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  • Yes transparency is the answer to political context, because it will help the NGOs to be able to operate freely and also it help them to freely expressed their minds without being afraid that the government will harm them.

  • I agree that context matters particularly the operating environment as described. It took a while before I can finalize my answer on the survey moving from open to semi-open because there are characteristics described that are present in my context while there are others that are starting to be questionable. The operating environment also determines how the problem can be addressed.

  • Very correct ! It's of importance to know one's political context so as to know the right approach to advocate our problems .

    O
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  • Indeed, contextualizing advocacy is vital as the approach that an NGO must use is something that must address effectively the stakeholders it wants to help. Understanding a problem must always have an organic component because only through this way that inclusivity and effectivity can be achieved.

  • Context matters the most when we talk of advocacy. We have to look inward to search and find what type of context fits a situation, organization or body of people before creating solutions for advocacy.

  • Doing advocacy needs to know very well the political context and all determinants of the context. work is very difficult when data are not available

  • The important place to start is not by saying we need an advocacy strategy, but rather by defining the problem you're trying to solve.

  • The important place to start is not by saying we need an advocacy strategy, but rather by defining the problem you're trying to solve.

  • It is important and helpful to identify what the problem really is, do the causality analysis to identify the immediate and root causes. Understanding the political context of target environment, organization, state or country is very key in effectively planning an advocacy to address an identified problem.

  • advocacy is a good thing but when advocating for example working in an NGO that works towards a sober society,its not easy since you will have to engage the political leaders for the laws to be implemented where some have shares in the brewing company and this makes or slows the laws to be implemented i.e no bars near schools and selling for persons under 18

    N
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  • Context is certainly very important in determining an advocacy approach that should be used. However, this context should not only be limited national political point of view. Even in local communities, context matters a lot. Some of the restrictions discussed earlier could be cultural, religious or even local traditional rules and taboos. All these are very relevant. This course is eye opening even at this introductory stage.

  • Awesome. I couldn't agree more with the reflections from others. I must say a preliminary step towards achieving the goal of effective advocacy is defining the political scope an advocacy plan or initiative will be confronted with.

  • Advocacy in some instances can be very challenging especially when pushing for the rights of the marginalized, when government officials feel threated they tend to go for the key personnel in the NGOs r can even target the NGO

  • It is very important to feel and understand the political context within your planned advocacy reach or environment. The people you wish to cause a change for should be willing to work with you. This will happen when they have a good understanding of your goal and when you get them involved so that to fully participate. You should also choose your audience and understand what interest them, their political will, the kind of message and framing of the message that will gain their attention as well as the right timing.

  • In my country, I consider we have a combination of semi-open and restrictive depending on the context. Where the context directly relates to the govt, it is somewhat restrictive, but other areas relating to gender equality , the environment advocacy can be semi-open. I guess this course with help navigate the fine between both

  • Before one embarks on the advocacy work, it is critical to understand whichever context one is working from. Just because a certain approach is working elsewhere doesn't necessarily mean it work in your context. For example, I come from a semi-open context therefore I will have to understand the repercussions that are involved in my advocacy and how I can go through the challenges without being hindered by the government's semi-open policies.

  • 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.

  • @Tejaswy said in Module 1 Discussion: Advocacy and the Political Context:

    It is important to contextualize advocacy approaches and that requires analysing the root causes of the problem we are trying to solve which can be done by being inclusive and understanding the problems by someone who is facing them directly.

    It's very important for us to know and understand the political context in which we find ourselves as advocates to help us navigate through with our work of influencing policy formulation for the poor.Each policitical party that is in the seat of power has its own focus

  • I agree that understanding the political environment is vital to determining how best to attack an issue and craft the right advocacy approach to reach the ultimate goal .

  • It is very important to take into consideration the political context of the area you are working when doing advocacy work.

  • This would help one to know the kind of Advocacy strategy to use inorder not to get in scrambled with the political government.

  • It is very important to take into consideration the political context of the area you are working when doing advocacy work.

