So, You Wanna be a Campaigner

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CONTENT INTRODUCTION Foreword............................................................................................................................................................................................................... Background........................................................................................................................................................................................................ How to use this Toolkit....................................................................................................................................................................... Running your own advocacy training................................................................................................................................... - Tips on facilitating workshops - Icebreakers & energisers - Evaluating the training

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PART 1: WHAT IS ADVOCACY What is Advocacy....................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 The Advocacy Cycle ............................................................................................................................................................................... 17 History of Advocacy................................................................................................................................................................................ 18 Advocacy Methods..................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 - Workshop 1: What is Advocacy? o Handout 1.1 Case studies: Is this Advocacy

PART 2: STRATEGISING Understanding your issue................................................................................................................................................................. - Workshop 2:Visioning Exercise - Workshop 3: The Why Pie - Workshop 4: The Problem Tree o Handout 4.1: Instructions o Handout 4.2: Example o Handout 4.3: Worksheet: The Problem Tree Stakeholder Analysis............................................................................................................................................................................. - Workshop 5: Allies & Opponents - Workshop 6: Power Analysis o Handout 6.1 Worksheet: Stakeholders’ Analysis - Workshop 7: Influencing Stakeholders Goal-setting..................................................................................................................................................................................................... - Workshop 8: Creating a Roadmap o Handout 8.1 Instructions o Handout 8.2 Case Study: Deciding on your means of action - Workshop 9: Action Storming Situation Analysis .................................................................................................................................................................................... - Workshop 10: SWOT/BEEM Analysis o Handout 10.1 Instructions and example o Handout 10.2 Worksheet: The SWOT/BEEM Matrix

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PART 3: PLANNING YOUR CAMPAIGN The Result-Chain........................................................................................................................................................................................ 49 - Workshop 11: Building a Pyramid of Results o Handout 11.1 Case Study: Un Vagon Hermoso o Handout 11.2 Worksheet: Building the Pyramid • Building a Pyramid of Results (Answers)

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Workshop 12: Stepping Stones Workshop 13: Action Planning o Handout 13.1 Worksheet: Activity Planning o Handout 13.2 Example: Gantt Chart


Monitoring & Evaluation................................................................................................................................................. 61

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Workshop 14: Planning Monitoring & Evaluation o Handout 14.1 Example: Monitoring & Evaluation Plan • Data Collection Methods

Risk Assessment....................................................................................................................................................................... 70

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Workshop 15: Risk Assessment o Handout 15.1 Worksheet: Risk Assessment Table

Budgeting & Fundraising................................................................................................................................................. 72 Recruiting your team.......................................................................................................................................................... 76

PART 4: RUNNING YOUR CAMPAIGN Online Advocacy....................................................................................................................................................................... 79 - Social Media Tools - Online Collaboration Tools Engaging with the Media................................................................................................................................................. 82 - How to Write a Press Release - Letter-writing Participating in Conferences...................................................................................................................................... 86 - Checklist for making the most of a meeting - Workshop 16: Preparing for International Meetings Lobbying............................................................................................................................................................................................ 90 - Workshop 17: How to Lobby o Handout 17.1 Case Studies: Public Profiles Using the Arts for Advocacy...................................................................................................................................... 92 Managing your campaign............................................................................................................................................... 93 Evaluation Activities........................................................................................................................................................... 94 - Interviewing Tips - Surveying your Survey

PART 5: IN THE FIELD Presentation Skills................................................................................................................................................................. 99 - Workshop 18: Presentation Skills Storytelling & Public Narrative.............................................................................................................................. 102 - Workshop 19: Storytelling Effective Questioning......................................................................................................................................................... 105 - Workshop 20: The Good Ask o Handout 20.1 Case Studies: UN Official Profile One to One Communication...................................................................................................................................... 109 - Networking - Elevator Speech - Persuasion Teambuilding................................................................................................................................................................................ 112 - Workshop 21: Creating a Shared Vision - Motivation & delegation - Leadership - Problem solving & conflict resolution .

CONCLUSION

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................................... 118 List of Figures............................................................................................................................................................ 120 Glossary............................................................................................................................................................................ 121 Resources....................................................................................................................................................................... 125 Advocacy Toolkit Evaluation Form................................................................................................. 129

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FOREWORD

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o you want to change the world? Or maybe change something about your nation, community or the place where you work. Every one of these steps requires advocacy—you have to be able to persuade people to do something they may not want to do. Some people do this through force of personality, others through immense wealth. For most of us, the only way is through learning how to advocate. This toolkit is for you.

It is based on an earlier toolkit created in 2009 by young people studying advocacy techniques through a series of meetings. Since then, many things have changed: we have seen the rise of online advocacy with the advent of organisations like Avaaz.org and Change.org. Just recently, we have seen the viral success of the Kony 2012 campaign, which saw close to 100 million people watching a 30-minute campaign video online. We have witnessed the Occupy movement—leaderless, charisma-free zones where an inchoate group of citizens of all generations, have drawn attention to the endemic failures threatening our civilisation. And we have seen the revolutions of the Arab Spring, led predominantly by young people using social media to generate support for revolution. In this new edition, we touch on all these issues, but the basics remain the same: plan your campaign, learn campaigning skills, know your audience, find your allies, identify and understand your opponents, and most important of all, know the facts about your issue. From knowing why a youth-led approach to development is better and more cost-effective that an elder-led one, or why a green economy is better for the planet than the current fossil-fuelled economy—any advocate must have the facts at his or her finger-tips. The generation currently passing through our schools and colleges faces perhaps the biggest advocacy challenge of all time: weaning society off the environmentally destructive market-driven, oil and coal-fuelled economy, and transitioning to sustainable behaviours based on the sustainable use of resources. The forces against us are huge. Corporations make a lot of money as resources like oil and coal, and human essentials such as food and water, become scarce. That will only worsen the other problem this generation has to address poverty. History demonstrates that poverty can never be eradicated without cheap and abundant energy. Fossil fuel energy will never again be either cheap or abundant. So these great challenges are linked and the only way we can hope to succeed in overcoming them is by understanding, learning about and becoming expert advocates. Along the way, you will learn many other skills that will help you, whatever career you choose to pursue. A good advocacy leader requires superb people and teambuilding skills. Campaigns need good speakers who can map out and write a convincing argument and present it with vigour, intelligence and passion. They need good fundraisers and digital natives able to take advantage of the online tools available to the modern activist. And they need good coordinators who can juggle multiple priorities. It is never too early, or too late, to become an advocate. Craig Kielburger started Free the Children when he was 12-years old, and was at that age, a natural advocate. If you want to change something, start writing your advocacy story now! You will become a stronger, happier and politically engaged citizen as a result! David Woollcombe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the European Commission “Youth in Action” Programme their support during this project. We also give special thanks to the guest speakers and trainers—Jon Hart, Sebastian Duyck and Alexander Woollcombe, who assisted in delivering this training and helped shape this toolkit.

Peace Child International Advocacy Toolkit

Editor: Sonya Silva Designer and Illustrator: Romain Oria Contributors: Céline Chauve, Sebastian Duyck, Alex Farrow, Alexandre Florentin, Julia Hentz, Simon Howlett, Rosey Simonds, Karina Tatarova, Nicolo Wojewoda, Fiona Vanderburgh, Alexander Woollcombe, David Woollcombe Photos: Christopher Cordova, Sonia Preisser, Sonya Silva

Youth Advocacy Training

Programme Coordinator: Sonya Silva Delegate Coordinators: Nithya Deveraj and Sonia Preisser Trainers: Steven Heywood, Simon Howlett, Sonia Preisser, Romain Oria, Rosey Simonds, Nicolo Wojewoda, David Woollcombe Guest Training Facilitators & Mentors: Sebastian Duyck, Nicoletta Gomiero, Jonathan Hart, Alexander Woollcombe


BACKGROUND

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his toolkit builds upon two advocacy trainings run by Peace Child. The first was run in 2009 at Peace Child headquarters in the UK, and consisted of workshops and meetings with local government officials. It was followed up by meetings held first in Brussels at the EU parliament and then in December of that year, the participants met up again in Copenhagen for COP15. They were able to put their advocacy skills into practice at this event, as they attended both the Conference of Youth and meetings with different stakeholders. Building on this model, in 2011 Peace Child held its biennial European Youth Congress in Izola, Slovenia. This meeting was an opportunity to train young leaders on advocacy skills, with a special focus on the Road to Rio+20—a campaign mobilising young people for the Earth Summit in 2012. We spent five days in Izola holding workshops on how to plan your own action project, lobbying skills, fundraising and many more topics, all of which you’ll find in this toolkit.

From the European Youth Congress in Izola, Slovenia, August 2011 (Sonya Silva)

Peace Child’s Advocacy Work

Peace Child’s history is rooted in advocacy. In 1981 at the height of the Cold War, the founders of Peace Child came up with the idea of creating a musical that would bring together east and west through music and children. It was performed in London and then David and Rosey Woollcombe set off with £1,000 to put it on at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. They persuaded others to join them and the musical spread. Between 1983 and 1989 there were 400 performances in American schools, churches and community groups who all staged their version. But the message still needed to be spread within the former USSR. David made 27 trips to Moscow before the Soviets allowed their teenagers to mix with Americans and create the first Soviet -American musical tour in 1986. Starting with a simple musical, we have learned that advocacy takes vision as well as determination, persistence, hard work and quite often risk. After the Cold War, Peace Child’s vision moved onto the other big challenges for future generations—sustainable development. Since then, we have provided a platform for countless young people to make their voices heard through youth-led publications, educational programmes and the World Youth Congress series where young people are able to share experiences, gain skills and debate with leading development professionals. This all came from a belief that children and young people could make a difference.


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HOW TO USE THIS TOOLKIT

his toolkit has been divided into two main sections. In the first section are exercises on how to plan your campaign. This starts with identifying the issue you want to work on, building your team, mapping your stakeholders, and developing a campaign plan. The second section focuses on the skills needed for carrying out the campaign, including how to get your message out, fundraising, event coordination and evaluation. How you use this toolkit is up to you. The instructions provided with the workshop outlines are guidelines on how to run a session. We encourage you read through these before running any sessions. How you decide to use it will depend on the goals and time available for your activities. So, take the time to read through beforehand and adapt and adjust the guidelines to make the toolkit and training your own!

Elements of the toolkit:

W Workshop: Outline of instructions and needs for facilitators running an advocacy training. Time: Approximate time required for running a workshop.

Objectives: The learning goals for participants in the workshop.

Materials needed: Suggested things you will need to bring for participants in your session. Feel free to change these and be creative! Facilitator guidelines: Step-by-step guidelines for a facilitating a session.

Instructions: Step-by-step guidelines for participants on how to complete an activity.

Case studies: Examples of a project or activity. Handouts: Photocopy-ready pages to provide to participants in your workshop. If possible try to have participants work in groups, or create one large, clear diagram for participants to copy from to save on paper and ink! Worksheet: An activity page with information to be filled in by participants.

Resources: Further sources of information to learn more about advocacy and campaigning.


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RUNNING YOUR OWN ADVOCACY TRAINING

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hile it is possible to run through the activities found in this toolkit on your own, working on a campaign or project is best done in a team! It’s a good idea to read through the toolkit on your own before using them in order to become familiar with the concepts presented here. However, you should engage your team in actually completing them! Here are some tips for using the workshop outlines provided to develop your own advocacy training with your team.

Planning the training: . . . .

Plan the agenda. Set out the aims of the session and get feedback, if possible from your participants, on possible topics to be covered in the training. Then decide on the best tools or activities to use to run your activity. Organize logistics. Determine the time and place for the training and make sure everyone is informed. If there are materials that can be sent beforehand, then send these out. Check the physical arrangements. Pay attention to the temperature, space and sound within the room. Check if you need to make special arrangements for anyone in your group. Set up the space before the meeting. Gather your materials. Make sure you have any audiovisual equipment you need, and enough whiteboards, flipcharts, blutac, post-its, paper, pens and markers you might need.

Starting the event: . . .

Introductions. It helps to start with some team-building exercises or icebreakers. It is a good idea to time these according to the length and content of your meeting. At the very least, it is a good idea to get to know each other’s names and where each person is from, and possibly an extra interesting piece of information about them. Have a look at the Resources page at the end of this toolkit for links to where you can find icebreakers and teambuilding activities. Expectations. Set boundaries for the training and discuss these before beginning. This should include the timing, subject, aims, and decision-making processes for the group. People may bring up things during the training that are outside the original aims. To deal with these you may want to have a “parking lot” or “bike rack” on which you list topics to go back to at the end of the training. Ground rules. Give time for participants to discuss the ground rules or norms among the group. Have the group think about when meetings or trainings have been effective, where the behaviours and attitudes are required to make this happen, to make a safe space for everyone. Workshops that deal with more sensitive personal information, should build trust and norms for the group before diving into the materials.

Running the event: . . .

Plan a variety of workshops and activities. Have a mix of presentations, exercises and energizers to keep participants engaged. Especially with longer trainings, plan fun outings or engaging hands-on projects if possible. Have different trainers. Having a variety of trainers keeps things interesting for participants as it provides different perspectives and reflects participants’ different needs and learning styles. Plan breaks. Give people time to think, stretch and snack.

Wrapping-up: . .

Evaluate! Make sure you provide enough time for this in the schedule, and plan how you will do it.You might have a form, go around the group and have person say what they learned, or plan a different activity to get feedback. Whatever you choose, make your evaluation relevant to your initial aims and expectations.Your evaluation should at the minimum, tell you what went well and what can be improved for next time. Forward planning. Spending time on conclusions should also provide some guidance on what is next for participants. Will the group get together again? How will you keep track of your participants and how they are using their trainings? Will they be able to act as trainers in the future?


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TIPS ON FACILITATING WORKSHOPS

Preparing the session: • • • • • •

Prepare an agenda. This should include planning out the session in a logical order and reflect the learning outcomes of the session. Consider different learning styles when planning out your activity. This should include having visual aids such as graphics or images, discussion and presentations, and physical movement. Vary the pace and style of activities.You need to balance the time you spend presenting and explaining activities, for group work, and for individual reflection. Different people have different learning styles and so it is best to have a mix of different types of activities to keep participants engaged. Try and find a co-facilitator to help you run the session. This not only takes some of the pressure off you; but allows one person to be speaking while another is taking notes, prepares for the next activity, or just pays attention to the mood and energy level of the group.You might also want to appoint a notetaker and a timekeeper for some meetings. Find out about your workshop space. It is important that it is comfortable and that there is enough space for everyone. Try moving the chairs in a circle or semi-circle so everyone can see and hear each other. Consider the timing of your workshop. If it is during a mealtime, try to have refreshments available, or if you cannot, advise your participants of this in advance.

Running the workshop:

• • • • • • •

Provide instructions and visual aids: Make sure to have a whiteboard, chalkboard, or PowerPoint presentations with concise instructions written out for any activity you are leading. Be sure to have a backup plan if audiovisual equipment fails! Explain the purpose: Put the sessions you are doing into context and the purpose of any tool or activity you run. Provide plenty of time for discussion and feedback after running activities. Check expectations: It is important to check the expectations of the training with the group as the training was designed for them in mind. If there are specific objectives the organizers have, they should make these known in advance or at the beginning of the session. Be aware of mood and energy: Whether you are starting first thing in the morning, after lunch, or late in the afternoon, you will probably need an icebreaker or energizer to get the energy flowing in the room. Pay attention to people’s facial expressions and body language, and modify, adapt or cut short your activities if necessary. If people are losing focus, try and do a lighter activity, or something that involves physical movement. Pay attention to group dynamics: Some groups you work with will start discussions among themselves effortlessly. Others will need a bit more guidance. If participants are silent or unresponsive, find out why. Ask if they need a break, if they understand, or if they just want to move on. If appropriate, change the format. Try breaking the group into pairs to discuss issues that they might not otherwise want to share their opinions with the group. Make sure to have clear guiding questions and instructions. Be neutral: Your job as a facilitator is to help the group have an effective and inclusive meeting. As a facilitator, everyone’s opinion should be considered, even when you are clarifying and summarizing points. For example if you are not writing down something during a brainstorming, because it is repeated or otherwise, explain why. Be flexible: Be prepared for activities to take extra time, and to have to cut your presentation short or take out some activities. Also realise that some activities might not work, even with the best preparation. Respond to the participants’ needs, and adapt your agenda to meet the learning goals of the training. Realize that these goals might be different from what you originally expected or planned.


A facilitator... Should - Be a good listener. - Have energy and attention for the group. - Understand the meeting and its goals. - Respect all participants. - Have confidence, even if you’re not an expert on the topic.

9 Should not! - Not direct the meeting. - Not make decisions for the group. - Not rush. Give participants time to think and work through activities to make them meaningful.

Icebreakers & Energizers

An important part of training and meetings is to have some icebreakers prepared to help people get to know each other and get ready to work together. Taking people through certain exercises can also be a good way of “warming up” to do a particular intensive task. Musical Chairs 1. Have people sit on chairs in a circle, or round a table. Make sure there are some empty chairs. 2. Come up with a list of questions that people can answer with a “yes” or “no.” If they answer yes, they will be asked to move “X number of places” to the left or right. They should sit on the seat they land on regardless of whether or not someone is already sitting there. E.g. Move 2 seats to the left if you’re wearing anything that’s black today. Move 3 seats to the left if you can play an instrument. Move 4 seats to the right if you are a vegetarian. Move 2 seats to the left if you can speak more than 3 languages. Move 1 seat to the right if you have been to more than 3 countries this year. Move 3 seats to the left if you have been to more than 3 continents. Move 5 seats to your left if you’re wearing underwear that’s white. Move 5 seats to your left if you’re wearing underwear that’s not white. All Switch 1. Have everyone stand in a circle. 2. Using a similar set of statements, to the Musical Chairs game, above if people say “yes” to the statement, they need to move forward and swap places with everyone else who has also said “yes.” 3. However, the person who is left in the middle without having swapped places will have to make up the next statement. Toilet Paper Pass You will need 2-3 rolls of toilet paper depending on the size of the group. 1. Have the group sit in a circle 2. Tell the group to pretend that they are going on a camping trip overnight. 3. Pass out the rolls of toilet paper and tell the group that they’ll need to bring enough toilet paper for one night in the forest. 4. Once they have taken their sheets, tell them that for every piece of paper that they took, they need to tell the group one fact about themselves. The Name Game 1. Everyone should be sitting in a circle. Everyone has to introduce themselves, and a fun fact or story about themselves. 2. The first person starts by saying “I’m …. and I ….” The second person, then has to introduce the first person, and then introduce themselves. 3. The third person, would introduce the first and second person and then themselves. This carries on so that everyone later on in the circle must remember and introduce everyone who went before them, and then themselves.


10 Star Wars Names 1. Everyone will recreate their names for the day. Have name tags/labels available. 2. First name: Take the first 2 letters of their last name and then add on the first 3 letters of their first name. 3. Last name: Take the first 2 letters of your boss’ first name (or teacher, partner, roommate/etc.) and add it to the first 3 letters of the city you were born on. Example: Beth Lopez from Coventry whose boss’ name is Allan become “Lobet Alcov”. Evolution Before playing, everyone should know how to play rock, paper, scissors. 1. Everyone starts out as an egg, squatting and waddling around saying “I’m an egg! I’m an egg!” 2. When an egg meets another egg, they play rock, paper, scissors. The winner evolves into a chicken. The loser remains an egg, and continues waddling around looking for another egg. 3. The chicken hops around flapping its arms like wings making chicken noise until it finds another chicken. Then they play rock, paper, scissors again. The winner evolves into a princess. The loser changes back into an egg. 4. The princess walks and twirls around saying “I’m a pretty princess!” until it finds another princess. They play rock, paper, scissors. The winner becomes a superhero. The loser changes back into a chicken. 5. The superhero walks around with its arm in the air saying “I’m a superhero!” At this stage they are finished and fly around the area. COP Negotiation 1. Form groups of four. One person in each group is a negotiator. The others are countries. The negotiator has to bring together three countries walking in different directions. 2. One person does not have a group and represents Canada. 3. The groups spread out in the room. The three countries stand with their backs facing each together. 4. When the facilitator says ‘Go’, the countries start walking. They can only walk straight ahead. 5. When they cannot continue walking (because there is a wall, a chair or another country), they walk on the spot and say “I can’t accept that” over and over, so the negotiator knows where they are. 6. The role of the negotiator is to bring the countries back together, facing each other. The countries can change direction if the negotiator taps on their shoulder. If they tap on the right shoulder, the country must turn 90 right. If they tap on the left shoulder, they must turn 90 left. 7. Canada runs around trying to sabotage the struggle by tapping different countries on the shoulder. (Adapted from: “Handbook for Action Against Climate Change”, 2012, http://www.ifm-sei.org/toolbox/all-together-against-climate-change)


Evaluating the Training

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n important element of any training is the evaluation and follow-up—so important that we’re putting it at the beginning of this toolkit! Provided below are some participatory evaluation activities which are designed for assessing how the trainings or meetings you hold go when using the activities in this toolkit. However, you can be creative and think about ways you might be able to adapt these activities to evaluate your campaign with the project team and participants.

