the community to feel ownership of the solution could make a huge difference in the effectiveness of it.

That is a good idea. Once you are aware of the root causes of the problem, it is easy to identify the strategies to solve it.

Hello,
I believe this is very true. I would like to advocate for the the unhoused with substance abuse issues, women, LBTG+, Twin Spirit and the disabled. In my country this is very hard because of stigma and a lack of political and social priority. Also, the media is controlled by a select, privileged few which makes it incredibly difficult to get the story out.

Understand deeply the context where you will work on your advocacy strategy is essential. In the course we learned that we have 3 different context types: open, restricted and semi-opened. You have not only to identify among those 3 but also to understand where your country is withing the identified one. A semi-opened country can be closer to an open one or to a more restricted one. And it can change over time, depending on which party/ group of people is in power.

I’m totally agree with this statement that by getting to the root case will no doubt help in analyzing as well as minimizing the demerits in future for sure .

Not only are we working against normal pushback but also the years of institutional resistance of change and maybe worse which is personal bias resistance.

Even an open government is truthfully not so open if you oppose the high level goals of the majority that may be utilizing resources to preserve their position and diminish other opposed positions

I agree, it is the stake holders that we represent,any issue we are advocating for needs to have them at the forefront.

In most democratic countries, everything that needed to be done need political will. This session clearly highlight that here in Kiribati we seem to have semi-open system especially when you are a civil servant. There are several things you cannot say or expose. I hope to learn more from this course as I'm trying to advocate for improving service provided in our hospital especially our Emergency services

This module is a very crucial one in defining the problem you're trying to solve. In most semi-open country in which most are described as a democratic setting with some level of transparency and expression but characterized by a great deal of corruption and violence act by powerful and governmental forces thereby rendering the NGOs unable to do anything because most are always perverted .

This is very insightful, some countries might appear to be open yet very restricted to advocacy.

So far what I got from this is that you need ro be careful Advocate because the government and powerful people are corrupt. Ok, so now what? Are we really brave advocates or just pretending to be. Was Martin Luther King or Malcum X and all the old advocates going in the wrong direction? Maybe? They did get assassinated....like my character would be assassinated if I advocated all the way to the Governer...I would be the target of a character and investigation assassination. Very sad.

How can we resolve the challenges of advocacy for behavior change in the context of semi-open and restrictive political context?

In my country the plotical context is deeply restrice, advocacy work is very hard to be in the right way, here they don't care about the beneficiaries or what they need, we have alot of problem that need to be solved but the government is against the NGOs work

I agree, context and culture are important to being effective. I don't live where the project is located so attentive listening and learning is important.

We have to carve out some degree of safety. It is sad.

I am grateful to be in a semi open environment where I work but it does come with it's hardships. Some days it is hard to know what is happening versus what is said to be happening.

It was interesting learning about the environmental approach that needs to be taken based on the level of transparency and openness within the organization. For the non profit I work for specifically, confidentiality is very important but we want to be transparent when it comes to the financial aspect and the specifics of how we handle each cent we receive. On the back side, this can lead to a lack of communication simple because certain information about our clients but not be released or talked about.