  • i agree with your idea,its wise to do analysis and evaluate what can work for them having in mind the type of governance in their country .Most of the countries use the semi - open context and therefore the the type of approach taken should ensure the safety of its people.

  • we must accept the challenges and risks taken with our advocacy approaches,it depends with the governance,they promise a lot but deliver a little,we strategies on how to do advocacy but those with self interst pull us down

    W
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  • I strongly agree with this.

  • I strongly agree with this. Understanding the root cause of the problem and as well involving those directly affected will help find a suitable approach to solving the problem through advocacy.

  • Political environment is extremely important to take into consideration. there are many different political stances that are trying to achieve the same end results. The difference is some are going to the xtreme in order to achieve and speak their word which is negating the result because no one is hearing the words but are focusing on the actions.

  • For the start, it seemed hard to understand but now am getting it

    K
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  • This is where the employees follow the rules as they are in the organization and they follow them without changing anything.
    Here the employees works according to the order from the employer.
    Communication was always from the top to bottom and that is top to bottom approach.
    Semi open context: here the both employees and employer communicate can come either from any.
    Open political context: democracy is being applied always.

  • All the stakeholders so be involved when an action is being taken

  • Yeah through the module you get to understand better about advocacy

  • Most of the countries are mostly on the semi open political environment

  • In as much advocacy is a powerful tool for changing beliefs and behaviours, it can also be risky if not careful enough with the implementation. Just because something works somewhere, may not mean it can work in your context.

  • There is a huge difference between having a law or policy and actually enforcing the said law or policy

  • Understanding political environment is so important

  • Agree, and it's important to know when to approach.

  • The importance of advocacy in a contextualize approach is understanding the root of the problem and also the ramifications of the agency you may work for. it is also key to understand that what may work for one population may not work for the next. there are time where we can not just use a one size fit all mindset

  • Absolutely the truth about introducing new policy through training, however when the time comes to actually put these new policies in practice I find some agencies very reluctant to do so.

  • Driving an advocacy in a non-democratic state is very risky and evidence-based approach and strategy is really the basic of the plan. We cannot say anything that lacks of proof although it is at public knowledge.

  • The political environment is not the factor that influence the activity of the NGO but there may other factors including social and cultural norms that may be aprt part of the problem.

  • The political environment is not the factor that influence the activity of the NGO but there may other factors including social and cultural norms that may be aprt part of the problem.

  • Of course you need to understand the context of the environment in which you find yourself. This is key to self preservation. Understanding it helps you to develop the right strategy that suit your environment.

    B
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  • Thanks. this is an excellent experience. mapping the political landscape is one of keys to move forward with advocacy strategic and effective implementations. Some countries have tabled restrictive laws that fence NGOs and others CSOs to focus merely on service delivery leaving advocacy piece to the government. Some are semi open allowing NGOs to involve in some advocacy issues. on the other hand, the CSOs also do have own limitation to properly exploit the open environment either due to capacity issue or lack of solidarity among themselves. thank you again.

  • speaking from a uk perspective and the advocacy I voluntarily have been doing for four years with regards to homelessness.
    I personally was homeless and came to see the injustices of those with mental health issues either from birth or through traumatic incidents usually in childhood.
    This can then lead on to drug/alcohol dependence and then spirals onto anti social behaviour and crime. I believe the ultimate lack of of social care in the children and adult systems, parenting and lack of family and community spirit has a lot to be answered for, destroyed by lack of finance and forward thinking by various governments which has effected councils provision of resources and brought the outcomes we have inherited today, record numbers of homeless, suicides, child poverty and deaths.

  • I believe it would actually be easier to operate in one of the two extremes: open, or restricted, rather than semi-open which often gives a false sense of progress.

