My Communities

It is disheartening that advocacy in so many parts of the world must be approached with such caution and fear of retaliation from political agencies under which they are governed given that advocacy is meant to encourage positive change and promote just and fair reformation of behaviors or policies where Basic human rights have been trampled upon. I am blessed to live in a country where laws have been implemented to protect the rights of citizens to speak out against corruption, discrimination, and all forms of injustice which might be inclined to change with advocacy properly applied. The concern of advocate safety in areas governed by tyranny albeit eradicates their effectiveness for change.

Given the three contexts, as stated, I agree majority are semi open especially here in Africa, and understanding this helps you strategize how to undertake advocacy in such an environment

That the political environment is important for advocacy is clear, restrctive, open or semi-open. You would then choose which it is and adjust accordingly. Are there situations where the politics is that bad that there's no advocacy at all? Probably not, one may simply choose in which areas to advocate, am I wrong here?

I agree with the statement because when you know well the root cause of the problem, you define well the strategies of advocacy.

I agree with the statement because when you know well the root cause of the problem, you define well the strategies of advocacy.

very interesting start! I analyze the work of non-governmental organizations in my country and those with whom I have worked very rarely think about the risks they may face when doing advocacy. And it is very important to initially plan a strategy and consider all the risks in order to take care of the people who are involved. and understanding the context, accepting realities, helps prepare for risks in a more meaningful way.

I've been facing such a problem which is already been discussed , in our Arab society we are having an international case about Palestine and actually it was the first reason that get me to take this course , and I can't even decide whether who's working on advocating this case is a NGO or a governmental institution , because who's really advocating are people through media and newspaper. still a hard thing to do cause there's not specific supporter but people's speeches .

This is a very important start for me. in my country right now ALL CSOs that are working on anything related to governance are being followed up. already 54 organizations have been suspended form operations. Some of the organizations' bank account have been frozen and these organizations listed as funding terrorism. All of us are in fear!
So this is a very good introduction form me.
With regard to the awesome ideas shared here i have this to say:

1. i have seen that when NGOs/CSOs gain some level of 'working with the government or government ministry/Department/Agency' they tend to think that they can not be attacked. But with what has happened here, this is a wrong mentality. and it shows that this analysis of the political context must be done all the time.
2. This point relates to one of the contributors here who said that the political environment is dynamic. Yes! it is. it is with regard to national level , sub national and community levels; with regard to regimes that come and go; with regard to geographic locations within the same countries.
   The conclusion then is start with this analysis, and maintain this analysis throughout the lifetime of the organization. Thank you.

Most nations have restrictive political context which they pride in in terms of cyber security, economics , social development and the likes, however, this act in itself is a limitation to any advocacy strategy

Most nations have restrictive political context which they pride in in terms of cyber security, economics , social development and the likes, however, this act in itself is a limitation to any advocacy strategy

We have started to work with the government just recently. We have our planned KRAs and we have to advocate very strongly what change we intend to bring. This module has cleared many basic concepts.

I agree it is important to identify the problem within its context. It would be difficult to solve a problem where the political environment is just but a hurdle. Problem solving involves the political stream too (Kingdon, 1984). Identifying the context will enable NGOs to identify and use a viable advocacy approach.

I would want to hope NGO are open but I don't believe that is the case when involved in politics. I have my different persectives on what we as NGO's should be sharing with the people especially if we want to use the people to adovacy for. If its about the people then I see no harm in being open.

It's import to note that context matters. Even for the same problem, context will influence what solutions are feasible.

While I agree with different contributors to the discussion, I respect the fact that we are all operating in different countries with varying contexts. That said, yes it is important for advocacy practitioners to learn and understand their respective environments. In as much as we understand the problem at hand that we would like to advocate for, is it extremely important to get a buy-in from the authorities in the jurisdiction of the problem we are trying to solve.