Postcard debriefing Objective: Allow participants to describe their thoughts on the day.

Materials needed: Postcards or magazine images

Instructions: Lay out an array of postcards or pictures with different images on the floor. Have participants, taking turns, each pick up a picture that describes how they felt about the day and why they chose that picture.

Wall of Knowledge Objective: Find out what participants learned, what they would change, and what they want to act on or learn about in the future.

Materials needed: Different coloured post-it notes, pens, wall space or a flipchart Instructions: Give each participant three post-it notes that are different colours. Have participants answer the following questions on the corresponding post-it notes: o Blue: What did you learn from the session? o Yellow: What would you change about what we did and why? o Pink: What work should we be doing in the future? Ask participants to place them on a blank space of wall and take up what people wrote.


12 Spiderweb Objective: To evaluate how participants interacted and learned from each other after a session. Materials needed: Ball of string

Instructions: Come up with a list of statements relevant to the training topic. E.g. o I learned something new about lobbying today. o I think I would be able to ask a good question in an international meeting. o I am going to be able to apply what I learned in a meeting coming up. Have participants stand in a circle. Read out the statements and have those who answer yes put up their hands. Toss the ball of string to them and have them pass it on until everyone who has said yes has answered the question.

Comic strips Objective: Record project activities and communicate a story about them

Materials needed: Camera, computer

Instructions: Have participants take pictures of an event or activity in your campaign. Put the pictures together in a sequence that tells a story about the day and what was achieved.

Bull's eye Objective: To evaluate how closely participants felt the training objectives were met.

Materials needed: Flip chart, markers or paint; post-it notes, pens, a camera

Instructions: Create a target with four concentric circles, about 5 cm wide on a flipchart or whiteboard (see graphic below). Make each circle a different colour.

Choose a topic that you want to explore.You can use several guided questions if you want to evaluate multiple areas. E.g. “I feel like a better leader after this training.” Participants should write how they feel in response to the statement it or question on the post-it note. Then, they should stick the post-it on the target. If they feel they agree more strongly with the statement should be placed closest to the centre of the board. If they disagree, then it should be placed on one of the farther out rings. After everyone has answered the question, take a picture of the board in high quality if possible. Discuss the findings and move onto the next question!


Telegram

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Objective: To get quick feedback on a day when energy levels are low.

Materials needed: Yourselves!

Instructions: Have participants describe their day in three words—a positive word, a negative word, and a concluding word. Be sure to write these down, or alternatively ask them to write the words down on post-it notes.You can then represent them through a Wordle (www.wordle.net).


14 Workshop Evaluation Form Ranking: 1 Disagree

2 Somewhat disagree

3 Neither agree nor disagree

4 Somewhat agree

5 Agree

I. General Perception 1.

I learned new things at this workshop today.

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This workshop met my expectations.

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I enjoyed this workshop.

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II. Workshop content 4.

The content was clear and easy to understand.

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The content was relevant to my needs.

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The activities were well-organised.

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III. Facilitators 7.

The presentations were clear.

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The facilitators encouraged participation and group discussions.

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IV. Learning The three most useful things I learned were: 1. 2. 3. I would have liked to discuss or learn more about the following skills: In the future, I would recommend that: Other comments:


part 1: what is advocacy

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In this section you’will learn about: - What advocacy is and different methods of advocacy • - The advocacy cycle and how it relates to this toolkit • - A brief history of advocacy


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WHAT IS ADVOCACY?

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dvocacy is about trying to attain public support for a particular cause to influence or change policy. It includes several different activities and methods, but essentially, it is a means of effectively putting across a message, communicating issues or causes in order to engage more people to support your ideas. This involves planning out a strategy and ensuring that your message gets attention in public.

Who is an advocate? If advocacy is about trying to attain support for a cause, then an advocate is someone who speaks, argues, or defends a particular cause. We can often also call an advocate an activist. What does being an advocate mean to you? What does an advocate need? Rebecca Willey, UK “When someone is increasing the awareness of a cause they need passion and dedication so they can inspire others to want to make a difference.To effectively get across a message, an advocate needs organisation and innovative solutions to make campaigns memorable. Although an advocate can work individually, it is easier if a support network is in place to help with logistics and create a base of thorough knowledge around the issue. An advocate needs the self-motivation to keep going and the belief in themselves that their effort will create positive change.”

Hilary Ewang Ngide; Centre for Community Regeneration & Development Cameroon “To me at CCREAD Cameroon, advocacy entails regularly motivating all relevant stakeholders to trigger positive change and become willing, available and enthusiastic to take action in response to an issue in society. Such issues might concern disadvantaged children, youths, women, peasants or the natural environment. Advocacy to me takes the form of both practical action and legislation or policy.”

So what do we understand by “Advocacy”? • It is a means of effectively putting a message across. • A way of communicating issues or causes that we are passionate about. • It’s about planning a strategy that will help you to make your cause part of other people’s reality. • Trying to engage more people to support your ideas. • It’s about ensuring that your message is out there in the public eye. • Reaching to people who might perceive there is a need but not feel inspired enough to bother do something about it. What is a campaign? A campaign is an organised way to work towards a particular social or political program. The term ‘campaigning’ is used in various lines of work for a particular political party or representative; to market a certain product; or a military operation. In this toolkit, we refer to advocacy campaigning and the organised plan of action you take towards working for the change you want to see. This can include ways of engaging policy makers and the general public, and getting them to support your position. This can include a variety of advocacy methods and tactics that we outline in this first section of the toolkit.


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THE ADVOCACY CYCLE

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very project goes through different stages. This toolkit has been carefully structured to link with the elements of the advocacy cycle—the common stages you will go through (and revisit) during your campaign.

This usually starts with the initial idea you may have or from a certain situation you want to take action on. Often, campaigners might jump straight from identifying their issue or frustration, to taking action. However, a key element to advocacy is strategising which requires in-depth knowledge and understanding about your issue and the people who matter and will impact your campaign. Only then can you decide on the actions and techniques you will use in your project plans. From there, you’ll move onto the detailed planning of your campaign. This is a step beyond the dreaming stage and into setting realistic objectives and activities that you will implement. An important element of this is monitoring and evaluation. In this toolkit, the guidelines on planning this come early on in the toolkit, so you make sure to include them into your activities and budget. The next step is to actually start running your campaign and put it into action. Because this is such a huge part of campaigning we’ve included two sections on the skills you need for taking action, and the communication and teambuilding skills you need for keeping things moving along. Rather than including evaluation as a separate element that comes at the end of the cycle, we’ve woven it throughout the book, so it isn’t just something that comes last in your campaign plans. Below is an adapted diagram of the Advocacy Cycle, that illustrates how it corresponds with the different elements of this toolkit: ling ytel r o te st am Figure 1.1: The Advocacy Cycle bu il d in ef

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HISTORY OF ADVOCACY

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ith TIME magazine naming 2011’s Person of the Year, “The Protester” we have recently been surrounded by news stories of activism over the last year. Examples include the Arab Spring that started in Tunisia, Spanish indignados, riots in Greece and across Europe against economic austerity measures, and the ‘Occupy Movement.’ In contemporary history, we have seen the methods and tactics used in advocacy campaigns evolve over time.

19th – Early 20th Century Civil Disobedience In 1849, Henry Thoreau wrote an essay on “Civil Disobedience” which called on people to act according to their conscience, stating that, “resistance is the highest form of patriotism because it demonstrates a desire not to subvert government but to build a better one in the long term.” Thoreau’s essay would go on to inspire various movements in the 20th century. Women’s Suffrage By the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the first wave of feminism kicked off with the suffragettes—women who advocated for the right to vote. Their tactics ranged from civil disobedience, constitutional campaigning, issuing leaflets, petitioning and holding meetings, to more militant tactics that were used in the UK that included chaining themselves to railings and going on hunger strike if they were imprisoned. In the years leading up to World War I women gained the right to vote in Canada, the US, Australia, UK, and several European countries. However, since then, the struggle has continued to the present day for millions of women around the world. Suffrage Parade, 1913 (US National Archives)

1920s – 1960s Independence Movements After World War II, several independence movements sprang up throughout the world, especially among African nations, many of which were characterised by violence. In India however, Mahatma Gandhi drawing on the concepts from Thoreau’s essay, believed that people had the right to disobey laws that were unjust. Developing methods of non-violent civil resistance, or Satyagrahi, he was able to lead India to independence from British rule, and influence other movements for independence and civil rights.

1960s – 1980s USA Civil Rights Movement The African American civil rights movement was pioneered by activists such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. who would use methods of civil disobedience through boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and public speeches to protest racial segregation in the US. Building on these methods and tactics using nonviolent resistance to achieve change, movements like second wave feminism targeted gender equity issues focusing on the role of women and reproductive rights, and the gay liberation movement advocating for LGBT rights.

Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking.], 28/08/19 (US National Archives)


Anti-Apartheid Movement South Africa, while gaining its independence early on in 1931, was plagued by years of apartheid, a system of racial segregation that was enforced through legislation between 1958 and 1994. Nelson Mandela was an international figurehead for the anti-apartheid movement, and while imprisoned, was also supported internationally by calls for sanctions and boycotts towards South Africa by the UN, sporting bodies, and disinvestment campaigns in companies that had a presence in South Africa.

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Fall of Communism The fall of communism was triggered in Poland by Solidarity, a Polish trade union formed at the Gdańsk Shipyard strike led by Lech Wałęsa. This strike gave rise to a series of nationwide strikes that brought the country to an economic halt and eventually led to free and fair elections in the country. A chain reaction ensued, contributing to the fall of other governments within the Soviet-bloc, eventually leading to the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.

1990s – Present Anti-globalisation Movements The 1990s saw several anti-capitalist protests and demonstrations arise in opposition to neo-liberal policies that put the needs of financial institutions and multinational organizations above those of people and the environment. Sites and bodies targeted by such protests have often been organisations like the IMF or World Trade Organization, as well as summits such as the G8, G20 and World Economic Forum. The most recent incarnation of this has been the ‘Occupy Movement’, an international protest directed against social and economic inequality and the global financial system that started in New York City as’ Occupy Wall Street’ and quickly multiplied around the world.

Occupy Wall Street, New York City, 2011 (Sonia Preisser)

The Arab Spring The Arab Spring began in 2010 using civil resistance, demonstrations, marches, rallies and social media to organise and raise awareness in the face of state repression and human rights violations. While several countries have become involved, at the time of writing in four countries—Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen— have governments been overthrown. Online Activism In recent years, the internet has been the primary medium for organising activism on both a global and local scale. Clear examples of this are online platforms like Avaaz.org and Change.org that enable advocates to create petitions and gain leverage for their cause, through simply signing up a petition. However, in recent years there have been several examples that present the case for the importance of online activism in bringing about revolutionary change. In 2009 student protests in Iran gathered to protest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They used social networks such as Twitter to communicate with each other and share images and news of the protests internationally and in response the Iranian government shut down internet access. The Arab Spring is also a strong example of this as much of the information about each event was spread over social networks and blogs both for the benefit of people organising and in spreading news outside the countries where events were taking place.


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T

ADVOCACY METHODS here are various methods of advocacy to choose from. It could be as simple as opening a Facebook group to street campaigning, lobbying governments, and talking to the media. Below is a list and summary of the common methods used when advocating for a cause. Keep in mind, that advocacy encompasses all these methods, and

Political Activism

Lobbying is the practice of individuals and organisations trying to influence the opinions of government representatives. Traditionally, people who wanted to influence the opinion of these policymakers, would visit the lobbies or hallways of Parliament or Congress, to try and persuade them to make decisions in their favour on a specific issue. This is where lobbying gets its name from. Methods of lobbying vary and can range from letterwriting, making presentations, delivering petitions, and providing briefing materials to members and organised rallies. Often the targets of lobbying interests are Members of Parliament, Senators or Congresspersons. Birddogging is a lobbying tactic that directly engages policymakers by asking them tough questions at public events. However, this decision will ultimately be down to the individual decision makers’ own judgement and the influence (if any) that existing party policy will have on them.

Online Activism

Online activism involves the use of internet communications and social media to spread information faster and to a wider audience. It can include awareness raising, mobilization, and action. Methods used include videos, e-mail lists, Facebook and Twitter. It can be used for fundraising, community building, lobbying and organising. Many online campaigns involve signing e-petitions to be sent to the government and corporations. Sometimes it is described as slacktivism or clicktivism as participating requires very little effort on the part of the individual other than “liking” a cause or signing and sharing a petition, as opposed to actions that happen in a physical place like a demonstration or political participation in real life. Viral videos can be a method of online advocacy, as these are dispersed quickly and can get a campaign message across to thousands of people very quickly. But videos that are truly viral are few and most aren’t produced for that purpose.

Non-cooperation & Direct Action

Non-cooperation involves the purposeful withholding of cooperation or the unwillingness to initiate in cooperation with an opponent. The goal of non-cooperation is to halt or hinder an industry, political system, or economic process. Methods of non-cooperation include strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, tax resistance, and general non-compliance. Often this happens through taking direct action, a type of tactic used by a group of people to expose problems and that may challenge the law to claim rights that are currently denied. They usually include activities like strikes, demonstrations, hacktivism, sabotage, subvertising that are highly visible in the public eye. A demonstration is public gathering of a large group of people to express their support or opposition for a certain political, economic, social or environmental issue. This often takes the form of marches, rallies, picketing, sit-ins, or blockades. A new way of organising demonstrations was coined in 2003 are flash mobs. These are events during which a group of people show up in the same place at the same time and engage in the same behaviour.

Flashmob in Sydney, Australia from the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Roadtrip 2010. (Sonia Preisser)


21 Flash mobs are often used as a form of street performance or for the purposes of amusement or entertainment. However, in 2006 in Belarus, protestors used this tactic to demonstrate against the re-election of the authoritative regime run by Alexander Lukashenko. Using a blog platform (LiveJournal), a poster proposed a flash mob in a main square in Minsk—for people to show up and eat ice cream. The result was that police were waiting in the square and took away the people eating ice cream, which was then photographed and uploaded online. This was repeated in different forms—with a mob showing up and smiling at each other, reading or clapping, and the police arresting them as they were a perceived threat to the government. As the chosen behaviour was innocent, it exposed the oppressive use of force in the country. For more definitions and ideas about the various methods of advocacy, please refer to the glossary at the end of this toolkit.

WORKSHOP 1: WHAT IS ADVOCACY? Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour

Objectives: Learn about different advocacy methods.

Materials needed: • Handout 1.1

Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Introduce the session – example of what advocacy means to the facilitator(s). (5 min) 2.

Ask, “What does advocacy mean to you?” and give each person a chance to respond, writing down key points. (10 min)

3.

Divide participants into small groups or pairs. Give them at least one of the case studies included here, and have them discuss: • What was successful about the campaign (and why)? • What were the obstacles the campaigners faced (and why)?

4.

Take up group work. (10-15 min)

5.

Optional: Ask participants if they know of advocacy campaigns (failed or successful) that they can share with the group.


22 CASE STUDIES: Is this Advocacy?

Handout 1.1

Occupy movement

The Occupy movement is a global protest directed against social and economic inequality. The primary goal of the movement is for fairness in economic and power relations. While various local issues are reflected in the different Occupy groups, the overarching issues in Occupy are the ways that the global financial system has created an inequitable, unstable, and undemocratic system for the majority of the world’s population. The first Occupy protest to receive wide coverage was Occupy Wall Street in New York City’s Zuccotti Park, which began on September 17, 2011. It has spread to actions in over 1,500 cities worldwide. Each Occupy site sets up a camp in a park or public space, often near the city or town’s financial district, to establish a semi-permanent protest area. The occupations are characterised by using consensus to make collective decisions through “people’s assemblies.”

SOPA blackout – Stop SOPA/PIPA

On January 18th, 2012, a series of coordinated online protests occurred against two proposed laws in the US congress—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). The bills, intended to provide a stronger response to online piracy and copyright infringement, contained measures that would impact online freedom of speech, and did not have safeguards for sites based on user-generated content. In response, some websites, including Wikimedia foundation considered temporarily closing their content and redirecting users to a message about the proposed legislation. In all, over 115,000 websites joined the protest, and Wikipedia shut down its site for the day. The protest drew much publicity, and several politicians who supported the bills expressed their concerns and the White House issued a statement that it “would not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet.” By January 20th, the bills were removed from further voting. The campaign also brought attention to similar bills in other countries such as Anti-Counterfeiting Trademark Agreement (ACTA) and its related protests in Europe.

Kony 2012

Kony 2012 is a short film created by Invisible Children, which went viral with over 100 million views online (YouTube and Vimeo) within one month. The purpose of the film is to promote the charity’s Stop Kony campaign to arrest Joseph Kony, a Ugandan war criminal, by the end of 2012. The film describes the efforts by Invisible Children and the guerrilla tactics of Kony’s rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army. The campaign resulted in a resolution by the US Senate, and a troop commitment by the African union, and calls for a canvassing campaign to take place on April 20th. While the primary ask for most viewers was to get users to share the video, and put up posters promoting Kony 2012, they also created action kits available for purchase to spread awareness through campaign buttons, posters, bracelets and stickers.


23 Slutwalk

Slutwalk is a movement of rallies and protest marches against explanations of rape that blame the victim, particularly, based on the appearance or dress of women. The rallies began in Toronto, Canada in reaction to the statement by a Toronto police officer at a university talk that: “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised”. The original protest drew over 3,000 participants, but quickly spread throughout the world and gained widespread mainstream media coverage. It is usually a march, mostly by women (but open to all), who may either choose to dress ordinarily or in revealing clothing during the event.

Facebook Breast Cancer Awareness

In 2010, female Facebook users sent a chain of messages to each other explaining that for breast cancer awareness, women should post a status update of the colour of the bra they were wearing that day, without publicly explaining the meaning of the post. The reasoning was that the riddle would add fun to something people thought about as a good cause. In the beginning of 2012 a renewed campaign was started, with women sending messages to other women saying they should post a particular status. In this case, it was also for breast cancer awareness, but included a list of months and corresponding locations, with the instruction that women should post “I am going to …. for …. months. The location would be based on the month they were born in, and the amount of time travelled would be based on their date of birth.

Avaaz.org

In a massive victory for anti-corruption campaigners, Brazil’s supreme court has approved the Ficha Limpa (“Clean Sheet”) electoral law, designed to clean up the country’s politics. It bars candidates from standing for election if they have been convicted of an electoral crime in the last eight years (be it votebuying, fraud, or falsifying documents), and bans them permanently if they have been found guilty of a crime by more than one judge. This historic result comes after months of campaigning: more than 2 million signed up to the online campaign, sent messages and called our Congressmen. In the end, it was only passed by one vote in the Supreme Court – and powerful interest groups immediately started a rearguard action to have Ficha Limpa thrown out. The online platform, Avaaz.org, mounted a secondary campaign, raised funds – and got the best lawyers mobilised to make their arguments to the Supreme Court. And they won! The result is a huge win for the Brazilian people – and all democrats who seek cleaner, fairer politics.

Anonymous

Anonymous is a decentralised network of individuals that focuses on promoting acccess to information, free speech, and transparency. The group collaborates to use ‘hactivism’ actions in retaliation to antipiracy campaigns, governments, and in support of anti-corruption movements. They have targeted websites of the government of Zimbabwe, and also took down Tunisian, Egyptian and Syrian government websites during the Arab Spring and hacking into emails of Middle Eastern government officials. They have also gone after neo-nazi websites, child porn sites, the Vatican, the US Department of Justice, Copyright office and FBI in addition to several others.


24 Climate Justice Fast!

Climate Justice Fast! is an international hunger strike that took place November 2nd until Dec 18th, 2009 to raise public awareness of the desperately urgent need for strong action on the climate crisis. It ran ahead of the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, where world leaders gathered for climate talks at the UNFCCC COP15. Fasts took place over periods ranging from a few days to 45 and beyond , including people from 25 countries around the world. They served as a demonstration of the commitment and courage required of all nations and all global citizens if we are to equitably solve climate change.

The European Women’s Lobby

(EWL) 50/50 Campaign for Democracy has been running since September 2008 and is supported by more than 200 prominent personalities in Europe. It aims to put gender equality at the core of European policies and to promote the equal representation of women and men in the European institutions, in particular in the European Parliament. The 50/50 Campaign has newly published a Gender Audit Report of Electoral Lists and Political Programmes, in view of the European elections of 4-7 June 2009. The Gender Audit looks at political programmes and electoral lists for the European elections from a women’s rights perspective. It evaluates the political parties’ commitment to gender equality in view of the European Parliament elections 2009 and encourages voters to be involved in European politics.

PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than 2 million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organisation in the world. PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. They also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other “pests,” and the abuse of backyard dogs. PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns

You Act Online Action Day 2009

Young people from 8 European member countries took part in the Summit Foundation-funded project Youth Advocates in Action, led by YouAct members. The aim of the project is for youth advocates to develop advocacy and campaign messages aimed at potential MEP candidates across Europe, demanding them to include Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Global South as an urgent issue in their political agendas and financial aid plans. Advocates, students, young people, organisations and national decision makers are invited to join their Online Action Day, an interactive platform where they could read the statement, sign their name and voice views on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. A joint European statement had been developed by youth participants from Cyprus, UK, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and others. The statement was sent to potential MEP candidates across Europe in time for the European Elections taking place in June.