    D
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  • I'm finding that a lot of NGOs are very restrictive. With funding and grant guidelines these days, its hard to be completely open. "You can do this, you cant do that." That leaves larger restrictive NGOs with all the funding and a very hidden, narrow way of thinking that strangles any chance at competing against these powerful NGO's who take in all the money and have limited transparency to what they really advocate. There's a form of crony type corporatism and excessive spending in many NGOs today. Even the "good ones" are doing it. Being "open" sometimes feels like voting 3rd party. Your integrity is there but you never win. haaa

  • Thanks you very much for the lecturing, indeed you have touched the core issues especially knowing the context, Basically, my name is Yunus Esmail Ebrahim i am a Somali by origin Tanzanian by birth and now I'm working in Hargeisa Somaliland. Even here when i am writing about Report let say Participation of Women in Democracy or Freedom of women Journalist you have to be very carefully especially when writing your Report. In our case whatever we are saying we just quoting Somaliland Law so it seem your not just attacking the government rather your identifying the problems.
    Again, some time is better to clarify when the wrong acts has been done, who is the doer of the action is it a police or government at large?, sometimes you may find that some police are just doing their things let say they may take someone in prison without warrant and even President is not aware of what is going on, though someone may judge government are responsible because police are part of Government officials. I think to pre judge like that is wrong because some days president is not in the country and police did what they did who is to be blame?

  • This is a very crucial aspect in our political setup which makes it very difficult to freely advocate

  • I agree the stakeholders need to all be on board with change in my filed of training so much training is wasted if the organization does not support the new learning.

  • I answered the question about what type of environment do I work in based on the region in my state within the US. Generally speaking, the US has been experiencing a great political divide which we are experiencing also on a local level. This has impacted our advocacy work immensely and has affected our capacity to do advocacy work. When I began this work 6 years ago, I felt very different about our environment as I do now. In many ways I feel we have gone backwards. Our NGO was in a position to act as checks and balances on power and government, and in our recent work that impacts public health and safety, we have been challenge on our position and stance. This challenge comes from our own board members who have ties to higher political groups who were not in favor of our messaging. It was this resistance that changed our environment to semi-open to restrictive. I wonder if anyone else has experienced that shift in capacity.

    J
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  • we all know about advocacy is a word that is up for grabs in public discuss, research ,and pol-icy , government officials, classifiers, non profit managers, and other used of the word differently in their professions. political context is way where people living in group make decision, politicians and other people may get together to form government.

  • @Jesse_Brooks said in Module 1 Discussion: Advocacy and the Political Context:

    I answered the question about what type of environment do I work in based on the region in my state within the US. Generally speaking, the US has been experiencing a great political divide which we are experiencing also on a local level. This has impacted our advocacy work immensely and has affected our capacity to do advocacy work. When I began this work 6 years ago, I felt very different about our environment as I do now. In many ways I feel we have gone backwards. Our NGO was in a position to act as checks and balances on power and government, and in our recent work that impacts public health and safety, we have been challenge on our position and stance. This challenge comes from our own board members who have ties to higher political groups who were not in favor of our messaging. It was this resistance that changed our environment to semi-open to restrictive. I wonder if anyone else has experienced that shift in capacity.

    Hi Ms Brooks,

    It's very interesting to hear how your political environment has changed so much in these past few months, especially with regards to work you are currently doing. I'm very curious to know how your own board members are opposing work they are meant to be advocating?

    Kind Regards,
    Jian Olivier

  • Hi there! I work for a non-profit that advocates for the health, education, and financial stability for all people in our region. About 6 years ago we layered on youth substance prevention work into our mission recognizing that if we are successful in reducing youth substance use, we could increase the health, education, and financial success for our community and the future. Recently our state and county was considering commercial retail sales of cannabis, which our team provided public health information that highlighted the importance of protecting youth and informing populations (such as parents) of the potential negative impacts. One of our board members was personally in favor of the opt-in vote happening and tried to influence the board that our work could be seen as political in order for us to stop sharing information.

  • Understanding about the political situation and cultural concept of certain country or targeted area is important step before doing the Advocacy for certain objective of organization because the action taken without understanding of political context of the targeted country or location have high possibilities to get negative impact as consequence.

  • Fully agree with scoping the political context for the problem and root cause one is advocating for. There are many political instances, and the organization should map decision makers and influencers too.