I work for UNICEF and the UN mandate is to help host governments to implement their development plans. Can you imagine how the UN in any country would achieve their agenda if they did not understand the various political climates in the countries they are serving?

Imagine the context of Afghanistan right now, as much as different organizations may not be ready to recognize the new leadership and they still need to deliver humanitarian assistance and response to the people of Afghanistan, they will need to engage with the new leadership and all the more reason to understand and their political manifesto and agenda in order for the different agencies to be able to effectively carry out their advocacy work.
Thank you,
Betty.

I agree. I think it's necessary to know root causes from the communities we are working with.

These days, it seems a lot of environments that are open are moving to being semi-open, and semi-open ones are drifting towards becoming restrictive.

It is sad that is the bare truth with many jurisdictions around the world, but mine is a rare one considering that about two months ago we experienced a turnaround from a semi open context, which was almost degenerating into a restrictive one, into an open one.

Having a clear understanding of the problem you are trying to solve as an organization is vital because it gives you an idea of the existing government policies in connection with your work as an NGO and how you can co-exist or implement your intervention.

Ahhh .... the devil is in the details

I agreed, however, I will add that it's very important to also study the kind of government environment we occupy for a proper and successful advocating. Knowing this will help one to know how to go about his or her advocating path.

Wow, I love what our instructors had just given to us, their message is very true.. However, I will also add that we also need to take note that sometimes, the political world can infiltrate the NGOs world.. bringing politics into the office environment, thereby leading to divisions.. Where there is divisions, there will be frictions and this will affect effective and smooth run of activities within the NGOs

Wow, I love what our instructors had just given to us, their message is very true.. However, I will also add that we also need to take note that sometimes, the political world can infiltrate the NGOs world.. bringing politics into the office environment, thereby leading to divisions.. Where there is divisions, there will be frictions and this will affect effective and smooth run of activities within the NGOs

I am looking forward to session 6 to learn more about the risks that I may be exposed to with my advocacy.

Yes, I think that's actually true. I think to also better advocate, maybe try getting into the people's shoes and have a feel of what they're going through and how to best help them. Because if you don't truly understand the need/problem your advocacy will be ineffective

we work in a very hostile political environment whereby all actions are interpreted politically. this environment sometimes holds us back. as for the advocacy we tried to work online before but the outcome was not satisfying because many people were not able to access the internet. how do we avoid that and become more effective with our advocacy?

Quite insightful. The political contexts aid a lot when making assumptions

My country's political climate is very very restrictive. One needs a water tight strategy to avoid rubbing the government the wrong way.

I agree with you that knowing the political environment and context is important. we have to try to know the political environment before we make an advocacy strategy, knowing the political context and environment of the area where we are going to work would affect our advocacy strategy and help us in reaching our goal.

i strongly agree with you

Understanding the political environment is important to have a successful advocacy and not to land into government trouble

to define the problem

In my opinion, it is essential that we always seek as a society an increasingly open and transparent political environment. I'm sure that advocacy work still makes more gains in an open environment, managing to "build more bridges" for our causes and for a population.

I am new at this advocacy thing. I just kind of got led into it by helping some friends out. From the very beginning I couldnt believe the rights he was just not given. I immediately stepped in and had to help. I learned very quickly how the operations were to work on their end, and I must say now by just starting this I have most definitely learned just how important it was to know the political aspect of this ordeal.

for me the socio-political environment in which we find ourselves strongly influences our advocacy strategy

I feel in terms of advocacy we hare regression faster then progressing. We should be seeing more open systems, but of late we are bypassing the semi open and seeing more and more closed systems. Making the advocacy sector even more difficult.

    Advocation is a much needed skill for all areas of political and ngo's, for the purpose of direct line of nominal support systems.

Often we only consider advocacy with political leaders - to bring about change at the political level, but there may be other levels of influence, for example religious leaders, traditional leaders etc, who might also have the power to make changes that we want to see.