25 Earth Hour

Earth Hour is a worldwide event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature held annually on the last Saturday of March. It encourages households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change. The intention is to engage the public in realising that the actions that they take has an impact on the planet. In 2011, more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries switched off their lights for Earth Hour.

Stop Climate Chaos Coalition

Stop Climate Chaos (SCC) is the largest coalition of groups and individuals dedicated to taking action in the UK on climate change and limiting its impacts. With a combined membership of over 11 million the coalition brings together over 100 organisations – from environment and development charities to unions, faith-based groups and women’s groups. Together, they lobby and campaign for political action in the UK to prevent global temperatures rising to the point where catastrophic climate change becomes inevitable. The SCC has campaigned successfully to strengthen the UK Climate Change Bill. The coalition’s attention is now on pushing the UK to Quit Dirty Coal to ensure that we can deliver on the target to reduce emissions, and on delivering a fair global climate deal to keep global temperature rise under 2°C.

Plane Stupid

A network of grassroots groups that take non violent direct action against aviation expansion. They have three demands: (1) End to short haul flights and airport expansion; (2) Stop aviation advertising; and (3) A just transition to sustainable jobs and transport. They came together in 2005 to oppose an aviation industry conference and have been taking action ever since. So far they’ve occupied Stansted, East Midlands, and Aberdeen airports; shut down easyJet and BAA’s headquarters; stopped private jets at Biggin Hill, London City and Edinburgh airports; sat atop the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament; supported the Camp for Climate Action at Heathrow; worked with local residents to defend their homes from the bulldozers; exposed a corporate spy and chucked green custard over Peter Mandelson.

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a worldwide marketing campaign launched in 2004 that includes advertisements, video, workshops, sleepover events and even the publication of a book and the production of a play .The principle behind the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves. A similar ad campaign was launched in the United States and Canada shortly afterward. Dove’s partners in the effort include such marketing and communications agencies as Ogilvy & Mather, Edelman Public Relations, and Harbinger Communications. As part of this campaign, in 2006, Dove started the Dove Self-Esteem Fund that claims to change the Western concept of beauty from ultra-thin models with perfect features to making every girl (and woman) feel positive about her looks, no matter what they are. In an effort to promote the Fund, Dove ordered a series of highly-successful online-based short films promoting the self-esteem concept.


26 ONE Campaign – The “EU Billion” for food and agriculture

In the summer of 2008, President of the European Commission Jose Barroso proposed giving €1 billion of unspent money from the European Union’s budget to farmers in poor countries. In October and November, as the critical moment for this proposal approached, ONE launched a big push in Europe to demonstrate support. The 14,000 signature petition was delivered to President Jose Manuel Barroso’s advisors in Brussels and directly to French Development Minister Alain Joyandet in Strasbourg just a few days before the final budget decision. ONE members throughout Europe also directly emailed their finance ministers, sending over 6,000 emails in a few short weeks. In the end, the European Commission, European Parliament, and European Council agreed to give a full €1 billion for agriculture, of which €760 million is new development assistance at the EU level. EU institutions have already disbursed €300 million of the funds. They are working to ensure this additional money is delivered to the 23 most vulnerable countries, and spent in the most effective ways possible. By the end of 2009, €800 million will have been disbursed to 40 countries.


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part 2: strategising

In this section you’will learn how to: - Identify and understand your issue - Map and analyse your stakeholders - Set goals and create a campaign roadmap - Analyse the overall situation before beginning to plan the details of your campaign


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UNDERSTANDING YOUR ISSUE

I

t is often the case that you or a group of people may have a general issue you want to take action on, or a topic you’re interested in, but have yet to narrow in on a specific action. This might require having an “ideastorm”, then narrowing down the possible options and doing some detailed research on the issues you’ve chosen.

To get started on this in a team setting, there are a couple of activities you could run. One is a visioning exercise. This process is meant to think about what the ideal future would look like. Even if some of the suggestions might seem ‘impossible’ at this stage, the idea is to envision the future we want, and so it is best to try and deter negative comments or criticism during these sessions. This can be a good activity for getting started and deciding what you want to work towards. But from there, you will need to take a step back and do deeper research into the different issues you want to explore. In this section there are a couple of different activities that can get you started on this process.


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WORKSHOP2: VISIONING EXERCISE Time: 1 hour - 90 minutes Objectives: • To create a common goal and inspire participants. • To think about the possibility for change in a positive way. Materials needed: • Pens • Paper • Imagination! Facilitator guidelines: If possible, it is best to have a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere for this workshop. 1.

Have participants close their eyes and think about what you would like your neighbour hood (or community, school or whatever setting is appropriate) to look like in 15 years (or 50 years). (2-5 min)

2.

Divide the participants into groups and provide them with some guiding questions. They can answer these using pictures, sketches, diagrams or short written briefs. (20 min) a. What do they see? b. What do the buildings look like? c. What are the people eating? d. Where are they working? e. How are they travelling? f. How has the natural environment been maintained? g. What kind of energy is used?

Alternatively, divide the participants into groups and assign them each one question or category. Potential categories are: People Housing Schools Businesses Healthcare Crime Transport Environment Community life 3.

Have each person or group (depending on time constraints) make one positive statement in the present tense on how they envision the community in the future. For example, “Transportation is efficient and affordable.” (10 min)

4.

Group the elements of the vision into some common themes. Identify the areas of disagreement, but try to focus on the areas of agreement. (15-20 min)

5.

What are the differences between the current situation and the future they want? What can they do to get there? Imagine you were a resident 50 years ago. Would you have imagined that the current situation was possible then? (10 min)


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WORKSHOP 3: THE WHY PIE Time: 30 minutes Objectives: • Understand why the team has chosen to work on a particular issue. • The “Why Pie” can be used as a preface to a more detailed examination of the issue done through the “Problem Tree.” Materials needed: • Computer • Post-it notes and pens for each participant, and a flipchart Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Have everyone write down 10 reasons why they believe the chosen problem is important and why your team should tackle it. Be sure that they don’t list how they want to address the issue. Just why. If doing this with paper and pens, have each participant write each of their reasons on separate post-its. (5-10 min) 2.

Take up all the reasons and cluster them on a larger sheet of paper. Here you should be able to see how many times people listed the same reasons.

If doing this with a computer, you can use an excel spreadsheet with a projector. Write up each reason and total how many times people listed the same reason. Then just hit the Chart Wizard button to get an instant visual reference of why the people on your team want to work on this campaign. Figure 2.1: The Why Pie Example Example: Campaign for Meat-free Vegetarian dinners in the Canteen Reasons: 1. Saves the Rain-forest – Protects the environment (10 votes) 2. Promotes good health – combats obesity (8 votes) 3. Cheaper! (5 votes) 4. Engenders sustainable behaviour amongst all canteen users (3 votes)


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WORKSHOP 4: THE PROBLEM TREE Time: 90 minutes Objectives: • Understand the problems more deeply, getting to its roots (the why) and its effects (the what). • Choose where they can have a bigger, more effective impact. • Narrow down their ideas for a campaign. Materials needed: • Flipcharts (1 per participant) • Markers (1 per participant) • Handouts 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 • Sample problem tree Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Introduce “the problem tree”. First present an example to the whole group.You can adapt the example provided below (p.33), if you are working on a more specific topic. (10 min) 2.

Participants can work on this activity in groups, pairs or individually. Even if they decide to work on their individual problem tree, divide participants into small groups so they can help each other out. Each participant should have a photocopy of the problem tree or a piece of scrap paper, markers, and the instructions sheet (or have the instructions put up in a visible area). (5 min)

3.

Using the instructions sheet, participants should: (35 min) • Identify their general problem that they are concerned about (5 min) • Try to get to the roots of the tree to examine the deeper causes (10 min) • Reflect on the effects of the problem on the branches of the tree (5 min) • Identify what would be the most effective target on the tree for them to aim at in their advocacy campaign (5 min)

4.

When they are finished working on their trees, encourage discussion within the groups and for them to present their trees to each other. Facilitators or co-facilitators should move around and help out as they are working on their problem tree. (20 min)

5.

Return to larger group. An individual from each group should present their tree. As participants present, have a short discussion about this process or thinking through their problem, effect and causes they are working on. (10-20 min)


32 INSTRUCTIONS

Handout 4.1 The Roots: Why is this a problem? 1. Write in bold problem or issue in the trunk of the tree. Choose general issue like “Gender Inequality” or “Climate Change.” The issues will become more specific later. 2. Brainstorm about the causes of main problem. Ask why this happens and try and find two possible reasons. Each time, keep asking “why” until you can go no further. These causes should be drawn in as the roots of the tree, going deeper each time you ask “why”.You may want to write them down as post-it notes so you can move them around later. The Branches: What are the effects of the problem? 3. Looking at the causes, think about the effects of each. These can be on the environment, economic or social life. Add these as branches to the tree. Also ask about the higher- level consequences of each effect. As with the causes, you may want to write them in on post-it notes so you can move them around. What can I do? 4. Draw a vertical line in the middle of a piece of paper to make two columns. On one side you will have a list of problems you can’t solve, either because you currently lack the skills, capacity, or resources that make achieving your goal unrealistic in the near future. On the other side, write down those issues that you can solve and the possible ways you would. From there you can start to think about the focus of your project, and the strategies and activities you will use. You might decide that you are addressing the cause or effect of a problem. Either is ok, but remember that: •

A cause gets to the root of the problem. By addressing a cause, you hope to stop the problem from being created in the first place. Solving the cause, can take a long time and often involves many years of work or advocacy. e.g. If “Food Insecurity” is your main issue, conducting workshops on methods of sustainable agriculture farming might be a possible intervention.

An effect addresses the consequences of a problem. These are often short-term “band-aid solutions.” However, it may also include providing necessary services to people while the deeper causes are being solved.

e.g. With the same problem of “Food Insecurity” an effect might be hunger. By providing food aid, you are immediately solving the issue of hunger, but it does not provide sustainable and lasting solutions over the long-term.


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EXAMPLE Handout 4.2

Early marriage

Effects
 
 Gender-based domestic violence

Boys/men feel superior

GENDER INEQUALITY Problem

Social factors

Cultural factors

State does not actively promote equal education

Causes

Attending schools is expensive/ working brings income

Economic factors

Different expectations for boys/girls

Boys will be the workers


34 Worksheet: The Problem Tree

Handout 4.2

Effects

Problem

Causes


35

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

B

efore undertaking your project or campaign, it is important to identify who you need to consider in your planning and who you should be working with. These are your stakeholders, the individuals or groups that have an interest or concern in your project. This includes people who will benefit directly or indirectly, and outsiders who might influence the direction or success of your initiative. It is just as important to understand the target group (those directly benefiting from project activities) and their needs and expectations, as it is to understand outsiders and how their opinions can influence your work. Make sure to remember people who might be negatively impacted by your plans and what their opposition might mean for your work. To help you think about who some of your stakeholders might be, ask yourself the following questions: • What are the relevant groups of organisations? • Who is the relevant contact person within the organisation? • Why might they be interested in your work? • What is their stake in the issue? What is their position on it? • How could they have an impact or affect on your work? This section will provide several ways to think about how to do and present a stakeholder analysis. It is not necessary to complete every activity in this section. Simply choose one or two that make the most sense for your project team.

Road to Rio+20 Partners Meeting at Peace Child International, January 2011 (Christopher Cordova)


36

WORKSHOP 5: ALLIES AND OPONENTS Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour

Objectives: • Represent the findings of a stakeholder analysis in the form of a diagram. Materials needed: • Paper (1 per participant) • Markers/pens (1 per participant) Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Draw the following table on a large sheet of paper. 2. Divide participants into groups or pairs. Ask them to think of all the actors who are involved or have an interest in the issue you are trying to address and write them down on separate post-it notes. This can include people that may be positively or negatively affected by your project. 3.

Tell them to place the stakeholders where you think they stand on the chart. Discuss what stakeholders people wrote and why they were placed in certain spots. Check to see if different groups wrote the same individual but put them in different places.

4.

Keep the matrix and move around the post-its as stakeholders’ positions change over time.You might also have new stakeholders that appear.

Figure 2.2: Allies & Opponents Matrix


37

WORKSHOP 6: POWER ANALYSIS Time: 30 minutes

Objectives: • Analyse the different actors influencing or affected by their campaigns. • Understand power, influence and decision-making. Materials needed: • Paper (1 per participant) • Markers/pens (1 per participant) • Sample power analysis pyramid • Optional: Handout 6.1 Figure 2.3: Power Analysis Facilitator Guidelines: 
 1. Divide participants into groups. Ask them to think of all the actors who are involved Funders/ Sponsors or have an interest in the issue you are trying to address and write them down. Media This might include people who will be Local positively or negatively affected by your government Partner project. organizations/ Project Optional: Time permitting, you may ask networks Participants Team participants to fill out Handout 6.1 before moving onto the next step (or use the You might notice that while some actors may handout as an alternative activity).

exert quite a lot of influence over your initiative, they might not be directly affected by the actions you take. Likewise, people directly benefiting from your project or initiative may have very little power to affect major decisions, but may be very important or closely related to your project.

2.

Tell each group to draw a large triangle (or a “pyramid”) on a blank piece of paper.

3.

Inside the pyramid write the names of the different stakeholders, placing them in the pyramid relative to their ability to influence policy or action on the chosen issue. Those with less power should be near the bottom of the pyramid. Those with more power should be at the top of the pyramid.You might have some people that you decide to put in the middle.

4.

Next, draw a circle around the stakeholder name. Draw a circle around the name of each stakeholder to indicate how much or little influence they exert. Draw a larger circle for those stakeholders who may be more directly affected or impacted by your initiative. Draw smaller circles for those who your project has less of an impact.

5.

Have each group share their work and discuss the differences and similarities between groups.

6.

Optional: Handout 6.1 can be used to conduct the same activity but without a visual representation.


38 Worksheet: Stakeholders Analysis

Handout 6.1

Instructions

1.

Think of all the actors who are involved or have an interest in the issue you are trying to address and write them down. List them in the chart provided.

2.

Score each stakeholder on the following characteristics.You can do this by highlighter or circling around the relevant number or letter in the chart. • Agreement: How much they agree with your position on a scale from -3 (strongly disagree) to +3 (strongly agree) and 0 (undecided or neutral position). • Importance: How important the issue is to them on a scale of L (low), M (medium), and H (high). • Influence: What level of influence they have on a scale of L (low), M (medium), and H (high). Stakeholders

Agreement

Importance

Influence

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H

-3

-2

-1

0

+1
 +2
 +3

L

M

H

L

M

H


39

WORKSHOP 7: INFLUENCING STAKEHOLDERS Time: 30 minutes

Objectives: Determine how to contact and influence various stakeholders.

Materials needed: • Paper (1 per participant) • Markers/pens (1 per participant) Facilitator Guidelines: 1. This activity is a follow-up from Allies & Opponents or Power Analysis workshop to get participants thinking about how they will manage their stakeholders. 2.

Using their list of stakeholders, fill out the following chart to determine how you will target each person, group or organisation. The first row in this table is an example. Figure 2.4: Stakeholders table How to Stakeholder
 contact the them

Their position on your issue
 Negative

How to influence them

Member of Parliament

Write a letter, petition

Constituent feelings, party opinion

Their decisionmaking process
 In parliament

Who do they listen to?
 Constituents


40

GOAL-SETTING

O

nce you have begun to think about the vision for your campaign and some of the deeper issues on your topic, it’s time to start thinking about how to set some goals for your campaign. By setting goals in the planning stage, you will create a clearer vision of what your campaign sets out to do. In this section we will ask you to start simple, and start thinking about the broader purpose of your campaign. In the next section, we will go over how to create specific objectives and targets to ensure that you stay on track.

  Brainstorming action ideas at the Road to Rio+20 Partners Meeting in NYC, November 2011 (Sonya Silva)


41

WORKSHOP 8: CREATING A ROADMAP Time: 1 - 2 hours

Objectives: • Identify problems and define goals that will help in designing an action plan for their campaigns. • Analyse root causes of problems and reflect on which factors will enable you to achieve their goals. Materials needed: • Flipcharts (1 per participant) • Markers (1 per participant) • 5 pieces of paper (or 5 half sheets) per participant • Handouts 7.1, 7.2 Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Participants will be given a set of 5 papers. Write out in a visible space the instructions for each piece of paper (see handout 7.1). If participants have already completed the problem tree and the visioning exercise, the work from these activities can be used to aid participants to speed up this activity (paper 1 and 5 respectively). 2.

Participants are divided into pairs or groups and given a set of papers numbered from 1 to 5. If not already labeled they should label their papers 1 to 5. Participants can fill in the papers in the order they choose, but it is recommended that they leave paper 3 last in order to see the gap between their issue and the solution. (30 min – 1 hour)

3.

When completed, have the participants discuss their roadmaps in a larger group. (20 min)

4. Optional: If time permits, review the case study included in this section. The purpose of this activity is to determine whether are their roadmaps appropriate/relevant to the problem. (10 min)


42 Instruction

Handout 8.1 
 1. Brainstorm about the problems and challenges related to their chosen subject. 2. Reflect on the barriers and what causes the problems identified in paper 1. 3. How they can bridge the gap between the barriers and solution? 4. What are the tools and strategies that could enable the ideal solution? 5. What does the ideal solution for the problems in paper 1 look like? 
 
 Paper 5: Ideal Solution • What does the future look like? • What is your vision? • Where do you want to go?

Paper 4: Strategies • What will help you to reach your goals? • What needs to happen? • Who can help you?

Paper 3: Actions • What are you going to do? • How?

Paper 2: Root of the Problem • What creates your problems? • Who is responsible? • Why is it happening?

Paper 1: Current Situation • What is the problem? • What is happening?


43 Case study: Deciding on your means of action

Handout 8.2 A youth organisation in Europe decided to conduct a project addressing the mentality among citizens that their nation is poor. To do this they proposed: Our nation is now a member of the European Union and has moved from being a recipient of overseas development aid to becoming a donor. Many don’t like this as they think of us as a poor country. Students too are not even aware that their nation is now a net contributor of development aid. This is the attitude that we are setting out to change. Our first project is to distribute pens to young people living in the poorest parts of the world. Every day, students lose pens or lend them not expecting to get them back. That is the level of their affluence: by getting them to donate their pens to young people living in Darfur or a slum in India, they get to recognise their comparative affluence. To date, we have collected 1500 pens and sent them to schools and orphanages in Cambodia, Vietnam and the Sudan. This project will set up a website encouraging students to donate more pens - and track their delivery to schools and orphanages in the neediest parts of the world. In this way, young people in developing countries will get pens to help them in their school work, and young people here will learn that tens of thousands of young people are less well off than they are. 1. 2. 3. 4.

What was the reason for this project? What were their proposed actions to address this problem? Do these activities directly address the problem described? Are the activities the most efficient and effective way of handling the problem? What might be some of the consequences associated with the solutions they have outlined?

ANSWERS The aim was to make people in the comparatively poor European country focus on their advantages, be aware of others needs and thus be willing to give further support to impoverished communities. If they had established the fact that pens or crayons were indeed wanted, then this act, even though it is quite small could be a way of creating awareness and friendship between groups. 2. The project aimed to address the problem by organizing a project in which they collect donations of pens for developing country nations. 3. Collecting pens and sending pens abroad, while a tangible activity that students can engage in the school, is likely not the best means of development education and awareness. How would collecting pens, increase knowledge and awareness about global inequities? 4. Collecting and sending pens abroad from the school’s perspective, might initially start some discussions about lower income countries, or even be paired with workshops and lessons. Their approach raises many questions: Do they know if the places they are sending the pens to actually need or want the pens? Why do they assume that the places they are sending the pens to need or want the pens? If they already have pens, what is the point of sending them more? Would this not be a waste of money and time? Might it also contribute to a sense of dependency and reliance on donor handouts? What is lacking in terms of needs assessment? 1. The stated reason behind the project was to change attitudes of young people and within the country about their perceptions of being a poor country.


44

WORKSHOP 9: ACTION STORMING Source: This activity is adapted from the “Action Storming” strategy activity from Training for Change. www.trainingforchange.org/action_storming

Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour

Objectives: Identify actions that will help your team achieve its vision. Materials needed: • Paper • Pens Facilitator Guidelines: 1. On the top of a piece of paper, write the overall vision or goal for the group. 2.

On the same piece of paper, describe the current situation.

3.

If there are more than 10 participants, divide them into two groups, and create the sheet with the vision and current situation for each group.

4.

Explain to the participants what you have written on the sheet. Their goal will be to collectively create a story on the page with actions to help them achieve the overall vision of the group. Each person should think about the actions they want to take to achieve the group’s goals.

5.

Give the sheet to the first person who is ready to write the action they want to take. Have them pass it to the right or left when they have finished.