  • Yes strongly agree.

  • Understanding the context is key in designing an advocacy strategy

  • I strongly agree that we need to have an open and welcoming environment in the work place.

  • I work for the government and I envy how NGOs invest in advocacy programs. Our organization has been around since 2014 but people still don't know what we do since we never had a clear and concise communication plan.

    Based from experience, a very important aspect of knowing the context of a political landscape is knowing the leaders. In our country, majority of the leaders do not know how to advocate simply because they were appointed based on years of service and connections - and not based on experiences and qualifications.

  • Do you think consistency in advocacy efforts would yield results in a semi-open context?

    M
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  • YES IT IS IMPORTAN TO UNDERSTAND POLITICAL CONTEXT AS IT IS MACRO FACTOR THAT AFFECTS ONE'S ORGANIZATION.

  • YES IT IS IMPORTAN TO UNDERSTAND POLITICAL CONTEXT AS IT IS MACRO FACTOR THAT AFFECTS ONE'S ORGANIZATION.

  • Great insights shared in the intro of the course on the need to understand the context and understand the problem a hand. Contexts differ and hence there can not be one size fits all advocacy strategy.

  • Looking at the context in which we want to do the work of advocacy is essential. Without an adequate knowledge of the context, an NGO may find themselves failing in their efforts to address a problem. First it is very important to gather facts from the stakeholders including beneficiaries about what they see as the problem and the root causes of the problem. Sometimes, people might be able to name a problem but the root causes might not have been analyzed in depth and so advocacy measures might only end up addressing the problem superficially and this does not provide lasting solution to the problem. Researching and analyzing the root causes helps to develop a holistic approach to addressing the problem.
    It is also very important to be aware of the kind of political context the NGO operates in. This will help to know which kind of advocacy measures might work best in such a situation. For example, applying measures which suit an open context to a restrictive context might create more problems and danger to the NGO and the beneficiaries rather than alleviating their problems.

  • It is important to understand the political environment ahead of time to understand the situation and start the advocacy . This can help to meet the target or address the advocacy effort of bringing changes.

  • It's important to learn the political context of the area you come from in order to establish the best approach in advocacy. The approach to advocacy to be chosen must also take in to consideration the strategy and self-preservation

  • The actual thing is not the strategies to use but the things we are advocating for, the issues whether, political, economic or socio-cultural. These issues will lead us into the context and strategies to us either in a restricted, open and semi- open political environments. This is humble opinion.

  • for me its very important you contextualize the advocacy strategy and plan you want to use, for instance in African context, Nigeria to be precise, you have you localize the language usage in simple and clear terms, you have to link up with the religious and community leaders to gain acceptance before the proceeding to carryout the advocacy, also have a detailed background knowledge of the problem you want to solve and how you want to solve it also matters,.

  • True analyse the root cause or problem and classify weather its public or health

  • Here in Nigeria, it's a sami-open. Because there is a restrictions but not that much. And also government is monitoring NGO activities. Sometimes, rallies are mostly not encouraged.

  • The political and social context (I would argue) is fundamental to the type of problems and strategies that NGOs and other civil organisations face and can use. It is fundamental to take into consideration the law and political atmosphere for an advocacy work (I strongly believe that without a political involvement is not possible to change things), but also involve who we are trying to help, especially if the NGOs or other organisations are not constitute by beneficiaries.

  • Understanding the political environment plays a great role in the success of any advocacy approach.

  • Sometimes what someone sees as a problem and needs to find a solution,it's actually not a problem to the specific community. They might just feel they should be left alone with there traditions.

  • NGOs need to really think about the governments in the countries where they operate because, whether they like it or not, it is the governments that run the countries. The challenge I think is to how you can be seen as a constructive partner in nation-building: not too contradicting but also not always bowing down to whatever those in power are saying.

  • YES, stakehplders need to be properly and bring on board

  • Need some personal level help to educational program

  • Global governance is no longer a matter of state cooperation or bureaucratic politics. Since the end of the cold war, advocacy groups have proliferated and enjoyed increasing access to global governance institutions such as the European Union, World Trade Organization, and the United Nations climate conferences.