A great beginning. Problems should be clearly outlined before mapping out strategy that will benefit the target audience.

this introductory module really remind us or organizations to define advocacy plan with clear problems to remain neutral, impartial, humanity and independent, to not aggravate the situation by using conflict and political sensitive approaches through uncovering the issues needs to solved and looking at the best ways to do it.

I strongly agree with you.

Absolutely,understanding the context is equally important to the understanding of the problem one intends to address.

In advocacy, validation of data through cross verification from two or more sources is critical. By combining multiple observers, theories, methods, and empirical materials, advocates can build a more robust and compelling case to decision-makers. It is of particular importance in advocacy to validate community-identified needs with empirical findings as well as the reverse. Too often, advocates tend to heavily rely on one over the other and their proposals for change can easily be discredited by decisionmakers.

Great lesson, and it's clear why it's the first module - the Political context of your landscape is probably the most crucial element of success - to have a strong understanding of the mechanic's of 'the way things work' means you're in a better position to manage risks.

If we don't know the problem we're trying to solve, it will be difficult to provide the correct advocacy solution.

In advocacy, the most important part is not just to advocate but to analysis the situation before taking part. It helps the advocate to gather the intelligence and develop a clear, unified solid solution

The NGOs has a big challenge in all kind of context, but most of in a restrictive context, where even the strategy are good the obstacles will be the problems.

For the semi-open context, its possible to push e try to use all strategy of advocacy without give reasons or space to governments to distort and try to sabotage the rights that are fight for or problem has been traying to be solved.

I agree with you

Understanding the political context of a particular location of work or country is really important. This knowledge will contribute a great deal in determining the advocacy strategy to come up with so as to avoid fatal consequences and achieve one's goal

Some problems are learned. Then you have some problems that you never knew you had. It all depends what you are taught as we age. What was taught a work envirinment. My problem is that some orginazation is a very restrictive on some issuse and then semi open on others. I work in the healthcare envirnoment where we deal with all health issuse.. ome i agree and some I dont.

Advocacy is important because it includes the voices of people who cannot always be heard.

A restrictive environment will hinder the activities and progress of not only NGOs, but also other organizations. This will in turn affect the results being sought by the NGOs and organizations.

Understanding the political temperature is key for advocacy

Political context is not only important but the way to become effectiveness of the advocacy approach and ensure the change that we need to tacle. May be defining problem must include context analysis so then can more easily to understand the way and strategy for the advocacy

It is always important to analyze the context and the root causes of the problems to which we want to provide solutions in order to minimize the risks for our organization and our employees.

Of course it´s important to understand the political context, must of our countries have a semi-opened systems, actually right now in Mexico we have a left's govertment with popularism method of doing thinks with a lack of transparency and high level of corruption

GENIAL COURSE

genial the module

This is true. It is important to understand how a particular government works, how they view a particular issue, the law before embarking on your advocacy.

A great question. As we see in the many great posts here in this discussion If we are about making a difference in our actions and advocating for others to change we need to understand political context for many reasons. Seems to me at the heart of this is seeking as context allows to improve relationships / connections. We can miss the real problem through the eyes of those we seek to serve - or we can miss the perspective of those we seek to persuade to help us solve the problem with our advocacy efforts. Either of these will dilute our effectiveness.

We do not need to pretend all will become great friends in making change - but if we better understand and connect (with respect) we may better work to ensure impact towards solving the problem with less tension, frustration, road blocks etc. Of course the BIG assumption is that we can find common ground (around the problem and around some common guiding values). In many change efforts this proves a very large challenge - as an example corruption within authority bodies and NGOs can create a gap of understanding that makes progress an uphill push. But in seeking to improve a connection within our context we can adapt (in the interest of change not scoring points) for better outcomes.

Understanding the political context is often vital - since the power to block or advance solutions for a problem very often rests within a political context. If our efforts simply create some friction and pushback we can spend large amounts of energy but may not move towards solutions and can become stuck in a form of trench warfare. Keeping our focus on the problem we seek to solve within a healthy context - including politics improves our chances of making a difference.