6.

Everyone should have a chance to write at least one action, but it is better if it can go around 3 or more times to have as many actions as possible.

7.

Read through the “story” the group has created. What stands out? How was it?


45

SITUATION ANALYSIS

T

his second part of the toolkit should have helped you to identify the goals that you want to reach and the different stakeholders that may be involved in your advocacy campaign. With this bigger picture in mind, your next step is to analyse the situation deeply and consider the various factors that can affect your campaign goals.

These might be internal or external forces that are unfavourable or supportive to your campaign. For this reason you need to think about both how people outside your campaign will influence it and how your team is armed to meet all the challenges ahead. In this section we provide the SWOT analysis method to help you measure your project’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. By going through this, you can get a better idea of what your capacity is, what possibilities lie ahead, and how to plan for the future. This tool will highlight which strategy is the most effective regarding your goals and the current situation. And it will be the starting point of your action plan.

WORKSHOP 10: SWOT/BEEM ANALYSIS Time: 1 hour

Objectives: • Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the project team. • Develop a strategy to build on your group’s strengths and reduce its weaknesses. Materials needed: • Flipcharts (1 per participant) • Markers (1 per participant) • Handout 10.1 & 10.2

Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Introduce the SWOT/BEEM matrix (5 min) 2.

Conduct the SWOT activity for their organisation/project team in relation to their proposed project. (30 min)

3.

Discuss the SWOT in groups. (5 min)


46 Instructions A SWOT analysis is used to help you measure your project’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. By going through this, you can get a better idea of what your current capacity is, what possibilities lie ahead, and how to plan for the future. 1.

List all the current strengths and weaknesses. Evaluating strengths and weaknesses requires a reflection and analysis of the things that you need to think about within your organisation.

2.

List all the opportunities and threats that may lie ahead. These are often external issues, that may come up as issues presented by stakeholders, donors, or the general public.

3.

Compare the two sections. Plan how you will address each of the four areas using the “BEEM” technique: B: How will you build on your strengths? E: How will you eliminate your weaknesses? E: How will you exploit your opportunities? M: How will you minimise your threats?

Handout 10.1

EXAMPLE “We were a small group of students who set up a radical alternative newspaper at our university, called The Radish, to allow different voices to be heard. It was a steep learning curve, including writing, editing, layout, publishing and distribution, but the final product was a success (albeit a short-lived one). Here is an analysis of our strengths and weaknesses…” Steven Heywood, UK

External issues

Internal issues

Strengths Operates on a low budget. Flexible in length and timing.

Build Ensure high quality content.

Weaknesses Little experience. No money.

Eliminate Secure income source. Find experienced people to help. Learn by doing.

Opportunities Fulfils a need. Popular web forum.

Exploit User-generated content.

Threats Opposition from the student union. Small team of final year students.

Minimise Recruit younger team members. Discuss problems with opposition.


These are often internal issues. These are often external issues.

47 Worksheet: The SWOT/BEEM Matrix

Handout 10.2

S – Strengths List all the current strengths. How can you build on them?

List all the current weaknesses.

W – Weaknesses How can you eliminate them?

O – Opportunities T – Threats List all possibilities or How can you exploit them? List all the potential future How can you minimize potential future strengths. weaknesses. them?


48

part 3: planning your campaign In this section you’will learn how to: - Create a resultschain for your campaign - Plan and schedule your campaign activities - Design a plan for monitoring and evaluation - Assess your campaign risks - Create a budget and explore fundraising strategies


THE RESULT CHAIN

49

T

he results-chain is a project management tool that helps you understand the different levels of goals and targets in your project, and how they build onto one another. The results-chain visually demonstrates the flow between inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts. It tells us how lower level results like outputs, contribute to higher accomplishments, or longer-term ones, such as your impact. We have illustrated the results-chain here, in the form of a pyramid to demonstrate how they connect to each other. Figure 3.1: The Results-Chain as a Pyramid

 

Inputs/Resources: At the base of the pyramid are the inputs or resources that are needed in order to conduct the project. The resources are at the base or foundation of your project, because without them, you will not be able to complete your activities. Activities: The activities are at the next level of the pyramid as they provide the stepping-stone to the first level of results, your outputs. When talking about activities, we are referring to the planned actions that take place through the use of inputs to produce outputs. Conducting activities requires inputs, the direct resources (e.g. staff time, capacity, volunteers, money, equipment, technology, materials) that must be invested to carry out planned activities. Outputs: Outputs are the products or services immediately resulting from an activity that has taken place. Outputs typically contribute to a few outcomes, the medium-term results that you intend to achieve by the end of your project. Outcomes: Outcomes are a higher level of results on the pyramid, because they are a little bit harder to achieve. They are the medium-term effects achieved through the implementation of project activities. Depending on the length of the project they can reflect a change in awareness, knowledge or behaviour. Because outcomes may signal a change that depends on the behaviour or attitudes of participants, you will have less control over whether or not these take place.


50 Impact: At the top of the pyramid is the impact, or larger goal that you are intending to contribute to. Impacts are the long-term cumulative effect of various projects and programmes in the project area. Monitoring and evaluating these are more difficult as impacts may occur 5-10 years later. They relate back to the overall aim or objective of your project.You may not get to the top of the pyramid yourself or even be able to measure the change at this level. The impacts that take place in a community where projects occur may take years to become evident, and are often because of multiple initiatives (such as yours and the ones of your peers) taking place. As seen by the shape of the pyramid, you will probably have multiple or many activities and outputs. These activities then contribute to fewer outcomes that finally result in one or two main impacts. Try to avoid having activities and outputs that do not contribute towards achieving your outcomes and impacts.

Making Objectives SMART When thinking about your goals, often referred to as the “results” your project will bring about, you might hear that they should be “SMART.” This means that they should be: Specific

Detailed and well-defined. Objectives should tell you what you are going to do, who is involved, when it will be done, how it will be done and why you want to do it. They describe changes that result in a specific future condition.

Measurable

Indicators are used to measure and assess the achievement of results. Thus you should be able to measure progress by the achievement of your objectives. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

Achievable

While the overall goal or aim (impact) may be beyond the reach of the project, the project objectives (outcomes) should be obtainable by the end of the project.

Realistic

Not only do objectives need to be achievable, but you must also have the capacity and resources in order to make them happen.

Time-bound

Projects will not carry-on forever, you need to have deadlines for when activities will occur and objectives that you can expect to be achieved.


51

WORKSHOP 11: BUILDING A PYRAMID OF RESULTS Time: 45 min

Objectives: Practice your knowledge of the different types of results. This activity builds on information from the Roadmap and Action Storming. Materials needed: • Handouts 11.1, 11.2 (one per group) • Scissors (one per group) • Glue (one per group) Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Divide participants into groups. Read through the case study with everyone. Provide handouts to each group. (10 min) 2.

Tell participants to look through the different results in the boxes on handout 12.2. Participants should cut out the boxes and stick them onto the level of results where they think it fits on the pyramid. Is it an impact, outcome, output, activity or input? Use the chart and it’s guiding questions to decide where to move the boxes. (25 min)

3.

Take up the answers and discuss any discrepancies. (10 min)

Be the Change! Sponsored project, Un Vagon Hermoso in Buenos Aires, Argentina


52 Case study: Un Vagon Hermoso

Handout 11.1 Un Vagon Hermoso, or A Beautiful Wagon, was a Peace Child, Be the Change (BTC) sponsored project. The project was about restoration of a railcar in a rural suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina where the railway yards had closed and led to increased unemployment and degradation of the built and natural environment. The aim of the organisation running the project, Ecoclubus, was to use the arts to mobilise the community for social change through a “Moving Cinema” that would take place in the restored railway car. However, despite having set their objectives and activities around the mobile cinema, they soon realised that they would have to revise their project activities: The Mayor agreed to the donation of the railway car; the Be the Change grant was used to buy a projector— but there were all kinds of problems—getting the power supply to the railway car, getting the car to be waterproof, and secure to store the projector. So, when the volunteer teams came down, we started on the restoration—but spent most of the time doing trainings and mobilization sessions in a local school.The people that came to these sessions learned craft skills: blanket making, carving, painting, etc. and many came out to help with the restoration of the railway car.We had a major problem in that the projector we bought broke down in the first week—so our planned schedule of movies through the summer could not happen. We now plan for a season of movies next summer.The wagon is now officially open and the main meeting place for the Ecoclubus group, it is the first Youth Centre in our town.

This project story describes how even though everything had not gone exactly according to plan, the group were able to adapt, adjust, learn and honestly report about what had happened in their project. By recognising the problems early on, they could modify their project activities and strategies to continue to work towards their overall goal.

Figure 3.2: From Inputs to Impacts What will be the long-term effects of the project? What goal is the project trying to contribute to?

Impact

How does this relate to the problem you are trying to solve in the longterm?

What are the medium-term results What is the medium-term effect of the Outcomes
 that will occur? Outcomes will often outputs? How do the outputs happen because of a combination contribute towards achieving project of outputs and their activities.
 goals?
 What are the immediate results of the actions you will take? These are the products, services or trainings that you provide. 
 What actions do you need to take to achieve your goals? 
 What resources (human, financial, etc.) will you need to carry out your project? Try to estimate the costs.

Outputs

What is the immediate result of having completed the activity?

Activities

What will you do?

Inputs

What do you need?


WORKSHEET: Building the Pyramid

Handout 12.2

53


9

10

Increased community awareness and proposed solutions to local environmental problems.

Appoint a facilitator for each screening to discuss the film with attendees.

6

5

Publish and distribute monthly news pieces on project activities.

2

Materials: Projector, computers, DVDs, stationary and art materials, tables, chairs and windows

Films screened to the community on a monthly basis.

1

Young people provided with a space to discuss, learn and identify solutions to problems in their community.

3

7

11

Community aware of the transformation of the local space and activities being held.

Development of young leaders that are capable and engaged with improving their community.

Discussions held about community problems.

4

8

12

Human resources: Project managers, artists, trainers, volunteers

Railway car restored and turned into a comfortable, engaging community space.

Restore the railway car.

54 WORKSHEET: Building the Pyramid

Handout 11.2


 

Materials: Projector, computers, DVDs, stationary and art materials, tables, chairs and windows.

12 Human resources: Project managers, artists, trainers, volunteers

2

 

Building a Pyramid of Results (Answers)

55

For the faciilitator


56

WORKSHOP 12: STEPPING STONES While the previous activity focuses on developing the overall structure and longer-term goals of your project, this activity encourages you to think about some of the main activities you will need to conduct and how they will be completed in order to achieve your outputs.

Source: This activity is adapted from “Paper Plate Challenge” strategy activity from Training for Change: www.trainingforchange.org/paper_plate_challenge

Time: 1 - 2 hours

Objectives: To build the steps towards achieving the overall goal of the project or campaign.

Materials needed: • Paper plates (5-6 per group, have extras available) • Markers/pens (1 per group) • A spacious room


57 Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Write up the vision or overall goal and put it in the middle of the room. Use a fun object to represent the collective goal. 2.

Divide participants into groups of 4-5. Make sure they spread out to different corners of the room. (5 min)

3.

Give each group 5-6 paper plates (with more available if necessary). The groups should write down different results (outputs and outcomes) on each paper plate. Use one paper plate for materials needed. (45 min)

e.g. For a campaign with a goal of having compost facilities available in dorm rooms outcomes could be: a. Meeting held with student council. b. Article published in student newspaper at least once a month. c. Notices and flyers sent to 500 dorms. d. 1000 signatures collected from students through online and paper petitions.

4.

The paper plates should then be laid out in the order they need to be accomplished to reach the vision in the middle. (10 min)

5.

Take up the outcomes the group wrote up. Debrief what makes “SMART” goals. Think about how these fit into a “Pyramid of Results.” (15 min)

6.

Looking back at workshop 12, have participants use their work to fit the outcomes and outputs into their own results pyramid. (20 min)

Figure Stepping Stones Example Figure3.3: 3.3: Stepping Stones Example


58

WORKSHOP 13: ACTION PLANNING Time: 1 hour

Objectives: To plan the specific details of how you will implement your advocacy strategy.

Materials needed: • Paper (1 per participant) • Markers/pens (1 per participant) • Handouts 13.1, 13.2 Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Using the work from previous workshops (e.g. Roadmap [Workshop 8], Action Storming and/or Stepping Stones—Workshops 8, 9 and 13 respectively) have participants fill out the Action Planning worksheet (Handout 14.1).

Figure 3.4: Action Planning Table Example

An activity plan outlines the specific actions you will take, when they will take place, the resources needed, and who is responsible for carrying them out. The following example, outlines the tasks needed to be carried out in order to develop a workbook with lesson plans on sustainable development.

Activities Research existing materials.

Start Date Feb

End Date Mar

Person Responsible or Contacts Needed Education manager, intern

Draft lessons.

Mar

Apr

Education manager, intern

Test lessons with schools and reviewers. Design workbook

Apr

May

Apr

May

Education manager, School and teacher contacts Designer, intern

Publish and make available online

June

June

Intern

Resources needed Staff time, admin costs, internet, computers Staff time, admin costs, internet, computers Printing, transport to visit schools InDesign software, computers Internet, computer, printers

2. After completing the activity planning worksheet, you can move onto creating a Gantt chart for your project. See the example in this section for more information.


 

Activities

Start Date

End Date

Person Responsible or Contacts Needed Resources needed

WORKSHEET: Acitivity Planning

59

Handout 13.1


60 Handout 13.2

EXAMPLE: Gantt Chart

A Gantt chart will help you visually to plot out the schedule of activities you need to accomplish throughout your project. It is useful for planning as it allows you to: • See if you are trying to accomplish too many activities at the same time; • See where delays might occur; • Monitor progress, and make sure activities are being delivered on time; and • Ensure the coordination of all activities; The following example provides a detailed outline of the different activities and the times planned for developing the workbook in the example from the activity planning worksheet.

Activities/Timing

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sep

Research existing internal educational materials on sustainable development.
 Research existing external educational materials on sustainable development.
 Draft lesson plans.

Test lessons with schools and external reviewers.

Design the workbook.

Publish and make available online.

Promote to various school and youth networks.

Conduct survey to get workbook feedback.

Red = Planning activities, Green = Activity implementation, Blue = Evaluation activities When creating your own Gantt chart, it is a good idea to start with the month or week in which your project begins.


61

MONITORING & EVALUATION

I

n advocacy, monitoring and evaluation is important not only in order to respond to funder requirements, but the evidence you collect about your issue can be a particularly powerful campaign tool to help you influence policy makers, motivate campaigners and attract supporters to your cause. It’s important to evaluate not just so you know what results your campaign has achieved, but also to monitor the situation and to demonstrate the need for change. In this section you’ll learn about how to plan to do monitoring and evaluation before starting your initiative. If you do this while you are planning your activities and goals, this will save you time and effort down the road.

What is monitoring and evaluation?

• •

Monitoring involves continuously collecting, counting, recording and analysing information from a project in order to check that you are accomplishing what you said you would. By identifying issues facing your project as they arise, you can make appropriate changes to your activities and project plans early on. It is important that monitoring is done in a planned, organised and routine way. Evaluation is also a process of collecting and analysing information, but it is done periodically to ask questions like “how” and “why” that take an in-depth look at the impacts of a project. By evaluating, we can check to see whether or not the stated objectives and goals have been achieved. Often, the information that is collected from monitoring contributes to evaluation.

Why do we need to do M&E? • • •

Accountability: Tracking the implementation of activities and projects and show stakeholders that you are effective in your work. Learning: Collecting information to assess efficiency and relevance of activities and projects. Improvement: Providing information to adapt and adjust activities and projects.

Questions to ask:

• • •

• •

Monitoring Are the activities being carried out as planned? Are the activities appropriate? What is the project doing? For whom? For how often and how long? Where? Are the intended participants engaged in the project? Do we need to make changes in the project’s daily operations?

• • • • •

Evaluation Are the project goals and objectives being achieved? What changes need to be made to the project’s strategy? Are resources being used efficiently? What difference did the project make? What have we learned for future projects?


62 Staying on Track

When defining what your results will be, you will also need to keep in mind how you plan to measure or track how these results are being achieved. Indicators provide well-defined information that allows you to measure and demonstrate that something has happened or a change has occurred. You’ll use your indicators as a signpost of whether or not you have accomplished what you set out to do. Indicators can include both qualitative and quantitative information about the activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts during or after their implementation. Qualitative information is descriptive, and answers questions of how or why something has happened. It is often represented by words, images or objects. They reflect attitudes, beliefs and motives of individuals, in terms of quality, extent or levels of results attained. Quantitative information is represented by numbers or statistics and answers questions of how many or how much through numbers, percentages, rates and ratios. Before selecting which tools to use to collect data about your campaign, it’s important to understand the different types of data. It is often best to use a combination of both the qualitative and quantitative where possible. They are described in the chart below: Qualitative vs. Quantitative? Quantitative data Allows us to numerically measure concerns of who, what, when, where, how much, how many and how often.

Qualitative data Provides a deeper understanding about questions of how and why.

Uses

Drawbacks

Examples

Testing statistical relationships between a problem and possible causes.

Precise, but may not measure what is needed.

surveys, records

Establish baselines and provide comparative data.

Cannot explain context and underlying scenarios.

Useful when you already know what you know exactly what you are looking for Useful when planning Can be projects involving social and problematic behavioural change. because it is harder to make Qualitative data sets the generalizations. context and situation that brings meaning to Can be more quantitative information. prone to bias from the interviewers or It is useful for obtaining participants. stakeholder feedback on project implementation and explore issues that you may not have thought or realized before.

Participatory Rural (or Rapid) Appraisal (PRA), community mapping, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observation


63 Creating SMART Indicators Generally it is better to have fewer indicators. As you wouldn’t try to conduct more activities than you can handle, you shouldn’t try to collect more information than you are able to. Data collection and analysis is costly and time-consuming. Do a few of these right rather than setting up too many indicators and then getting overwhelmed trying to follow-up on all of them! We described how to make your results “SMART”. Likewise, your indicators should also be “SMART”! When creating SMART indicators, ask yourself the following questions:

Specific Measurable

Do you clearly state what you will be measuring?

Achievable Relevant Time-bound

Do you have the necessary resources to measure the indicator?

What methodologies or data collection techniques will you use to measure your indicator? How does it relate to the project goals and objectives? Can you expect this change to occur in the timeframe of the project?

Do’s and don’ts of identifying indicators!

Do
 Make your indicators relevant. You need to be able to collect and manage data which can be expensive and time-consuming. Try to be creative. If there are standardized indicators you are referring to, try and adapt them to meet your projects’ needs. Think about how about the cause-effect relationship between your project and its outcome and impact indicators. How can you show that your project activities are bringing about the changes occurring? How do they relate to the baseline? Be SMART. Remember indicators should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Think about diversity. How are you dividing your data by gender, age, ethnicity or other differences in the target group?

• •

Don’t
 Try to create too many indicators. Only collect the data that is necessary to measure your results. Copy and paste indicators because they are ‘industry standard.’ Make sure your indicators are relevant to your project and results. Emphasize output indicators. It is important to demonstrate that you have completed your work, but these do not demonstrate change as outcome and impact indicators do. Be vague. Remember to be SMART! Avoid complexity. While indicators should be SMART, you should be able to collect, analyze and interpret the data you will use.

Remember: Outputs are the products or services immediatly resulting from an activity that has taken place during your project. Outputs typically contribute to a few outcomes, the medium-term results that you intend to achieve by the end of your project. Because outcomes may signal a change that depends on the behaviour or attitudes of participants, you will have less control over whether or not these are achieved.


64

Planning an Evaluation As we already mentioned, throughout your campaign you should be collecting information about the activities you are achieving. This is monitoring. How you then use and analyse this data will be your evaluation. It is important to evaluate during, and at the end of your project to identify what worked or did not work, and how to improve in the future. 1.

Your first step in planning your evaluation will be decide on the aims of the evaluation, and who it is for. Some aspects of the project you might want to investigate are: • Relevance: How well does the intended project’s goals and objectives relate to the identified problems in the community? • Effectiveness: To what extent are changes occurring as a result of activities and strategies in this project? • Efficiency: How well are the resources and inputs being used to achieve the planned results? • Impact: In addition the changes that have been planned, what unintentional changes have occurred because of the project’s presence? • Sustainability: How likely are the changes brought about by the project likely to continue after the project’s end?

These are some guiding questions, however you need to determine what specific questions you will ask about the project based on your project’s outcomes and the indicators you set out. 2.

Once you have an idea about what you want to find out, you need to think about how you will collect information. We’ve included a chart in this section that lists various forms of data collection to help you decide what might work best for you. In the “Evaluation Activities” section at the end of this toolkit we’ve added some tips for carrying out evaluation activities.

3.

Decide how you will analyse the information you collect. There’s no use in asking questions if you won’t be able to turn the answers into useful information. And be sure you know how you will know how to make sense of the data you get back.

4.

Once you’ve planned out the evaluation, you need to determine what resources you will need in order to conduct the evaluation.You might need to print forms, have a camera available for photographs and video.You need to factor in the time taken by your activity plan, as the costs into your budget.