  • we have an open political environment

  • Irrespective of Whatever challenges, positive movements must be sustained.

  • I agree with this statement. Context is most of the times the single most important thing that many people may forget to take into account. When we are talking about advocacy and problem solving, I think it is especially important to take into account the experience of those who have faced the problem directly. Otherwise, our ideas and solutions might not be viable nor effective.

  • Wow in with this module i have just seen where my country and my NGO falls in between the three contexts. Understanding the context will help you know how to protect yourself which is more important so as to know how you can approach a problem in advocacy.

  • The political context is indeed critical when developing an advocacy strategy. Much of our work tends to be affected not only by the organization's goals but also the goals of the authorities or government in power and the extent to which the two coincide will also determine the extent of support or resistance that the we face in our advocacy.

    R
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  • Looking at the risks vis-a-vis the benefits in advocacy work can truly be challenging especially where you may be put in a position where you have to trade in your goals and ethics for safety and security in your work. It is unfortunate that this appears to be the situation for many NGOs where their efforts have to take the back burner in exchange for, say, funding from agencies whose policies do not coincide with theirs or governments whose laws and practices either limit or are opposed to the advocacy work.

  • I'm agree with you

  • I agree with my colleagues about involving the stakeholders , and just to expand on that involving the community comes at hand. Grass root level approach is as well crucial because they are victims and when NGOs fail to involve them then they feel used which leads the NGO not to succeed.

  • Very true, I agree with you on that.

  • The contextualisation and pre-emptive consideration of political environment allows for policy makers and pressure groups to push forward agenda relating to developmental and non-developmental issues. However, what is important to note, is that even in restrictive spaces, NGO's try an overcome barriers via careful dialogues and dissent strategies. If there are certain successful examples, of such advocacy strategies we would be able to prepare ourselves for the worst conditions. It also difficult to completely categorise such enviroment, because there will always be certain sectors which are completely centralised and non-invasive. Let's hear it from our coursemates if they have worked in such situations, and managed to come out successful.

  • It is important to note the right context to use inorder to have a successful advocacy.
    Also through the theory of change we can identify what activities to do that can prevent the problem from rasing in the very first place.

  • It is important to note the right context to use inorder to have a successful advocacy.
    Also through the theory of change we can identify what activities to do that can prevent the problem from rasing in the very first place.

  • It is important to note the right context to use inorder to have a successful advocacy.
    Also through the theory of change we can identify what activities to do that can prevent the problem from rasing in the very first place.

  • It is important to note the right context to use inorder to have a successful advocacy.
    Also through the theory of change we can identify what activities to do that can prevent the problem from rasing in the very first place.

  • It is important to note that three things must be put into consideration while advocating.
    Motivation
    Timing
    Framing
    All these when used well will lead to a successful advocacy.

  • I have difficulties to think about a country that would really be an open context. Is'nt it always, at least, a semi-open context ? It's seems to me that there will always be some kind of repercussion if you go against a main political idea. Would someone maybe have an personal example of an open context ?

  • I fully agree, with both fully understanding the problem you are seeking to solve and your environment, your work will likely fail or be perceived as tone deaf. We probably have all seen examples of well-meaning projects falling flat.

  • yes, true that

  • advocacy and political context are closely interlinked and depends on each other

  • Many countries are operating semi-open and restrictive context forms; except the Non- profit organizations are ready to dance to the tune of the policie makers/politicians they may not really get quality aid and support.

  • It is very important to understand that most NGOs act as co-implementing partners of government projects and help the government in fundraising for some programs. therefore, it is always important for NGOs to understand the political environment in the area of operation

  • I'm about to test this in my own organization with education around transgender issues, bringing to light the increased violence and death amongst the population. It's interesting that I'm taking this course at the same time because I don't feel like the context in the organization is appropriate for the topic but I'm not the only one advancing these ideas. So we shall see how it goes. I hope the learning fairs well for the majority of people that are exposed to the topic.

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