Advocacy can be effective tool for social change. However, its success might depend on whether the problem being addressed is not interest based. People are less likely to change behaviour if doing so might cost them certain privileges

It is good to know the 3 types of Advocacies. This going to help in a long way to help my Organization to know our targeted group and perhaps considering that my Organization is operating in a terrain that is Semi Open we could just change our coups of operation and get involve with different Advocacy to keep our members safe.

I would put Australia in the restrictive column, to be honest. There are political and civil ramifications for people who speak out against government over-reach, welfare nets are used to dehumanise recipients, health care has been supplanted by non-trained administrators and for profit companies through the NDIS, immigrants and asylum seekers are regularly targeted by authorities, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations have been and continue to be targeted or ignored by not just the government but the community at large. Operating as though new ideas are welcome and that agencies want to help has lead to disastrous outcomes.

Advocacy has been one the key evolution of social science and human behavurious. as well, in political context the advocacy had huge consequence for some political evolution leaders. it is something that few people get away with it in precise way. working under some restricted political environment has huge consequences if you don't have a carefully set out advocacy strategy. advocacy is needed yet it is one of the dangerious things you could possibly do if you are not careful with the kind of approach you use.

I want to understand what tools should we use to understand the problem from people who are actually facing it. Should we develop questionnaires or conduct interviews or open a forum on social media? How do we do it? As the societal context keep evolving all the time, how do we make sure that we are referring to the right literature, if the tool we are adopting is researching the publicly available information.

It is important to understand your context so that you can calculate the risks that you have

There is no doubt that understanding the political environment is so important for the success of an advocacy approach.

There is no doubt that understanding the political environment is so important for the success of an advocacy approach. However, some government regimes require,recognizes and can recommend any amount of input for from the nonprofit organization by providing the necessary resources and space for the project implementing agencies.

Political environment for an advocator must determine which theory and strategy to use in advocating for a problem to be solved , for example rajesh noted that most advocacy is effective during an election or as soon as there is a new administration because it gives leeway for both the advocator and the target group of people who are supposed to change policy evaluate on the failures or success of the previous or current administration .

I agree with you, you must understand the context you are working with and provide solution that suits the environment.
The advocacy method that produce good result in open context can lead to imprisonment or frustration in restrictive context.
We should identify the problem and approach it with consideration given to the context

A proper understanding of the context is a critical requirement to determine if advocacy is the answer. Advocacy can be a wasted effort or wrong approach if there are no constitutional or legal support and if it does not address public need. Some advocacy are not cheap and can be a long journey, So its important for NGOs to have a prioritize agenda and collaborate with key stakeholders in whatever context advocacy must be applied.

Well detailed

This is very true but depending on the context , if the context is restrictive or semi open being inclusive may also be a problem especially gathering the people without the authority of the existing powers

During the last decade, the world has witnessed a remarkable impact in terms of closing civic spaces to people and civil society organizations, with
Further restrictions on freedoms, such as freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of assembly, protest, peaceful assembly, and freedom of assembly and association
For civil associations and organizations, especially those working in the field of defending human rights. There are many methods of restriction. It is what is
It is based on legislation stipulated by state systems, some of which are undeclared, such as those related to the practices of relevant institutions, such as
. Oversight bodies and bodies concerned with granting licenses to publish, establish associations, or secure peaceful assemblies, including those related to
The awareness of the masses and their culture and the extent to which they are affected by the nationalist discourse adopted by some regimes, as well as by what is broadcast by the media or
What educational curricula in those countries adopt, and how all this and others affect the workspace for societal change.

It's important to know the type of government policies put in place in your region and how they can either help or mar your advocacy

countries that have fully open political environment are lucky.

I believe that it's important to think about the political side of advocacy because you now know how to approach the situation/issues.