5.

Determine who will be responsible for collecting the information and how often this needs to be done.

6.

Analyse the data, and figure out what it tells you about your campaign.

7.

Communicate the results to your team and project stakeholders. Did you accomplish what you set out to do? What did you learn? How will you do better in the future?


65

WORKSHOP 14: PLANNING MONITORING & EVALUATION Campaigners might face some particular challenges in monitoring and evaluation. It can be difficult to determine what causes change, and hard to measure results against objectives that are not clear from the outset. A good campaign should be sure to have a sound reasoning, understanding of power dynamics and an idea of the opportunities and obstacles facing them. For these reasons, it will be important that you have already worked through the previous sections of this toolkit, and completed a “Pyramid of Results” for your own project. Time: 1 hours

Objectives: Create a framework for monitoring and evaluating your initiative. Materials needed: • Paper (1 per participant) • Markers/pens (1 per participant) • Participants’ completed of “Pyramid of Results” • Handout 14.1 Instructions 1. Fill out the first column of M&E table worksheet according to the example in the chart. To begin, fill it out using the results for your project from the “Building a Pyramid Results Activity.” 2.

Move onto the second column of the M&E table. Creating indicators will answer the question, “How will I know if I have achieved my goals?” It should basically be your objective but in past tense—and it should be just as SMART as your objective (including specifics like numbers, timelines and locations).

3.

Fill out the rest of the table following the examples. The rest of the table is intended to get you thinking about how you will do the monitoring and evaluation of your project, and your plans for data collection. Included is an additional page on various data collection methods.

Notes on indicators: Don’t be too worried about not hitting all your targets. Especially at the “outcome” and “impact” levels, which often measure behavioural and long-term change and where it is harder for your activities to have a direct impact.You might realise during your campaign that your objectives are not realistic, and that targets need to be adjusted. This is okay, especially in advocacy campaigns where the goals might not be 100% clear in the beginning. It is through regularly measuring information that you can make these adjustments earlier on, rather than feeling like you have ‘failed’ at the end of the project!


 

Outputs Support the organization of 10 regional/national youth meetings to create 10 youth statements on Rio+20.

Outcomes Mobilize a movement of empowered young people and youth organizations that take action on issues of sustainable development.

Impacts Influence the outcomes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) through the ideas of young people.

What is the goal?

Results/Goals

Registration records Observation

10 regional/national youth statements on Rio+20.

Mid and end of project evaluation Survey

Social media statistics

Follow-up questionnaire to participants about their participation

Data collection How will you collect information about your indicator?

2,000 participants in youth meetings.

Increase coalition partners to 100. Organize activities that collectively have an impact on 100,000 young people around the world.

Present a global youth position paper in the Rio+20 process with contributions from 1,000 young people and 100 signatory organizations.

Key things that you need to measure your progress.

Indicator

Every 2 months

Every 2 months

End of project

How often do you need to collect information?

Timing

Hosting partner organizations

Project records

Project partners

Regional focal points

Project Director

Project records

Rio+20 outcomes document

Where would you find the data? What is your source?

Verification

Project Director

Project Director

Who will organise the data collection?

Responsibility

Trips to youth meetings

Trips to project events

Survey software Web hosting

Trip to Rio for the conference.

What will you need to do this? What do you need to budget for?

Resources

Quality of records

Direct impact of the work

Late or poor quality reports from partners

Subjective and based on youth participants view

What are the risks in the quality of data?

Risks

66 EXAMPLE: Monitoring & Evaluation Plan

Handout 14.1


Surveys/questionnaires Surveys involve collecting specific types of information from a defined group of people, or “population.”

Observation Observations can be useful for guiding and creating questions for future interviews or when data indicates that there may be implementation problems or results are not being accomplished.

Data collection method
 Written Document Review Reading and analysing written documents providing history and context to the project.

Informal small-scale sample survey: smaller, nonrandom purposeful selection of people in different categories who are asked a few questions.

Larger surveys should be avoided as they are expensive and time-consuming.

Formal large-scale sample survey: done with a random, representative group that allows one to make generalizations about the entire population.

Participant observation involves spending time and interacting as a participant in the target community. Can be time-consuming, but may also be a part of a field worker’s job. Census: includes everyone to be possibly surveyed. A Governmental census can be a good source of information when looking for some basic baseline data.

Statistical data review specifically focuses on looking at population censuses, research studies, and other sources of statistical data.
 Direct observation is a record made of the physical surroundings, activities or processes seen at a specific site.

Variations in methods
 Includes project documents such as progress or field reports, correspondence, reviews, training materials, databases; and a review of secondary sources such as research reports, legislation and policy documents.

Typical Verbal surveys are “close-ended structured interviews”. These have questions that allow a limited range of answers or ratings that can be numerically coded and statistically analysed. They should be accompanied by a set of instructions for the interviewer.

Surveys and questionnaires can be written (selfadministered) or verbal (reading questions and recording answers). Self-administered surveys require that participants be literate.

This also includes taking pictures or recording video about the project.

Going into a field visit, it may be useful to create an observation checklist to do an inventory of facilities and inputs, inspect activities or see that steps have been followed.

How to collect the information
 Find and read any information or documents pertaining to the project.

Data Collection Methods 67

Handout 14.2


Participatory Methods These methods are useful for building local ownership, capacity, sustainability and empowerment. However, facilitators must also be aware of local power dynamics and politics and how they influences the way participants interact, express their opinions and thoughts.

Data collection method Interviews Interviews may be done either with individuals or in groups, unstructured or structured. There are different types and techniques to interviewing (see “how”) which require different considerations to make when deciding how you will collect and analyse the data.

Rural Appraisal/Assessment (RA): Sharing some characteristics of PRA, is a costeffective method of gathering data for decisionmaking, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, such as site visits, observations and sample surveys.

Participatory rapid (or rural) appraisal (PRA): Methods that engage the communities to explore and understand the issues affecting them. Often done over a short, 2-3 week period of time.

Community meetings: A public meeting open to all residents of a concerned community, and moderated and guided by the interviewer. These are less useful when dealing with sensitive issues, and will often see power dynamics at play that one needs to be aware of.

Guided: Interviewees respond to items on a prepared list.

Focus group: Moderated and guided conversation, usually with 6-10 people representing similar characteristics discussing experiences, feelings, attitudes or beliefs relevant to a certain issue.

RA includes: Site visits, observations, sample surveys

PRA includes: Community mapping, problem ranking, timelines, interviews, focus groups

Group discussions: Best used in situations where confidentiality is not a major concern. PRA often employs visual techniques such as drawing maps, diagrams, calendars, and timelines using local materials to examine the issues. This is useful where there are low or mixed levels of literacy.

In-depth: Are usually individual interviews with informants with first hand knowledge about the topic.

Open-ended (semi-structured) interview: An interview which asks more information than you would get from closed questions (e.g. questions requiring a yes/no, or a choice from a prepared list of possible answers). The interviewer can probe and follow up responses to elicit more information.

How to collect the information Unstructured: Interviews that are ‘unstructured’ explore the opinions of respondents (in response to certain topics).

Variation in method Key informant interview: Usually an open-ended interview with a key person who holds special information about a particular issue.

68


 

Data collection method Case study A case study is a detailed narrative description providing insight and comparisons of complex situations about a person, community organization, event or project. Art and Visual Techniques Methods that include expression and visualization can be good for including stakeholder participation in the evaluation process and making data more interesting

It is useful to take pictures before and throughout the project of the activities and changes occurring. Video diaries and clips of interviews, performances and activities are also useful for capturing information about the project

Can be done through diaries or personal logs and letters produced and kept by the participants throughout the project relevant to its activities.

These can include expressive methods produced or kept by the participant through writing or art. Photography and video are also good ways of recording project activities or participant experiences.

How to collect the information Garnered through a variety of research techniques to create a clear picture with different perspectives on a situation. Useful complement to statistical information in reports.

Variation in method

69


70

WORKSHOP 15: RISK ASSESSMENT Time: 1 hour

Objectives: Identify potential risks in your campaign, assess the level of risk and plan measures that will be taken to reduce the risks.

Materials needed: • Pens (1 per group) • Handout 15.1

Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Explain the need for risk assessment and the difference between risks and hazards. (5-10 min) 2.

Divide participants into groups. Provide Handout 15.1 to help participants complete the activity. Have participants brainstorm the different types of hazards that might affect your campaign activities or people affected or involved in your campaign. (10 min)

3.

Assign a rating from 1-3 (lowest to highest) to the likelihood of each hazard occurring. Then have them assign a rating from 1-3 (lowest to highest) to the severity of the risk. (10 min)

4. Have participants Calculate the “Risk Rating” of the particular hazard or activity. This is: Likelihood of hazard occurring x = Risk Rating Severity of hazard if it occurred

Based on this: Low likelihood x low severity = low risk High likelihood x high severity = high risk

5.

List the possible actions that would be taken to mitigate (or reduce) the hazard, and what the response would be in the event that it occurred.

6.

Debrief the hazards and risks different groups came up with and how they would mitigate and respond to the risks.


71 WORKSHEET: Activity Planning

Handout 15.1 • A hazard is anything that can cause harm. • A risk is the chance (low to high) that someone or the project could be harmed by a hazard. Some things to consider when confronting hazards and what might be at risk are: • Reputation: How might having incorrect information, failed promises or claims you make on behalf of a specific group affect your campaign? • Backlash: How might opponents react to the work you are doing? If it is a highly divisive issue in your community you may face risks of violence to people or property involved with your work? • Activities: Is there anything risky about the methods of advocacy you are using? Will you need permission to demonstrate in a certain area? • Physical space: How do the spaces where you will work present risks to your work? What barriers do these spaces present? 1 = Low, 2 = Medium, 3 = High Hazard

Likelihood (L)

Severity (S)

Risk Rating (L x S)

Action Mitigation Response

Fire

1

3

3

Fire guard Evacuate


72

BUDGETING

O

ne of the most important things you can create for any project is the budget. It is often the first thing that people look to in order to understand how resources are being used to complete each of your project activities. In addition to budgeting what you need to complete your project activities, you should also consider what resources you will need for carrying out your monitoring and evaluation activities, exactly as you would for any other project activities. For this reason, you must know the data collection methods and analyses you plan to use before starting the project! Below is a sample budget, which you can use in helping to build your own budget. Don’t forget to include resources like office space or stationary, printing, transport, and all other costs you will incur from running the project. Some things like space you might get ‘in-kind’ but it is still important to make note of this! Some budgets will also account for ‘contingencies.’ This might be important if you know there are particularly high risks that might affect the finances and running of your project. How to do it With an Excel spreadsheet, preparing a budget is perhaps the easiest part of your whole campaign planning exercise. Raising the budget is perhaps the hardest part – but that comes next! We recommend that every member of your team be involved in preparing the budget. While it can be tempting to have one or two people work on this, doing it together ensures that every one owns the budget and that all potential costs are brainstormed together—and therefore is more likely to get involved in raising it. There are three stages to the budgeting process: 1.

Decide what we need: Get everyone to make a list of what they think has to be paid for – travel, banners, photocopying, phone calls, materials, etc. Write it down, put it up on the wall and enter everything into a spreadsheet.

2.

How much does it all cost? It’s great if you have a projector and can enter all the costs, as shown below:

Item Brochure Travel

Unit 1 copy Train ticket

Unit Cost € 0.17 € 45

Total Units 1000 18 Total

Total Cost € 170 € 810 € 980

3. How do we cut it down? Having come up with a comprehensive budget, the last task of your budgeting session is to get sensible and figure out what you absolutely have to spend money on and what you can do without. 4. Sources of income: On the same sheet, you should list (potential) sources of income. This will help you begin to see what your fundraising targets are, and what you already have.


FUNDRAISING

73

T

he first thing to say about fundraising is that there are no rules. There used to be a line that you should always personalise the ask—as “people give money to people, not causes.” That rule has been blown out of the water by online fundraising success stories – where the cause is the only thing that people give money to. Common sense dictates most fundraising: it doesn’t make sense to shake a can in the town square for a few dollars if you are trying to raise a million dollars for a museum. Likewise, do not approach a foundation that gives million-dollar grants for a $10 donation for your school playground. Hopefully, you’ve already come up with an activity plan The Peace Child team growing mustaches to fundraise for and budget and figured out how much money you need to Movember, a month to raise money and awareness for men’s health raise. It is a good idea to have a couple of fundraising goals. isssues. (Sonia Preisser) You should know how much money you need to raise before you can begin work, and have a secondary goal that allows you to accomplish everything you want to do. Also think about some of the items that you might be able to get donated in-kind. It might be a good idea to come up with a “wish list” that you can send around to people or put up on a website. When coming up with your fundraising plan it’s a good idea to take time with your team to have an ideastorm of some of the possible fundraising strategies that would work best for your campaign. It is also important to figure out why the person, group or organisation that you are going to approach donates in general and why they would like to donate to you in particular.You need to be ready to defend your project and make it fit with your potential donors’ expectations and interests. Before starting to fundraise, keep also in mind that most of the funders want to know how you are going to spend their money.You will need to justify the amount of money requested by presenting a credible project. That is why you have to realise a strong activity plan and a budget as precisely as possible. You should also think about a way to create a mid-long-term relationship with your donors by planning how you could communicate with them and update them with your action results. Here are some of our suggestions on how to start your fundraising campaign:

Events

This might include bake sales, parties, concerts, fundraising dinners, swim-a-thons/ bike-a-thons/ski-a-thons, midnight walks, drives with hundreds of volunteers canvassing on the street or going door-to-door. Caution: Some of these events require that you take out a license. Be sure that you’ve researched legal requirements before you begin, or you could end up losing money not raising it. Also be aware that most events take immense amounts of time to prepare, often for very little return. But they are guaranteed to raise some money and awareness – and for small budgets, are often the quickest and easiest ways of getting the job done.


74 Merchandising

Be creative! Think about items that you can sell in support of your cause. For example, if you are running a campaign to make your university fair trade, set up a stall selling fair trade chocolate, coffee and tea. Or if you are holding an event, sell t-shirts or wristbands on the day of the event that people can keep afterwards.

School/University

You can have the event in your old school or university, which sometimes can reduce costs if they are able to provide a free or low-cost space. But you can also gain the funds from university departments through research projects on your campaign issue. Not only that, you could gain fellow campaign team members. Many universities and schools provide scholarships to support students’ initiatives.

NGO’s and community organisations

Try to reach NGO’s that work on the same issues as you or provide small funds for youth-led projects.

Individuals

Most charities get most of their money from individuals. The most successful charities are those that attract large donations from ‘High Net Worth’ individuals. Here, the rule about ‘giving money to people not causes’ does apply as you need a personal introduction to such people. If they live in your community, you might get to them through a professional club like the Rotary and Lions, faith groups, political arena, sports or arts associations.You don’t have to be a member, you just need to find someone who is a member and who also supports your cause and is prepared to deliver a letter or request a meeting with the person in mind. Don’t be shy, the worst they can say is no!

Government institutions

Governments realise that voluntary or ‘Third Sector’ organisations and charities are often better at delivering services than governments. So governments, local, national and regional (like the EU or the IDB) are great sources of charitable funding for registered organisations. The European Commission, for example, has a whole department called: Youth in Action which funds all kinds of youth activities, from €5,000 upwards to €100,000 (see: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/index_en.htm). For small grants, local councils often have opportunities you can apply for. Caution: Each country and municipality will have different rules which can be very specific and bureaucratic! These institutions are spending taxpayer’s money, so their financial management and reporting requirements are often well beyond the capacity of small organisations.

Banks and corporations

These are the hardest to get money from, but if you manage a sponsorship deal with a major corporation, it can be worth millions to you. Many corporations like to be seen to be doing charitable work in the communities in which they operate and will have a ‘Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)’ department. Call up – chat to the assistants, get them enthusiastic about what you are doing. Find out what they suggest is the best way to approach their company: • Who is the best person to write to? • What are their major interests? • What are the areas to avoid mentioning? • Might they agree to meet with you and watch a presentation of your campaign? • Why is it in the interests of this company to support your cause? (e.g. A better school means better future employees for a local company….) Be clever and develop an individual case for each company you approach. If you get any support make sure to thank them, and acknowledge them publicly in your work.


75 Caution: Be careful who you approach for what cause: don’t get drink or tobacco manufacturers to support a children’s charity; weapons makers are unlikely to support peace marches, and oil companies and coal mines might suffer if they support environmental causes. Likewise, you have to answer to your supporters—financial and others—and the people you work with might not like to see that these are your financial backers.

Private foundations

There are over 100,000 private foundations in the USA and many more elsewhere in the world. Together, they have assets of several trillion and they are all designed to give money away to good causes. The way to get money from private foundations is to do endless research. Each has its own giving priorities, deadlines for applications, manner in which they like to be approached, and some times, forms that they like grantseekers to fill in. Do what they ask for and answer all questions making sure you don’t miss anything. However, do note that, in the USA, most private foundations will require you to be registered with the IRS under tax code 501(c)(3), and in the UK, you may need to be a registered charity, in order to qualify for a grant. Caution: Personal approaches are probably not worth it. Foundations must often rigorously follow ‘procedures’ and obey the wishes of their trustees. However, if you feel that you have found a likely prospect, it can be worth it to call them and make sure that you understand their giving rules, and to ensure that they have not changed.

Online fundraising

There are two ways to do this: the first is to create a huge mailing list and send out e-mails using a service like Mail Chimp to ask for donations to a Paypal account. This is what Avaaz, Truthout, Wikipedia and other big sites do. If you have a large e-mail database and 1% of them give you a small amount per month it can add up quickly. People say that is how Obama won the 2008 US Presidential election, thousands of small online donations! The second way is online giving or crowdfunding sites. There are hundreds of them and all of them make it very easy for individuals to give you money. In the UK, such sites simplify the ‘Gift Aid’ tax deduction process which means that, if you give £10, the online giving site gives you £12.35 because it claims back the Gift Aid tax for you, though every country will be different. Some popular sites are Justgiving.com, Kickstarter.com, Startsomegood.com, and Kiva.org. Each of these will have different rules about how donated money or loans should be used, so read the terms and conditions carefully before signing up to anything!

Your own money

If you have made, or inherited, a lot of money – it is very tempting to spend it on your cause. Why waste time raising money when you could spend your own? Bill Gates is never short of a buck or two for his antimalaria or vaccination campaigns because he has his own billions to spend. Caution: Be wary of using your own money as a shortcut. Getting others to invest in your campaign enriches, not just the bank account, but also spreads ownership of the campaign. Donations is the clearest sign of support for your cause – and you should allow as many people as possible to donate and show support for your cause. On the other hand, investing some of your own money is a clear sign to others that your support of this campaign is serious and that it offers an example that others can follow.


76

RECRUITING YOUR TEAM

I

f you do not know enough people who are interested in your topic you might try the following strategies to bring a group together: • Broaden the focus of your topic and decide to take action on a specific issue later. • Ask friends to get involved. • Put posters up in your school or community. • Set up a public meeting. • Call or email relevant organisations to get the word out. • Use online networks interested in your topic.

Once you have an interested group of people, you will want to hold an initial meeting. On the following page is a sample sign-up sheet you can use at this first meeting to collect important information from the members of your group. At some point it will be essential to create a constitution or set of norms for your group that group members can agree on. When drafting this document, you may want to make sure it covers the following issues (or more as needed!): • Collective goals (such as a mission or vision) • Team structure and roles • Decision-making processes and transparency • Process for running meetings • Maintaining a culture of respect, tolerance and belonging for everyone in the group. For more information about teambuilding and management, please refer to Section 5.


 

Name

E-mail

Phone #

Times available

Times unavailable

Interests, skills I want to learn

Skills or resources I can contribute

Sign-up Sheet

77


78

part 4: running your campaign

In this section you’will learn how to: - •Harness online advocacy tools for your campaign • - Engage with the media -• Participate in international events - Lobby decision-makers • - Use the arts for advocacy - Manage your campaign - Evaluate your campaign


79

ONLINE ADVOCACY

T

he online social media world is ours—we have grown up with it and we understand it. It is full of simple tools that allow us to be the follower that shows others—our friends, family, peers and communities, how they can be part of a movement creating a sustainable future. Not only that; the online world is dynamic, creative and full of different ways and methods to communicate and converse with people, organisations, governments and businesses. Therefore, aiding and getting campaigns and movements into the world, will also help you learn and discover the tools and methods that can be used by you to promote your own campaigns and movements. Road to Rio+20 Partners Meeting at Peace Child International, January 2011 (Christopher Cordova) 
 Research and connect Connect with people and organisations that share your passion and note how they converse with their followers. What tools do they use and how do they creatively design their campaigns’ look or appeal. If their campaign is very much like yours, start a conversation and see if you can work together. Content You need something for people to get their teeth into. Plan ahead what web pages you need to explain the campaign. Involve stories from those being affected, or even make your own story part of the content. Most of all you need a call to action, one that is simple for followers to do. For example: an online petition, ‘tweet our local mayor’, etc.. Spreading the word • If you are aiming to connect with organisations, do your social media push during working hours. • If you are trying to connect with youth, do your social media push after school. • Be proactive in starting online conversations. • Find those who are active social networkers online and get them involved to help spread the word • Be creative with online tools. Use photos, video, audio—the internet is your oyster. Offline You have created a following online, but remember that any campaign is stronger in numbers in real life, especially within a community setting. Always plan for offline action and draw this into your social media strategy.


