Essay: Advocates

Anyone can be an advocate. An advocate is someone who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy and a person who pleads a case on someone else’s behalf (Oxford Dictionary). There are two main types of advocacy namely individual and collective advocacy. An individual self-advocates on the issues that are specific to them. Collective or systematic advocacy involves supporting an entire community. At the UNHCR we will be undertaking collective advocacy or systems advocacy.
What does it mean to be a community representative?
Community representatives advocate on behalf of a group that has given them consent and support. When representing a community is therefore important to ask, can I legitimately speak on behalf of those affected by the issues?
Representing a community can be done in a variety of styles. What works for one person will not always work for others. You do not need to be an expert on every issue. Speak about what you know. You have valuable knowledge and experience.
Part of being a community representative means making sure you respect other people who talk from their own experience and knowledge. Their understanding might be different from your own and you might even believe that they are wrong. Just as you have the right to be heard, so do others, even if you do not agree with what they are saying.
It is also important to consider the risks in being a community representative and speaking out on their behalf. These risks should be considered against any possible gains. Consideration also needs to be given to the long and short-term gains, especially in regard to safety, employment and strategic objectives.
How do we advocate at the UNHCR’?Advocacy requires organizing and organization. It represents a set of strategic actions and, at its most vibrant, will influence the decisions, practices and policies of others (UNICEF)’
Describe the difference between activism and advocacy. (I have seen a diagram somewhere for this). Highlight which part we will be doing at UNHCR.
There is more than one way to approach advocating at UNHCR. Considering the list of questions below will assist in understanding how advocacy works. Depending on the context and issue, some of these questions (adapted from the UNICEF Toolkit) will be more applicable to than others.
Question 1: What do we want?
While it would be ideal to advocate on all the issues identified from your community consultation, choosing just a few will help ensure focus and success. If there are many issues, it is also usually very helpful to have issues grouped under themes.
There may also be other reasons to attend the UNHCR NGO consultations. For example
Open doors to participation
Change the balance of power
Alter attitudes and values.
Question 2: Who can make it happen?
The decision on where and to whom to raise your issues is important plus describe the difference between meetings and the open forum
Question 3: What do they need to hear?
Though our messages must always be rooted in the same basic truth, they should also be tailored to different audiences. Know your audience and have an agenda ( see exercise X).
Once everyone has arrived in Geneva there will be a one day planning meeting. During this time agendas for each of the meetings will be set.
Question 4: Who is the best person to deliver the message?
The same message can have a very different impact depending on who communicates it. Asking who is the the most credible messengers is important. In some cases, these messengers are experts whose credibility is largely technical. In other cases, we need to engage those who can speak from personal experience.
Preparing a messenger is part of an advocate’s responsibility. Talking points are a useful tool to support messengers. These talking points help the messenger stay understand the issue as well as stay on message.
Question 5: What can we do to make sure they hear our message?
The choice of forum to deliver the message depends on who your audience and you is your purpose. Consider whether you will be raising your issues in one-to one-meetings, Bureaus meetings (and if so which one) or in an open forum. Seek guidances as where your message will have most positive impact.
Delivering messages persuasively lies at the heart of advocacy. The key to a good delivery is knowing as much as possible about your target audience. You also need to develop clear and compelling messages, deliver messages effectively and reinforce messages ( see more about this in Section 3, learning objective 3)
Question 6: How do we make it happen?
An advocacy goal is what you hope to achieve. It is the overall change that is desired as a result of advocacy efforts. Long term goals may involve things such as policy change. Given that most participant will only be attending the consultations once of twice. This section will deal with short term goals only. Short term goals may include things such as:
Goal 1: Develop personal advocacy capacity
Goal 2: Recruit new champions for your issue
Goal 3: Create willingness of UNHCR to act in support of an issue.
Goal 4: Obtain media coverage of the issue
Question 7: How do we tell if it is working?
Advocacy is a long journey and progress needs to be checked along the way. By knowing what your goals are and the outcome you wish to see will help you evaluate whether your efforts are working. It is also important to be adaptable and learn from experiences. You may need to discard elements that are not working.Considering the three goals above, if we observe the accompanying outcome.
Goal 1: Develop personal advocacy capacity prior and during the UNHCR consultations
Outcome 1: Increased knowledge and skills about advocacy gained
Goal 2: Recruit new champions for your issue
Outcome 2: New advocates recruited and new constituencies represented among advocates
Goal 3: Create willingness of UNHCR to act in support of an issue.
Outcome 3: Number of UNHCR staff who publicly support the advocacy effort
Number of times the issue is mentioned by UNHCR during the consultation
Mentioned in the Rappetours report
Goal 4: Obtain media coverage of the issue
Outcome 4: Number of stories successfully placed in the media’
During your time at the NGO consultations remember to debrief. This will enhance your learning and improve your advocacy skills. These can either be formal or informal session. During these sessions reflect on:
What worked well?
What did not work?
What could be improved?
What lessons are drawn for next time?
What action turned out better than hoped for?
What disappointed participants?
What messages resonated?
(see www.horizonscda.ca for more tips)
What will happen at the UNHCR?
Also see supporting document Eileen Pittway guide
What will a ‘typical day’ look like?
Section B: Practice exercise
This section focuses on the skills and knowledge required to undertake advocacy at the UNHCR. These include communication, consultation, planning, representation, public speaking and presentation skills.
There are many ways to be effective in advocacy. Some people are more skilled at certain types of advocacy than others. Don’t worry if you do not posses all of these skills. Effective advocacy can still be carried out even if we don’t have full capacity in every one of these areas. While we strive to strengthen our foundation, this shouldn’t keep us from undertaking advocacy. By working through these practical exercises we will all enhance the skills we have.
The learning outcomes for the practical exercises are:
To learn how to obtain and document information on the needs of your community
To identify key issues to take to the UNHCR.
To develop talking points around relevant issues to take to the UNHCR
To enhance communication skills relevant to advocacy at an international meeting.