I completely agree because in order to solve a problem that is affecting a SOCIETY we need to solve the main issue that is causing the problem.

Understanding the political environment of the country in which an advocate wants to work in will definitely help them proper structure their plan and be sure to get the right attention of those that they will need help from in order to bring about change. I believe also understanding the political environment helps you better position yourself well as an advocate who have people's lives and heart and are willing to bring to change that will not be harmful to anyone.

True, so that in the end you do not step on anyone's toes trying to bring change.

A critical element of any successful advocacy initiative is a comprehensive understanding of the political environment that exist for influencing the policy process and the risks associated with them.

this is really educative,i can relate to some of the things that are happening in my country and its going to be help when i pursue my masters in social work.

This environment will help to unlock the potentials that exist in such a context

The three political contexts explained above are well understood- Open, Semi-open and Restrictive. It is unfortunate that we live in a world where (at least in the African continent) the most prevalent sort of political context is the Semi-Open one. In a lot of places, the political context is downright Restrictive. I do not think that there is anywhere in Africa where the Open political context is being run. However, the tide is gradually changing. Young people are getting interested in and more involved in politics. They are beginning to vie for elective positions which were once the domain of the older generation of our fathers. They are beginning to use their voices and time to boldly speak up and even peacefully demonstrate against the issues and problems with the current regime in their various countries and states. Social media has been a very helpful tool in driving this positive change. Eventually, there would be a shift in the political clime and young people would start being elected into political positions. The prevalence of social media would ensure that a lot of openness is demanded and achieved in the coming political systems. I see a situation where there would be shift from Semi-Open to Open political systems and from Restrictive to Semi-Open, and eventually, to the Open political context in the coming years.

It is very clear that for advocacy to take place effectively no matter the problem that an organization is trying to solve, then understanding what political context has in place is equally important. This will safe the organization conflicts with the government. Otherwise, they will do better with full understanding of the context in place.

I was be very pleased to read the most of discussions

Hi everyone, I chose that I'm working in a semi-open context,, but it's crucial to note that Benin government in these past 06 years, have impemented profound changes that make advocacy work relatively easier.

It is interesting to note that there are quite a number of factors that should come into play before developing an advocacy strategy. Identifying a problem and it's solutions may not be the only steps in developing a rich advocacy plan. It is prudent that the implications of this problem and the solutions to the organization are well thought out before signing off an advocacy idea for execution.

very important

It's important to focus on advocate for the community, because too much people don't know how to step up

I think there is no straightforward answer to this. It is so because, given the dynamics for real-life problems and advocacy campaigns, consistency may not be the outright solution.

Dexterity in the problem solving can trump consistency in the overall advocacy message.

This is great news! May you share some examples in what ways they have made this easier, so we all could learn more! ✌

Yes its important because its much easier to get to understand a particular problem only if you get to know the root cause of that particular problem from the context of the person who has gone faced that problem. If you get the views from the insider it will be easy to come up with a solution for that particular problem other than trying to get the cause from an outsider.

We should understand the local or national political environment for getting success of an advocacy we are initiating because political environment plays a vital role for advocacy. It is obvious that same approach can be taken for another context.

I completely agree

Sometimes even being directly face to face with a problem doesn't give us the answer what to do

It is indeed important to understand the problem and it's causes as this is the only way meaningful solutions which are effective and lasting can be found and implemented.

I think ethics and morals are tangible factors to determine if advocacy can work or not.

I think it is important not to confuse advocacy with lobbying; In the country where I live (Brazil) lobbying can be interpreted as an act of corruption. And the political context is very sensitive with the Party that is in power (in Brazil the elections are direct for President, Governors, Senators, Deputies and Mayors). The fact is that solutions are sometimes obtained via counterparts with politicians that can be dealt with through advocacy (by the ruling party) or lobbying (by the opposition parties). Very complicated! How to solve this?

The "lived experience" is the most important piece of being able to have an understanding as to what the next step would be in find a solution to the problem.