80 Social media tools Figure 4.1: Social Media Tools

E-mail

Facebook

Twitter

Blogs or Vlogs

Pinterest LinkedIn Petitions

May not sound very exciting, but still a primary means of getting in touch with someone personally. Be sure to have clear asks in your email. Describe what is happening and what you want the reader to do. Break up the text, use bullet points and bold text for anything important. Don’t forget to use the subject line to get the reader’s attention. • Listserves: You can create one yourself, or if trying to engage a wider audience ask an established organisation help you spread your message or opportunity by being included in their next newsletter. Mailchimp is a good tool for this, though there are many others available as well. It’s a good guess that you have a Facebook account. Use this as a means to update friends and family what your campaign is all about, who you plan to meet or meetings you’ve had. Even better, create an official page or group for your cause to update supporters. Facebook can be great for monitoring and analysing the number of supporters you have over time as well and how they interact with the information you make available. If you are on Twitter use it as a means to share thoughts, quotes, inspiration and update how your campaign is going. Several tweets a day would be great. Do a search for Twitter users and organisations that tweet about the issues you care about most. Blogs do not have to be taxing essays but can include photos and videos to engage the reader. They should be no more than 500-700 words per post. It’s a good idea to create a posting schedule to ensure you post frequently and regularly. Video blogs can be used as diaries. You can spend 3 minutes talking to a camera about your project, or use it to document events. Host them on your own blog site or another organisation that does work on the issues you care about. Some useful platforms are: • Tumblr: A scrolling blog of links, images, quotes and video. • Ning: Create your own online community. • Wordpress and Blogger: Which are also good places to start when creating your own website. In addition to having your own blog, you might want to try contacting some established bloggers with an established audience for your cause. Ask to write a guest post on a story or relevant topic (but not just to promote yourself). This can help draw attention to your own work. Online board of images of what interests you, or are relevant to your topic. Professional, career site—very useful for network and promoting the campaign on a work level. There is a wide range of platforms (like Care2 and Change.org) you can use if you choose to put up an online petition. However, the key to success will be enlisting a large number of supporters, so the promotion will be more important than your platform.


81 Online Collaboration Tools 21st century campaign teams can harness a powerful geographical advantage, unavailable to their predecessors: in order to work together, they don’t have to be in the same (physical) place. Welcome to the online collaboration world. Quite often, campaign teams are distributed in different cities, countries, and even continents. And even if able to meet on a regular basis, the bulk of the work happens with you and a computer screen in front of you, often with an Internet connection in place. Online collaboration can be synchronous (i.e. happening at the same time), or asynchronous (i.e. happening at different times for you and the persons you’re collaborating with). The challenge in the latter kind, is that it’s going to be harder to have a fluid collaboration; the advantage, that everyone will be able to contribute in his or her own time (across time zones, if necessary!). When collaborating online, there are generally two target groups to keep in mind: • the core group – your closest campaign team members, with whom there is daily communication, through multiple means (more than one tool of those outlined here below) • the wider group of supporters and collaborators, and other sub-groups – with whom you engage in regular (e.g. weekly) communications, through few or even just one of the following tools, in order to avoid communication ovverload, since these are the people you work with who have less time to dedicate to your cause These are some of the tools that might help you meet your online collaboration needs, and related guidelines for use.

Figure 4.2: Online Collaboration Tools Communication

Google Groups, Facebook Groups

Mailing list are, by far, the most common online collaboration tool. Email access is widespread, and a regular (but not too frequent) communication flow is essential to keep the campaign coordinated.

Wikis

Wikispaces, TWiki

Searching email archives can be a daunting experience. For solid information, guidelines, resources, and other data that you’d like your team to refer to, wikis are the best option.

File sharing

Dropbox, WeTransfer

Large attachments are not usually welcome in people’s inboxes. Send them and share them separately instead.

Meetings

Skype, GoToMeeting

Email is great, but nothing can substitute a voice-to-voice conversation sometimes. Seeing each other via webcam can also add to the effectiveness of the communication.

Google Docs, MeetingWords

When you want to develop your strategic plan, collaborate on a funding proposal, or take minutes of a Skype meeting, this is where you go to.

Podio, BaseCamp

Keeping track of people’s tasks, campaign milestones, outreach contacts, etc.

Document creation

Project management


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ENGAGING WITH THE MEDIA

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he media comes in many forms: newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, posters, brochures and handouts, church newsletters, school magazines, community papers, and so on. All are good for different purposes and if used effectively, the media can be a powerful tool for your campaign. But to be effective you need to take it seriously, so plan a media strategy, briefing and follow-up plan.Your media strategy should include timelines that are relevant to the event you want to get covered—and you should have a start on this at least a month in advance. 1.

Be familiar with your local media. Read your local newspapers and watch/listen to local news broadcasts. Find out which stations and newspapers report on the issues you want to bring attention to. In particular, small community media is more accessible than larger outlets as they are written to address local issues so you will have a better chance of getting your story covered through these channels.

2.

Have a messenger. Identify someone who will liaise with the media, build relationships, edit press releases and be confident speaking in public or being interviewed. They should be easily available by email or phone.

3.

Create a media contacts list. Find out which journalists or columnists report on the issues you’re interested in and let them know about your campaign early on. Reports are often assigned to beats, so know which ones will want to hear stories regarding the specific topic you are advocating. Create a database of potential contacts (their name, newspaper, interest and contact details) to help keep yourself organised.

4.

Identify yourself and your organisation. When you call a reporter, have the information ready that he or she needs to know about you as a source. Remember that your call will be one of many they receive that day. So be creative and concise and stick to the topic at hand. Even if you already sent them information, be prepared to repeat it! Like preparing a presentation for a meeting, you should practice your pitch in advance.

5.

Know your targets. Don’t be afraid to name who you are trying to reach. Is someone actively opposing you? Are you trying to change the opinion of a specific official or call out a company?

6.

Prepare a short press release no more than a page that you can email them. Make sure your story is well-developed and has one clear message. Often media centres are busy and fast paced as they try and get out the best stories on short deadlines. If something doesn’t immediately catch their eye, they won’t waste time, so you often only have a short window in which to sell your story. While facts are important, you should also have a clear hook demonstrating that your story is ‘news. ‘

7.

Be patient. Building media presence takes time and the first contact might not result in a story about your experience the next day. But once reporters and editors know you and your organisation, they may be more likely to approach you in the future.


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Media Tips

1. 2.

3.

4.

5. 6. 7.

8. 9.

Do Keep it short. Be able to summarise your story and explain why it is newsworthy. Be prepared. Know your story inside out (who, what, where, when, why) and have press releases ready if anyone expresses interest. Be persistent. Media centres are very busy places and things get forgotten, so don’t give up too soon. If a journalist said “yes” to you first time — follow it up! Be aware of deadlines! After introducing yourself, your first question should be “Is this a good time for you?” Call between 10am to 2pm. This is often a slower time of the day away from deadlines. Show your passion. If you don’t believe your story is amazing, who else will? Provide pictures. Make sure they are interesting and in high quality. Small or grainy images are of no use and will make you look unprofessional. Get personal. Try to establish a link with a specific person and always remember to be polite and friendly. Keep gathering contacts. If one reporter is not interested, ask him/her to suggest others.

Don’t 10. Be pushy or rude. They are not obligated to write anything. 11. Forget local and regional media! Local media is far easier to get and has the benefit of reaching the people of your local community. 12. Be sloppy. Make sure your press release is well written and without any spelling mistakes or typing errors! 13. Get trampled on. If a reporter gives unfair or negative media, call up and ask politely why? Then request the right of reply. 14. Push it. “No” means “No.” Most reporters will listen to you and know how to say they don’t want your story. If you receive an outright “no” don’t persist or pester. Rather thank them for their time, and ask if you can write or call them again in if a new story “angle” comes up that might interest them. 15. Give up! If your approach isn’t working, use a different angle or approach alternative forms of media. 16. Pitch to a reporter on a deadline! You are unlikely to get a positive response.


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How to write a press release

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press release is a written piece directed at members of the media that give reporters all the information they need to write a story, even if they weren’t there in person. Typically, they are emailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks. A press release creates awareness about your actions, and can help create a favourable opinion in the press about your cause. A press release will tell the reporters what happened at your event. If you want to tell the media about the event in advance, then you should send a Media Advisory. This will look similar to the press release but is sent about a week in advance and acts as an invitation to the press. It should clearly answer the “who, what, where, when and why” of your event. When writing these communication pieces, be sure to use short sentences and avoid jargon. In total it should be no longer than one page—250 words is ideal. If there are more important details, add a link to a longer post. Most of all make sure that it’s clear why people should care about this story. Remember that many journalists get emails on their cell phones and will not open heavy attachments. Make sure your message is in the text of your email. Email subject line: RELEASE: The Headline 1. Headline: The most important information in no more than seven words.

E-mail body: The press release in plain text without special formatting. Don’t send your press release as an attachment. 2. “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” 3. Date: 4. Contact details: Provide all the necessary contact information so the media can contact you for more details. Make sure whoever’s name is on this is available by phone. 5. Summaries: Bullet points at the top to summarise the main paints are helpful. 6. Introduction: Start with the location (e.g. London, UK:) and follow with a short paragraph describing the event and the hook (the reason why it is news). 7. The issue: Describe what you are taking action on. 8. Quotes: A personal quote can be useful, but make sure anyone who is quoted can be available to speak if an interview is requested. 9. Solution: Explain why and how you are addressing the issue. 10. Quote: Provide another quote if you have it. 11. Conclusion: What are your goals? What are you asking for? Can the reader do anything? 12. “###”: Add this to the bottom of the release so reporters now this is where it ends. 13. Editor’s notes: 1 sentence about the organisation—who you are and what you do. 14. Images: Don’t include images unless absolutely necessary. If you do attached images, include them in the press release itself and not on a different website.


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Letter-writing

W

hen writing a letter for your campaign, you need to determine the purpose and audience for your letter. As you would need to have a good understanding of the context when communicating a message in a meeting or presentation, the same applies here.

The following letter is taken from a ONE Campaign about the scandal of corruption in Africa over payments to governments for natural resources. Almost none of it gets to the poorest people who need it most. This campaign was about requiring companies to declare exactly how much they were paying. Here’s the letter that the ONE Campaign invited its members to send to their MEPs (Members of the European Parliament): ----------------------Mr Sajjad Karim
 Parlement européen
 Bât. Willy Brandt
04M107
60, rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60
 B-1047 Bruxelles/Brussel Dear Mr Sajjad Karim, As a citizen in the European Union I care passionately about improving the lives of people in the poorest countries in the world and you have a chance to make a difference.Your position on the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee means you are now debating a law which will help fight corruption and ensure more money is invested in healthcare, roads and schools. The proposed law requires oil, gas, mining and forestry companies to publish how much money they pay to governments around the world. However, corporate lobbyists for big oil companies are trying to weaken the law. In the next few weeks your committee has the power to make sure that three crucial details of the law are included: 1. The law must give citizens useful information about oil, gas, mining and forestry projects in their community. 2. Some lobbyists are suggesting that only payments over 1 million Euros should be published. This would mean many payments remain secret. Instead all payments over 100,000 Euros should be published. 3. There should be no exemptions for countries which have secrecy laws – the idea is to create more transparency, not less. As a member of the anti-poverty campaign group ONE, I am joining nearly 90,000 other citizens from across Europe who have signed their petition calling on the EU to pass a strong law on this issue. Tens of thousands of new people will join over the next few months and we will all be watching to see if the right decisions are made. Sincerely, <your name>


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PARTICIPATING IN CONFERENCES

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onferences are a regular fixture of a seasoned campaigner’s calendar. Where else can you be stimulated by thoughtful discussions, expand your contact list, promote your efforts, and make an impact on other people’s work – all at the same time? Let’s take a look at what conferencing implies, in terms of preparation, attendance and follow up.

Getting involved beforehand  Go through the event materials, usually available from a website. Make sure to become familiar with the programme, decide what parts of the conference to focus on, and which ones to skip. Remember to fit in enough time to talk with people, do your own work (e.g. writing a blog post, or responding to emails), and rest!  Identify key people you’ll want to reach out to during the conference, and if possible agree beforehand when and where you’ll meet – high value contacts are usually very busy, and it would be hard for them to fit you in their schedule if you didn’t plan for it in advance.  Pack your business cards, comfortable clothes and business attire, as well as some printed materials from your organisation or project, to distribute at the event. Information management at the event  Keep updated on the issue of interest: UN institutions are making much progress with the use of internet platforms to support participation of delegates (daily programmes, latest policy documents, webcasts made available). However their websites are sometimes really complex and it requires some experience to know how to find effectively the information that you are looking for. Familiarise yourself with it in advance and learn how to use it (check a previous meeting for instance).  Follow the big picture effectively: • NGOs’ bulletins • Briefings / Q&As by conference officials • Press conferences (at the event or via webcasts, particularly the UN daily press conference) • Caucus meetings (youth or other groups of stakeholders) Maximising your experience after the event  Outreach: Share your experience in your community or organization.  Sustaining relations: Build on new contacts obtained at the event.  Capacity building: Ensure following youth delegates can learn from your successes and mistakes. Care for yourself • Health: drink water – eat – sleep • Rest & Relax: key to remaining efficient in the long run, and to better networking


2.

1.

 

• Roles and Approaches • Who will attend the meeting on behalf of your organisation or network? Who will present your information or argument? Who will take notes? • Decide a rough plan of attack and responses to possible questions. • Know your main points well.

• Desired Results What do you hope to achieve from the meeting? What will you ask them to do? Consider what they may want to gain from the meeting and how you can provide it.

Before the meeting • Background information Who called the meeting and why? What previous contact has anyone had? Was anything promised (from either side)? Has it been delivered? Is there continuing contact? Who will represent the policy-makers at the meeting and what are their roles? What are their interests, background and views? Are there any disagreements or power struggles between them? How do you think the policy-makers view you? Why have they agreed to see you? What power or influence do they recognise that you have? What information can you find out beforehand so that you are prepared? Allow plenty of time to get to the meeting so that you are not late.

• Networks or larger groups 1. Find out beforehand if other people with different perspectives are going to be lobbying in the meeting and agree how to proceed. If you argue among yourselves you will reduce your chance of success. 2. Ensure that the chairperson does not allow one person to dominate the meeting.

• Tactics Focus on your most important concerns first and leave smaller issues until the end. Keep discussion on track. Know what issues you are willing to compromise on and what you are not. Plan for different kinds of responses. Summarise progress at various points.

• Follow-Up  Clarify what has been agreed.  Be willing to do some work for the policy-maker.  Say that you will contact the policy-maker soon, and agree to meet again if appropriate.

3. 4. 5. 6.

2.

1.

• Clarity Have a clear achievable goal. State your case precisely. Ask for clarity if needed.

• Approach and Manner  Be relaxed, polite and friendly.  Maintain a positive atmosphere and listen actively. Do not accuse and respond honestly to any concerns raised.

During the meeting • Introductions  Make sure that everyone in the room is introduced, and give a brief background to each organisation represented if this is a first meeting. Summarise what happened in previous meetings if appropriate.  Clarify why you are meeting and agree how to proceed.

• Report • Write a quick report of the meeting. • Pass it to everyone who came with you. • Pass it to relevant people in your organisation. • Follow-Up  Send a brief letter thanking the policy-maker for seeing you, summarising the main points and remind them of their promises and what you have promised.  After a while, contact them again to see if they have done what they promised.

After the meeting • Debrief Did you achieve your objectives? Did you think they were telling the truth – were they hiding something? Are they keen to work with you? Did you discover new information? What are you going to do next?

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Checklist for making the most of a meeting


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WORKSHOP 16:

PREPARING FOR INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS

Source: This workshop is adapted from the “Preparing for UN meetings” workshop run by Sebastian Ducyk at the 2011 European Youth Congress in Izola, Slovenia.

Time: 1 hour Objectives: • Highlight the challenges of youth presence at international meetings. • Understand how to maximize effectiveness while at a meeting

Materials needed: • Projector • Blackboard or whiteboard • Post-its and pens, flipc Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Introduce the topic and objectives of the workshop and play a quick energizer that emphasises the importance of focus and preparation. (5 min) 2. Brainstorm in groups of three: Why would we send delegates to a UN or international event? Create a SMART goal for a delegate who is going to a conference. (10 min) 3. Review the different types of activists present at a major conference. (5 min) e.g. Policy, Artivists, Outreach Production of media content Press conferences Meetings with UN officials Interventions in plenary rooms Blogging Media events Demonstrations Use of art Drafting of policies

4. Break into smaller groups; discuss how to prepare effectively depending on your advocate profile. Ask the following questions: (30 min) a. How to best prepare before the meeting? What should you have in your suitcase? b. How to be effective on the spot? 5. Conclusions (5 min) • Time and funding are likely to be an issue, but you can balance this by collecting information and building networks. • International meetings often cover a lot of subjects and host plenty of interesting events; avoid being lost by setting a SMART objective for yourself. • There are many ways of participating as an advocate at such an event. Identify those you are good at and those that will best serve your objective. Don’t hesitate to combine approaches and methods, and exploit the expertise of others around you.


Case study: RIO+20 PREPARATORYPARTICIPATING IN CONFERENCES Nicolò Wojewoda, Director of Road to Rio+20 at Peace Child International

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Context: Rio+20, also formally known as the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, is a one-in-a-generation UN summit, that follows on to the historical Earth Summit of 1992. The summit outcome is produced through a series of preparatory meetings, called PrepComs or intersessionals or informals, depending on their nature and function. As a staff member of Peace Child International, I have been attending PrepComs and intersessionals throughout 2011, in representation of a coalition called Road to Rio+20, which aims to weave together a global youth-led movement to realize the potential of the UN summit through outreach, advocacy, and mobilization. Preparation: This is how a typical run up to the dates of the preparatory meeting looked like: • Two weeks before: o internal meetings at PCI, and with Road to Rio+20 partners, in order to develop our strategy for the attendance of the event o made travel and accommodation arrangements • One week before: o downloaded and studied event program from the UN website o obtained the latest copy of the negotiating text, and reflected on where entry points for our policy recommendations could be o joined a mailing list of fellow youth leaders and youth NGO representatives who will be at the event, in order to coordinate logistics on site • Two days before: o packed our organization’s publications, business cards Attendance: My strategy for the event itself would look like the following: • policy: ensure the addition of a certain policy recommendation in the statement given by the Major Group for Children & Youth in the opening plenary session • lobbying: set up meetings with 2 government delegations, and present to them the outcomes of our youth consultations • partnership-building: get 5 more youth organizations to join the Road to Rio+20 coalition • outreach: get one article about our efforts in the conference magazine, connect to a journalist covering the event, and tweet as much as possible!

Reading a statement in the plenary, at a Rio+20 intersessional meeting.

Follow up: After getting back home and to the office, I would: • go through all the business cards I collected and write a quick email to the people I met, referring to something that came up in our conversations in order to continue building a personal connection, and keeping the channel open for further collaboration; • update my networks on the results of the meeting, from my boss, to the team I work with, to the wider coalition I’ve been representing • write a blog post, with pictures from the event, reflecting on its outcomes and its implications for the work we’re doing


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LOBBYING

L

obbying is a form of advocacy that involves a group of people who try to influence politicians or public officials on specific policy issues. It involves a variety of skills and should combine evidence-based research and policy, campaigning (through petitions, events, etc.), marketing and awareness-raising among the general public, and engagement through the media.

It takes time to get success with lobbying. In the short-term you might walk away from a meeting having achieved some small objectives that you set, but over the long-term will involve building a platform, relationship and credibility. Ideally, a lobby meeting plan will include: 1. Context – where are they coming from? 2. Research the facts on your issues – create a handout. 3. What do you want? 4. What’s in it for them? 5. Why now? Timing is everything.

WORKSHOP 17: HOW TO LOBBY? Time: 1 hour

Objectives: To practice lobbying and questioning skills through role-play. Materials needed: • Projector • Blackboard or whiteboard • Post-its and pens, flipcharts, space for breakout groups • Handout 17.1 Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Divide into small groups. Each group will be given a profile of a public persona and they will have to create a brief lobby meeting plan. The profiles included in the case study were used in a workshop with a disability advocacy group in London who were practicing how to advocate for better access to the transit systems, buildings and against discrimination from the public. If you’re working on a specific topic, you might want to come up with your own examples. 2.

In each group, appoint someone to be the person who will ask difficult questions back to the group.

3.

The groups should keep in mind the following questions when preparing their meeting: • Who am I? • Why are you meeting me? Why now? • What are your messages? • What do you want to happen next?


Case study: Public Profiles

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Handout 17.1 NOTE: Cut each profile out beforehand to hand out to the groups.

Mike Cooke Chief Executive, London Borough of Camden • Mr Cooke took up the reins as Chief Executive for Camden Council in January 2012. • His previous role in the council was Director of Organisation Development. • He has had varied experience in many departments of Camden Council such as housing, adult social care and human resources. • Mr Cooke began working in Housing Associations, he then moved into local government. 
 • He worked in the private sector for a while before returning to local government, where he is now.

Michèle Dix Managing Director of Planning, Transport for London (TfL) • Ms Dix is responsible for leading the TfL’s strategic planning department. • The department plans for the future transport needs in London, addressing problems and finding solutions. • The role includes coordinating the implementation of local plans and borough partnerships. • Ms Dix came to the TfL after gaining a PhD and becoming a Chartered Civil Engineer.

Dame Tanni Grey Thompson Winner of Eleven Paralympic gold medals and disability campaigner • Spearheading a campaign to ensure public transport does not discriminate against people with disabilities. • She is a non-executive director of UK Athletics, sits on the board of the London Marathon and is on the Board of Transport for London. • Grey-Thompson is the President of the Leadership 20:20 Commission, started by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. They work to develop emerging leaders in civil society. • Grey-Thompson is a crossbencher in the House of Lords swearing allegiance to both England and Wales.


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O

USING THE ARTS FOR ADVOCACY

ne of the most effective but often overlooked ways of doing advocacy is to use the arts. Look at the history of revolutionary movements down the ages, and a key component of almost all of them has been the contribution of music, poetry, drama and the arts. The social revolutions of the 1960s and 70s was reflected in the music of artists like Bob Dylan and the Beatles. The campaign to end the Vietnam war was driven by protest songs by many artists.Vaclav Havel and Milan Kundera – a playwright and a novelist – were the driving force of the velvet revolution in the Czech Republic. Other examples come from the world of film: an early film of Ken Loach, Cathy Come Home, inspired the Shelter campaign which helped many thousands of homeless people in the UK. Peter Watkins film, the War Game – about the effect of a nuclear bomb dropping on rural Kent in the UK – was one of the most powerful stimulants of the anti-war/anti-nuclear movement in the 1960s and many years after. Sometimes a single photograph captures the mood and stimulates a public reaction that causes change. The iconic photographs of a girl putting flowers in soldiers’ rifles at Kent State University symbolised the courage of a generation. Or the picture of a lone student standing in front of Chinese government tanks in Tianenmen Square in 1989. Perhaps most famous of all were the stunning images captured by Mo Amin in Michael Buerk’s BBC report of the Ethiopian Famine of 1984. These caused an outpouring of public sympathy that resulted in the Live Aid concert and massive amounts of aid for the starving. As seen through the examples above, if you are a musician, songwriter, or playwright, your role in advocacy can be transformational. Peace Child has first hand experience with this from the production of the original musical, Peace Child, which gave its name to the organisation. Having premiered in 1981 in London’s Royal Albert Hall, and promoted by the World Disarmement Campaign to much surprise, the play tells of a young Russian girl who meets an American boy at an embassy garden cocktail party. They become friends and figure that if they can become friends, surely their parents and presidents could too – and then their governments could stop spending money on nuclear bombs preparing to blow each other up. Powered by music by Cat Stevens’ brother, David Gordon, the musical swept across the United States and was performed by schools and communities hungry to see an end to the Cold War. In 1986, a Soviet Minister of Culture saw Peace Child, liked it and agreed to allow Soviet children and a Soviet rock group to travel to the United States to perform the show alongside American children and rock stars. The effect was electrifying: instantly, watching the show, one could see the insanity of the Cold War, and recognise the fact that, in the minds of the rising generation, it was over. The US Ambassador to the UN, seeing his Cold War policies crumble before his eyes, hated it so much, he walked out! But apart from him, audiences everywhere else loved it! They wept and cheered the youth performances as it made them see that the USA and USSR could work together on common environmental and social problems. A few years later, the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War was over. While the Cold War came to an end for a variety of reasons, we hope this provides inspiration of how your advocacy campaign can play a part in a movement towards change.


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MANAGING YOUR CAMPAIGN

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n the previous section of this toolkit we outlined the ways to plan your campaign. This included tools for activity planning and scheduling, setting indicators for monitoring and evaluation, and budgeting.

While campaigners and project planners often go through and create these tools for the purpose of submitting a proposal and getting funding, they are also practical tools, for you to refer back to throughout your campaign. It is important to use your indicators to check-in and see if you are doing what you set out to do. Measuring your targets Using your monitoring and evaluation plan (Workshop 14), you should be collecting the data you need to assess your results. Checking-in is about taking the time to analyse and report on this, and share your achievements and work left to do with your stakeholders. Be sure to think of this as more than seeing if you have “succeeded” or “failed”. Regardless of whether or not you are meeting your targets, you also take this opportunity to investigate why and how you are getting there. What are the important lessons to be learned? What are the external and unplanned events affecting your campaign? Where does your work fit into the bigger picture of work that is happening on this issue? What changes need to be made to get the campaign back on track? Just because you’ve created a great campaign plan, it doesn’t mean it will work perfectly in practice. Like anything else, you only learn by practice, so don’t be afraid to restrategise and adapt your work as needed. Sharing your findings In addition to analysing your data and providing a brief report on it to your team stakeholders, you should also think about how you can use this information to strengthen your campaign. If you can prove your campaign is having an impact or change, this can bring even more strength and support to your cause! Or if the situation is worsening, and important policymakers aren’t listening, you can also use this in your communication strategy. Don’t just write a report either. Be creative about how you send a message with the information you are collecting.You can do this through videos, the media, stories from supporters, infographics, public speaking, webinars and countless other ways. Celebrating success Even if you haven’t achieved your overall campaign goal, do be sure to celebrate the achievements and progress your team has made so far. Taking time to mark the small victories is an important way of keeping your team energised and motivated to continue working towards its bigger goals.


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EVALUATION ACTIVITIES opefully, by the time you reach this section, you’ll already have a clear monitoring and evaluation plan, and already been regularly collecting information about your campaign.

Collecting information about the campaign In the first section on monitoring and evaluation we outlined some different methods you could use for collecting information about your campaign and its targets. Some of the popular methods are conducting a survey or questionnaire to provide you with quantitative data from a large number of people; or conducting one on one interviews or focus groups for more in-depth qualitative information with a smaller number of people. Think carefully about the audience you want to get information from, and how you will gather a representative sample. Don’t forget to take lots of high quality pictures or video of any campaign events and activities. Combined with some description, pictures and videos can be great ways to communicate what you’ve done. If your campaign has a strong online component, using social media or Google analytics can also be useful complement to your evaluation (though this doesn’t tell the whole story so don’t rely solely on this). Don’t forget other data you might have like e-mail lists, applications, registration and attendance records.

Tips for data collection 1.

Prepare a set of guidelines for data collection to ensure consistency among different project team members collecting information.

2.

Test the tools you have prepared to be aware of: Potential problem questions, timing, ethical concerns, and to improve your own skills!

3.

Train any additional data collectors to understand the techniques, tools, ethics and any cultural concerns. Anyone assisting in data collection should also know how the information is going to be analyzed. The more people you have assisting in this process, the less likely you are to have bias from only having one or two people interpret the results. By involving the participants of the project in the data collection and analysis, you are also more likely they are to feel a sense of ownership over the process and results of the evaluation.

4.

Obtain permissions from participants and local authorities to collect and use the information you need.


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Interviewing Tips Preparing Before starting any interview or survey you should try to test how you will do the interview with a friend or colleague in order to make any changes to your questions.You may find, simple things like wording or vocabulary that needs to be clarified or rephrased.You will also want to review the order and flow of questions. An important point in formulating questions is to word them as neutrally as possibly to avoid getting answers that may reflect your own point of view. Conducting the interview When starting interviews, try to ask simple questions at the beginning (e.g. Name, age, education) to get things started. Don’t forget small talk before the interview happens—remember your interviewees are more than just “subjects”—they are people too! Explain the purpose of the interview, how long it is likely to take and how their answers will be used. For structured closed-ended interviews, you will often have to stick to the pre-defined list of questions. Read slowly, give participants time to think and re-read the questions as many times as needed. Even if you are doing an interview with closed answers, do take notes during the interview.You may notice something important about the participants’ body language and speech that may clue you in to potential differences between what they are saying and thinking! For semi- or –unstructured open-ended interviews, consider using neutral phrases to encourage participants to elaborate (e.g. “Can you explain?” “Can you tell me more about that” “Anything else?”). Repeat back their answers to confirm what they are saying, rather than assuming or interpreting what they are saying. Again, if you are making a voice recording of the interview, it is important to take notes during the interview to both help you with transcription later on, or in case something happens to the recording. Most importantly, once the interview is over, don’t forget to thank them for their time and participation! Following-up Immediately following the interview, take a few moments to make a some notes about the interviewee or context that might be useful to refer back to later on. If you will be transcribing interviews from voice recordings, do try and set aside the time to do this as soon as possible after the interview took place, preferably the same day! If you leave this until a few weeks (or even days) later, you might go back to hear that the recording wasn’t quite clear. By then you will have also forgotten much about the original interview setting and your immediate thoughts. And remember, transcribing will often take 2-3 more times than the length of the interview itself, so consider this before deciding to rely on voice recordings.


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Figure 4.3: Surveying your survey Below is a flowchart that will take you through the questions and points you should think about before sending out a survey to collect information. If you get stuck, make sure to fix that aspect of your survey before sending it out.


Data analysis Once you’ve collected all this information, you need to think about what you will do with it. Data analysis can be the longest part of monitoring and evaluation. It’s not uncommon to hear of surveys, meetings, focus groups, pictures and other records made, and then sitting collecting dust on shelves in an office cabinet somewhere. Data analysis takes time, because it requires you to interpret the information you have found. This requires reading it over multiple times, looking for trends and other connections between the types of information you have found. The type of analysis you do, will be intimately related to the type of data you have collected.

97 Figure 4.4: Checklist for creating a set of guidelines on data collection and analysis  What do you want to analyse?  What is the link between project results, indicators, and the questions you are asking?  How will data be disaggregated for gender, age and other variables?  What is the sample? (Who are you asking?)  What data collection methodologies are being used?  What are the timelines for collecting and analysing data?  Who’s responsible for managing, carrying out, analysing and reporting on the results?  How will fieldwork take place? What are the logistical details?  How will data be quality-checked?  How will you enter and store your data?  What are the possible relationships and trends in the information found?

When analysing quantitative data, your findings will be represented by numbers, statistics or percentages. It is useful to have some background 
 in statistical analysis or experience with statistical 
 software to do this well. However, you can also find online surveying tools to help you with this. Basic spreadsheets can also be an easy way to manage large amounts of quantitative information and make sense out of them through formulas, graphs and charts. Analysing qualitative data is equally time-consuming. It requires a thorough review of transcripts and field notes. Remember, the goal should be trying to understand questions of how and why certain events happened, so you should avoid trying to quantify, or attach numbers like ratios or percentages to qualitative data. A few steps to qualitative data analysis: 1) Identify similarities or trends of the different accounts 2) Categorise into different themes and topics related to the questions. 3) Write case studies and narratives to highlight the context and key parts of the project. Communicating your results Reporting is a necessary follow up to evaluation, because it is through the communication of results, that lessons learned are shared among all stakeholders. This allows for services or activities to be improved, increases engagement from stakeholders about the project, and informs others about successful (or unsuccessful) approaches to conducting projects. Typically, evaluation results are communicated via lengthy reports. Depending on the target audience for your project, this may be necessary for your project funders. However, reporting is not something that only needs to occur at the end of the project. Reporting includes regularly communicating interim results and findings from monitoring with project beneficiaries, staff, funders and other stakeholders. The means you choose to communicate these results, may thus take on different forms depending on your audience.

Road to Rio+20 Partners Meeting at Peace Child Don’t be afraid to use pictures, videos, maps, graphics or otherInternational, media in January 2011 (Christopher Cordova) order to effectively put across your message!


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part 5: in the field

In this section you’will learn how to: - •presentation skills • - effective questioning -• networking and persuasion - leadership skills - conflict resolution


PRESENTATION SKILLS

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hen preparing to give a presentation, you might think you need to spend a lot of time thinking about what you will say. While it is important that you are able to deliver a strong simple message, you should consider how you communicate to others is about more than the words you say. Also keep in mind that when expressing your feelings: • Words count for 7% of what people believe. • How you sound and accounts for 38% of what convinces people. • How you look and present yourself accounts for 55% of what convinces people.

People can also be easily distracted. Whenever you give a talk, you should keep in mind that only a small portion of the people have shown up specifically to listen to you. They might be waiting, or to get general impressions or learn more about the topic. As the presenter, you should keep the following in mind when planning your presentation: • The message: What do I want the audience to know by the end? • The audience: How do I present my talk so that the audience will understand and remember what I have to say? Figure 5.1 illustrates how the average audience pays attention during a typical presentation. Nearly everyone listens in the beginning, but by the halfway point their attention may have dropped to around 10-20% of what it was at the start. At the end when you are announcing your conclusions, people will begin to listen again as they may be hoping to take something away from the presentation.

Figure 5.1: Audience Attention Span (Adapted from: Effective Communications by Management Extra, 2007)


100 After your presentation, this drops even further. Within a day, your audience will forget 25% of what you said, within two days they’ll have forget 50% of it, and four days later they will have forgotten about 80% of your presentation. While this may make you ask, “Why bothering presenting at all?” there are ways for you to make your message memorable: 1.

Know your audience. Most presentations fail because the speaker never took the time to find out anything about the audience. It is helpful to know what the gender breakdown, average age, and the audience’s familiarity with the topic. If you won’t know until you get there, then try and arrive early or begin the presentation by asking about their experience with the topic.

2.

Start strong. Almost everyone listens in the beginning, so this is when you should make it clear to your audience that you are presenting important information that they shouldn’t miss. This can be done well with a specific question, or a catchy or provocative statement.You could even give the conclusion of your work too. Try to speak slowly and look at your audience, particurlarly those at the back of the group.Try to capture the message of your presentation in a single sentence. If you want to get your message through, state it clearly in the beginning and repeat it at the end.

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Don’t memorise it! It’s not necessary to remember your entire presentation word for word. If you memorise the open and the closing this can be powerful enough, as these are the times when the audience is paying the most attention. Look directly at your audience during these bits. During the middle, it is ok to use cue cards or a PowerPoint presentation to jog your memory.

4.

But do make it memorable. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself and “signpost” the presentation for the audience. Try to have three simple messages that you want them to take away, and repeat them often. Use phrases that help to get people to listen, such as: • The important thing to remember is… • The three main ideas are… • The point is….

5.

Be silent? If you were reading a book, you would expect there to be some white space between paragraphs and pages. Likewise, audiences need time to take in your information when you are speaking. Pause occasionally, or ask questions that give your audience time to think.

6.

Encourage participation. If you give your audience questions and exercises, it will keep people more interested, and also take some of the pressure off of you to deliver the entire session.

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Finish strong. An audience will likely remember the last things they hear. Do memorise your closing and review the main messages you want the audience to leave with. If you want them to take action, join your cause, or just think about the issue, provide them with the information they need to get them to do so.

Very few have been born as naturally gifted speakers and almost everyone will get a little bit nervous before a presentation. For beginners, this can easily lead to a lack of confidence caused by inexperience. They may interpret nervousness as a sign that they are incapable of giving a good presentation. This is not true at all though. The best way to deal with this is to practice and build up your confidence beforehand. There’s no such thing as too much practice! If you were an actor, you wouldn’t get on stage and start performing without rehearsing first.Your presentation shouldn’t be any different, so take time to rehearse in front of people so you can see what works and what doesn’t, and do more than read from a page when it comes time to deliver the real thing.


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WORKSHOP 18: PRESENTATION SKILLS Time: 1 hour Objectives: • To discuss and improve presentation skills. • To practice getting a message across. Materials needed: • Flipcharts or whiteboard • Markers and pens • Paper

Facilitator Guidelines: 1. What makes for a good for a presentation? Write ideas on the flipchart. (5 min) 2. Percentages: Out of 100% what do you think the following percentages are for what makes a good presentation. (5 min) a. Words count for… (7%) b. How you sound and whether you are convincing… (38%) c. How you look and present yourself… (55%) 3. Give examples of the above. Emphasise the need to be heard and repeat the message. Key questions: a. What do you want the audience to come away with? b. Who is your audience? What will strike a chord with them? 4. Ask them to prepare a short presentation. Give participants 5-10 minutes to prepare the activity. (10 minutes) Public Service Announcements are an example of a way to get a message across in a short amount of time. In groups, think of a way to get a message across in 30 seconds. 5. Allow participants to present themselves and give feedback. Write up any key phrases that they thought were feedback. Discuss target audiences. (15 minutes) 6. In groups of four, decide on your message. Give everyone 10 minutes to prepare an “adbuster.” They are not allowed to use words, but they can mime and draw. Allow 5-10 min for presentations and feedback. (15-20 min) 7. Feedback and wrap up. (5 mins)


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STORY TELLING AND PUBLIC NARRATIVE Source: This section has been adapted from Practical Action’s Climate Campaigner Training: http://practicalaction.org/climate-change-advocate-training

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torytelling is about being able to communicate and sharing experiences, in a way that is often entertaining. Cross-culturally, it is also used as a way of teaching about morals and values and is an important way of sharing knowledge.

Public narrative is about being able to tell a personal story in such a way that inspires other people to take action. It is a three-step process: 1. Story of self is your own story about what motivates you, and what choices and decisions you have made that led you to what you are doing. 2. Story of us is the story about the shared values that identifies us as a group, that makes people feel part of what we do. This connects your story to the world we live in. 3. Story of now is the reason why we need to act now. It builds on the first two steps and clearly states the actions that need to be taken to bridge the gap between the present situation and the future we want.

Figure 5.2: Public Narrative Technique (Source: Practical Action “Campaign Resource: Public Narrative)


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WORKSHOP 19: STORYTELLING Source: Alex Farrow, Train Europe: Public Narrative Training

Time: 2 hours Objectives: • To learn and practice creating a public narrative for your campaign. • To practice getting a message across. Materials needed: • Even numbers of participants for practice sessions • Flipcharts or whiteboard • Paper • Pens Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Make sure all participants split into even pairs. 2. Ask participants to turn to their partner to tell a 2 minute story about anything, and then switch. (5 min) 3. When they are finished ask, “What made the story interesting? What made you want to keep listening?” (5 min) (e.g. funny, choices or options they faced, dilemma and solutions, personal, how it was told, the details and context) Make the link to public narrative—why do we miss out on including these details and principles of storytelling when explaining our cause to others? (5 min) 4. Explain the three stage technique described above—story of self, us and now. Then tell participants, they will create their own public narrative. 5. Reintroduce the story of self. Ask participants to in 5 minutes create a timeline of the major events in their life. Then ask some key questions they can answer with a partner: (1015 min) • Was there an event that happened that started a series of events? • What/who has inspired me? • Why am I called to do what I do? • What motivates me? • What are my values?


104 6. Recap the story of us. Splitting up into pairs or small groups, answer the following questions: (15-20 min) • What are the values that distinguish us? • Where have our values come from? • What is our vision for the world? 7. Recap the story of now. Keeping participants in the same groups, ask them to answer the following questions: (15-20 min) • What is the gap between the world now and the world as we want it to be? What can we do to create that change? 8. Now ask participants to work individually to bring together the self, us and now narratives to form their own personal narrative—a story they could tell in less than 5 minutes. Make notes of the three stages you have described and how you would bring them together. (10-15 min) 9. When participants have finished their stories, have them share and practice their story with their partner. Their partner should give feedback, and then they swap it around. Time permitting, allow each partner to have a second try at their stories, using the feedback provided and anything helpful they may have picked up from hearing their partner’s story.

The Lennon Wall, Prague, Czech Republic (Sonya Silva)


EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING

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Source: This section and workshop is adapted from the “The Good Ask” workshop run by Sebastian Ducyk at the 2011 European Youth Congress in Izola, Slovenia.

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sking a good question is a key advocacy skill but is often highly dependent on the context. Often you don’t get the opportunity to ask more than one or at most two questions, so think carefully about what it is you want to find out.

In general people are conditioned from childhood to respond to polite questions. If you ask intelligent questions with impact, almost everyone will answer you and applaud your insight and understanding. The other significant reason to ask good questions is to help the
person you are asking. Asking well-crafted, intelligent questions causes people to think profoundly. When someone thinks more
 deeply than before, new ideas, new answers and new possibilities emerge. Sincere questions are a great way to start a conversation. Asking a question to someone you think is important is a good way to get to meet them and have them remember you. Ask for their opinion, advice, a favour or anything that will enable you to meet them. Then make sure they know who you are, and stay in contact with them so they remember you. Thanking them afterwards, by sending an e-mail or note is a great way to follow-up.

Ravi Theja Muthu asking a question at a UN event during the Road to Rio+20 Partners Meeting in NYC, November 2011 (Sonya Silva)

How do you ask a good question? There are two basic types of questions: 1. Open questions literally open up the dialogue. If you want to engage the other person in discussion, ask open questions that cannot simply be answered “yes” or “no” with a single “right” answer.You will probably get more interesting answers with “Why?” and “How?” than “What?” You have to be a bit careful with “why” questions which can sometimes come across as confrontational. You could ask, “How do you feel about…?” which is softer. Think about the effect you want to have on that person and how you might react if asked the question. 2. Use closed questions when you want to end a long discussion and get short answers. At a meeting or lecture Don’t tell the audience or panel what you think and then tag on a question at the end. This is very annoying for others.You get to say what you want, but you don’t learn very much from the “expert”. Examples of Questions at the UNFCCC: Bad practices Question on “fairness of the price of the sandwich” to the UN Climate Secretary.  Wrong addressee Question on “date of the release of the next IPCC report” to Nobel Nobel Prize.  Factual question on something available on the internet

Good practices

Question to new UN Climate Secretary: “Could you promise young people engaged in this process that we can remain confident that the process will secure a good future for future generations?”  Played on emotions, established a personal relationship with the Secretary “Why are NGOs not allowed to access documentation available to governmental delegates?”  Uses the fact that different actors attended the Q&As in order to unlock a situation.


106 Before visiting an official or expert • Do your research. Find out as much about the person as possible. • Know the facts behind your question and plan it carefully. • What is the end product you want to achieve? • Do you want their support? • Do you want them to do something for you? • Do you want them to remember you in the future? Ahead of time think of four possible questions and then decide if you only had one opportunity to ask a question, decide which would have the best effect. It is important to build personal involvement in the question, between both the person asking and the person receiving the question. For example, use the conditional to get the person’s opinion, and not a political answer. Good example: “If you were almighty, what would you do to ensure that the process moves forward during this session.”

if you can ask several questions, you can move through a sequence of questions on four specific areas: G – Goal R – Reality O – Options W – Will Preparing Questions 1. How to prepare a question • Consider the context. What is the format of the session? Can you ask more than one question? Can you follow up? • Consider the audience. How freely can the person speak? Do you need to make your question understandable to the broader public ? Can you get straight to the point? • Think about the recipient of the question. How will he or she feel being asked this question? • Prepare additional questions. 2. Youth-specific Q&As Short-term • Be BLUNT, don’t hesitate to play the emotional string. • Prepare the set-up of the Q&As session, sometimes you might be expected or allowed to facilitate the Q&As. • Check the expectations of the person receiving the question. They might expect young people to challenge them and push them to think outside of the box. Long-term • Check background between this person (wikipedia search). • Check what was asked in previous youth briefings and how the session was run. • Build a trust and demonstrate your credibility (know your facts). • Record and share to your caucus. • Invite for follow-up.


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WORKSHOP 20: THE GOOD ASKEFFECTIVE QUESTIONING Time: 1 hour Objectives: • Increase awareness about the importance of effective questioning. • Get the participants to understand relevant factors to consider when preparing a question. Materials needed: • Flipcharts or whiteboard • Markers and pens • Post-its and paper • Handout 20.1 Facilitator Guidelines: 1. Overview the objectives of the workshop. (5 min) 2. Conduct a brainstorming on why we question in the context of advocacy. (5 min) 3. Go over the resource page. Be sure to emphasise the difference between open and closed questions. Create a ranking on a whiteboard or flipchart on the degree of openness of various types of questions. (15 min) a. Closed questions: • Rhetorical questions; • Leading questions/loaded question (when the untold is more important than what is expressed) b. Factual questions: • Do…? (yes or no question) • When? Who? Where? • What? • Why? (might be more confrontational, try to reformulate) c. Open questions: • How? Go through some of the examples of good and bad questions and pointers for preparing to meet an official. 4. In small groups, ask participants to prepare one question to Brice Lalonde. They will be given one piece of information on him. After a few minutes, provide the second handout with more information. This information could also be presented with a projector. Quickly review of some of the questions prepared and how they rank on the scale of closed/open questions? What makes them good questions? (20 min) 5. Wrap up by going over the pointers in the resource page on preparing questions. (5 min)


108 Case study: UN Official Profile

Handout 18.1 NOTE: Cut each profile out beforehand to hand out to the groups.

1

Brice Lalonde, French, UN Secretary-General Executive Coordinator of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development

2

Brice Lalonde (b. 1946 - French), Executive Coordinator of the UN CSD 1968: president of the National Union of French Student 1973: with Greenpeace, arrested by French Navy during protest against Nuclear 1990: French Environment Minister 2007: French Climate Ambassador


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ONE TO ONE COMMUNICATION

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ou are at an international conference. During a workshop you have noticed few people asking interesting questions.You decide it is worth investigating who they are and what they do. How do you approach them? What do you tell them?

During the same meeting, you asked a powerful question to one of the speakers, and he has now invited you to a private meeting in order to hear more about what you do. How are you going to persuade him or her it is worth putting effort into your project? Don’t worry, you have every reason to succeed, as you have now a clear vision and goals of what you want to achieve, and several plans on how to achieve them. Just read below if you want to know more about networking, pitch and persuasion!

Networking When people hear “networking”, they think of chatting people up in an effort to make professional connections. Some people are naturally good of this, and taking advantage of social events or places where they know key people will be present. But for others, networking can feel like forced conversation in which you need to have your requests memorised and try to chase the biggest fish in the room. The fact is, it doesn’t have to be that way. Authentic human networking is about genuine exploration of other persons’ characters, hopes, ideals, and efforts, and earnest contribution to their success. It’s about truly connecting and sharing, within a growing and more robust network of people you know and care about. “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” -- Dale Carnegie So how do you get to such a state of natural flow and ease in growing your network of meaningful relationships that add mutual value to each other over long periods of time? Here are a few handy recommendations: Never keep score. Networking is not a zero sum game, where what you give has to match what you get out of a person. Despite being actually difficult to quantify, it takes focus away from the goal of the game: ensuring the other person’s success. Let generosity and selflessness guide your actions, and karma will make sure that people will want to help you with what you need, even when you least expect it. Contact them when you don’t need them. The worst thing you can do in networking is to never follow up to a face to face encounter, only then to email them all of a sudden with an important request they should help you with. Try instead to be in touch regularly. When you see an event or article that might be of interest to them, send them a link and show them a tangible sign that you’re in this for their success and for the sake of the relationship and not (only) for your personal gain.


110 Seize opportunities. Not always the person you thought was going to help you with a particular request can do so. Nevertheless, think of other ways you could add value to each other’s work. Not all networking is planned, leave space for improvisation. Get personal. The best networking happens when you treat the other person as another human being, and not as an abstract networking object that is serving your professional needs. Within the limits of cultural sensitivity, the best way to do that is to engage with him as a person. Remember details they mention to you around family, aspirations, hobbies, and reprise them in future conversations. They’ll make your bond stronger. Be yourself. Quite frankly, it’s hard to keep up an act for the whole duration of a relationship, like the one you’re trying to build. Let go of mental blockages and of preconceived notions on what you should be saying or doing, and just say or do what you really mean. Be concrete, direct and clear, and ask what you really want to ask. Be different. Chances are, if you’re approaching somebody with a high profile, you’re going to be just one among many eager suitors. Focus on what makes you stand out from the crowd. Find a quirky way of breaking the ice or a unique introduction of your work. Be vulnerable. Saying “I don’t know”, asking questions, exposing your own weaknesses – these are all acceptable behaviours in building an authentic networking relationship. For starters, it’ll make you seem more human and more relatable than others in your position who are continuously try to impress. Good luck, and don’t forget to follow up!

Elevator speech Adapted from: http://www.businessballs.com/business-networking.htm

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n elevator speech usually describes your pitch—the way you would answer the question “What do you do?” in 20 seconds, if you met a potentially important contact for the first time in an elevator at a conference.

If you talk (or write) too much, the listener (or reader) will become bored, or think you are rude or too self-centred. Be concise and convey your most relevant points in as short a time as possible. Here are the main things to consider when creating your elevator speech: 1. Name: Remember your communication, is about more than what you say, but your body language as well, so make eye contact, smile, stand upright and speak with confidence. 2. Campaign name: Same as before. Don’t expect them to recognise your organisation or initiative. 3. Location: Tell them where you work, and make this relevant to the situation. If you’re in a small village, don’t mention the name if you’re in a global gathering. 4. Your aims: Express your goals, and ambitions, and know what you are seeking from different groups of potential contacts.


111 Other tips: • Remember that less is more. It’s better to make a few powerful points than provide lots of unnecessary information. • Body language. When speaking be sure to make eye contact, and pay attention to their body language to gauge their reaction and interest. • End with a question. This allows you to get something to happen rather than allowing the discussion to trail off into small-talk. • Don’t force your business card onto the other person (unless this is the tone and expectation). Try to develop the discussion around what the other person wants to do, achieve, change, or grow. • Be alert for interruptions and opportunities. Many highly competent business people have a habit of interrupting and cutting short discussions when they see an opportunity. Be prepared at any time to respond to someone asking “What do you need?”

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Persuasion ere you are! Thanks to your analysis of the situation and your perseverance, you are finally discussing with the person who could change the face of your project. What do you say? How do you say it so you can persuade him or her that it is worth investing on you and your project? Here are some tips & tricks.

Use contrast: Two different things appear even more different when they are placed next to each others. Your project is the best way for your target to accomplish some of its goals? Make him/her understand this! Use reciprocity: When somebody gives you something that you consider valuable, you will feel obligated to give something back. Start giving your contact card if you want to receive a contact card. Use contrast and reciprocity: Ask for a bigger favour and then decrease your demands to what you really want. Don’t be too cheap: Our desire to have a certain product increases significantly if the product is presented as being in small quantities or very hard to obtain. Use the crowd effect: People have an increased tendency of accepting an offer if a number of people have accepted it before. That is why it is helpful to get letters of support from institutions even if they don’t do something for your campaign. Be introduced: Use every chance to get introduced, or even mentioned to the people you wish to start cooperation with. It will smooth the way significantly! Use authority: Introducing a figure of authority in the conversation will allow you to set the rules of the discussion. For example, to grasp the attention of someone when introducing a project on Rio+20, you might quote UN General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon: “Rio+20 will be one of the most important global meetings on sustainable development in our time.” Use the need of consistency: A person making a statement will automatically base its next actions to avoid contradicting him/herself.


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TEAMBUILDING eamwork is about working together towards a common goal.You may already have a group of people or an organisation to work with on your initiative, or you might be starting out on your own. In either case, it is always a good idea to think about the structure and vision of your team. You may need to grow your team, or rethink its goals.

An important aspect of teambuilding, is not only filling the different types of roles and skill sets, but also keep in mind that you will need to come up with a shared vision that everyone agrees on and is motivated to work towards.

Group activities at the 2011 European Youth Congress in Izola, Slovenia (Sonya Silva)


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WORKSHOP 21: CREATING A SHARED VISION This activity is about creating a vision statement that describes the ultimate goal within the interests of your team. To do this, you can draw on some of the ideas you may have come up with during the visioning exercise. Whereas in the visioning activity you were thinking about ideas and issues that you would like to change, here you should be trying to come up with a focused concrete statement that describes your ultimate aim. Source: This activity has been taken from “Leading for the Future: A Leadership Programme for Young People, ” 2011, Woodcraft Folk (by Alex Farrow, Bill Badham and Tim Davies). http:// www.woodcraft.org.uk/resources/leading-future Time: 30 minutes

Objectives: To develop and share a vision that can be used to inspire and lead the group.

Materials needed: • Art materials • Space Facilitator Guidelines: 1. In small groups create a poster that shows your vision of where you want the group to be in a year’s time.You can be artistic as you like, but make sure to be realistic about what your aims are. A vision should not be so distant and unrealistic that it is mere fantasy, but it should be: • Imaginable – it clearly describes what the group will look like in the future • Desirable – it can be seen to be in the group’s interests • Feasible – it includes realistic goals • Focused – it is clear enough to be a practical guide for the group • Flexible – it is not rigid, but supports group members’ initiative 2. Come back together and take turns to share the visions each group came up with. Each group should be able to describe their vision in no more than two minutes. 3. Using the various ideas, bring together the common elements to create a shared vision for the group.


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Motivating and Delegating

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fter you have your team with its vision, you have to explore your role in the team. As the leader, your basic role is to motivate and delegate the tasks to manage teamwork. Motivation is the drive that keeps your teammates working and keeps your group together.Your high priority is to maintain the motivation of your co-workers. Here are some basic tips on how you could keep up motivation: • Recognition and attention. Achievements are to be recognised. Everyone likes attention and being acknowledged for their good work. Be sure to be thankful, appreciative, and recognise people’s efforts. • Celebration. Achievements are to be also celebrated. If work was successful, it is always a good reason to celebrate, and therefore keep up the motivation of the others. • Training. Sending team members to trainings might also give a motivational boost. Gaining new knowledge and skills in new surroundings can be refreshing. • Give titles. Being entitled to do something always gives a bunch of energy to workers. Find some creative, funny and expressive titles for your team members. • Good environment. Never forget about providing a good working environment. A poor one can be demotivational. • Team spirit. Not only is a good environment important, but also you need to have good relations among the people who work together. Strong team spirit is important for keeping the group happy and driven over the long run. • Low stress levels. Stress is a joy-killer. Some people bare stress better, and others not. Try to keep stress levels low, to encourage people to effectively carry out their roles. A special sub-topic of motivating is delegating – a powerful tool which creates a win-win situation: takes some tasks off your shoulder and gives motivation along with skills-improvement. There are nine basic steps you should follow, when you are delegating: 1. Define the task 2. Select the individual or team 3. Assess ability and training needs 4. Explain the reasons 5. State required results 6. Consider resources required 7. Agree on deadlines 8. Support and communicate 9. Provide feedback on results If you follow these steps, you will already start on the road to become a good leader. However, for that you need specific leadership skills.


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Persuasion eadership is one of the most complex skills of all. To be a leader one needs several qualities, such as self-confidence, empathy, adaptability and strategic thinking. These qualities can be mastered over time and with some effort. In this toolkit, we’ll only provide a very brief overview of the things you should consider in your role as team leader.

You, your personality, your values, your beliefs, your behaviour and your vision all play a role in what kind of leader you are and how your group is functioning.Your experiences and ideals define the structure of your team, and how you carry out your role. Your job is basically defined by your personal actions.Your job is what brings together the team. It is also your job to get to know your team members, their strengths and weaknesses, and their motivation and team relations.You also have to define a common vision of your team and keep in mind all their needs (including yours). Your team is your hands, eyes, ears and legs – if you are good at delegating. As the head of your team, you need to give out clear instructions for each member for the best functioning. However, each team member has their own set of needs and concerns, and so it might be difficult to get them to take ownership over a particular task. For this reason it is important to make sure people are interested and excited about their work. Additional Leadership Tips: 1. Be a team player:You are part of your team you work with, you should take an active role in the work. 2. Be courteous: Democratic voting might not be always effective, but you should consult with your mates before you make a decision. 3. Act constructively: Be positive and welcome new ideas. 4. Be a good sport: Don’t overreact to failure. 5. Be conscientious: Be punctual and responsible for your work. 6. Celebrate the success of others: Motivate them by celebrating their achievements and build a better team spirit. 7. Believe in fairness: Be fair to the others, do not trick them or treat them differently. But even if you stick to these tips, you can face many problems with and within your group, so you need to be prepared for that as well.


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Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution

roblems and conflicts are an inevitable part of any campaign. In our everyday lives, we usually find the solution to simple problems without very much thinking. However, the issues we are faced with in a campaign are not everyday ones, and you may not be used to working them out. Therefore you need to think about the steps to solving a problem. This can include techniques like brainstorming, scoring systems, and creative methods. We don’t have room in this toolkit to explore this subject in-depth, so please refer to the resource list at the back of this toolkit for more information. Below are the six steps to take when addressing a problem: 1. Defining the problem. How does the problem affect each person or group? How do they view the problem? How does these views on the problem differ between one another? 2. Gathering information/Restating the problem. Restating the problem incorporates the needs of both individuals/groups. 3. Generating alternatives. Gathering ideas and suggestions for the best solution requires creativity and time. 4. Selecting alternatives. Deciding on the best solution after the evaluation of different problem solving methods. It’s good to have a “Plan A” and “Plan B”. 5. Implementing solution. It is advisable that you make your plan of action time-bound. Personal conflicts however, usually involve many feelings and emotions, therefore requires time to be solved. 6. Evaluating the chosen solution. Finding out how each person feels is essential part of the evaluation. Should the solution be adjusted? Is everybody satisfied with the current situation? The Drama Triangle Conflict management is a specific, tricky part of problem solving. Conflicts are active disagreements between people, groups or societies. Understanding the roles team members might take on in a conflict can help you to understand how to manage and resolve the situation. Generally when a conflict arises, there are three different types of roles one takes – persecutor, victim or rescuer. Each will act on their own needs, which prevents a solution from being found. This is called the “drama triangle.”

Persecutor

Rescuer

Victim

Figure 5.3: The Drama Triangle

• The victim is the person in a situation of conflict. They may see themselves as powerless and will find reasons and excuses why they cannot reach a solution. • The rescuer is the one who intervenes. However, in the ‘do-gooder role’ they develop a sense of power and self-esteem from their rescuer status. • The persecutor is the one who pressures and corrects the victim. Usually starts out as the victim or rescuer before becoming the persecutor. In a conflict, a person takes the role of a victim or rescuer. Then they switch roles in the triangle—the victim might turn on the rescuer to become the persecutor, or the rescuer might become the persecutor. The rescuer can begin to feel hopeless from trying to fix the problem and become the victim.


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CONCLUSION


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s we mentioned in the introduction, this toolkit builds on Peace Child’s previous Advocacy Toolkit published in 2010. Both editions have been created from our experience of running advocacy trainings with young people across Europe.

In 2009, we led a weeklong training at our headquarters on “What is youth-led development?” The participants of this went on to put their skills in practice at meetings in Brussels with European officials, and then to the COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen. The second advocacy training run in 2011 used a similar model, but focused on sustainable development and the environment, to complement our Road to Rio+20 campaign—an initiative to mobilise and engage young people to influence and take action on sustainable development in the lead up to the 2012 Earth Summit. In order to support and encourage young Europeans to advocate for sustainable development in their home countries, we ran trained young people in advocacy skills at the 2011 European Youth Congress (EYC) in Izola Slovenia. The goal was to have each delegate leave the Congress with their own personal action plan, centered around creating more sustainable communities in their home countries. Twenty of the delegates also had the opportunity to practice their new skills and pitch their new campaigns meetings at the UN DPI/NGO meeting in Bonn, and during visits DG Development and DG Environment in Brussels. This toolkit has been updated to reflect the training needs of young people leading their own campaigns. Before publishing it, a few of the delegates from the 2011 EYC met at Peace Child in April for an editorial meeting. At this meeting we discussed what an advocate needs, and what skills they should have (see image) right. Taking this into consideration, we reviewed the gaps present in the toolkit, and made the changes and adjustments to some of the existing sections in order to publish a more structured and user-friendly resource. This being said, we would appreciate any feedback or suggestions you may have. Please use and send in the evaluation form located at the back of the toolkit to advocacy@ peacechild.org if you think there are ways we can improve our work.

What skills does an advocate need?


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Alexandre Florentin’s Post-EYC Campaign Story: MyCity+20 While I could see know has a clear idea of where we really want to go, and more specifically, how we want to go there in terms of sustainable development, I thought it is necessary to rely on the group intelligence. It's the basic of change management to involved everyone from the beginning, in order to find reliable solutions and possible implementation. I thus decided to promote simulations of Rio+20 as a tool to educate and mobilise. My vision was that it would happen all around the world, giving the youth a practical tool to "think global, act local". The project is called MyCity+20 and before Rio+20, more than 15 simulations on all continents will take place.

Photo by John Gevers

The concept is the following: young people are given the opportunity to roleplay the different actors of Rio+20, so they can better understand how complicated the problem is. Roleplaying is the most powerful way to understand someone else point of view, so you can work cooperatively after. It's the "think global" part. Then, participants are asked to reflect on what happened during the simulation, answering the question "what can you do, here and now, to help solve this?". It's the "act local" part. The making and dissemination of this is supported by the UNESCO, the secretariat of Rio+20, Road to Rio+20, and we receive a lot of support from many, many more people and organisation. I had one simple idea to promote, which can be part of a bigger solution. Peace Child International provided me with the proper environment to design it, and the encouragement to go for it. The Advocacy Training sessions also gave me to fail many times in how I could present my concept, so I could do it well once in the wild :) We hope you’ve found this toolkit useful and inspiring for your own campaigns. Now that you have the tools and skills you need to be an effective advocate, be sure to put them into practice to be the change you want to see in the world! 2011 European Youth Congress in Izola, Slovenia


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LIST OF FIGURES

Part 1: What is Advocacy • Figure 1.1: The Advocacy Cycle (p.17) Part 2: Understanding your Issue • Figure 2.1: The Why Pie Example (p.30) • Figure 2.2: Allies & Opponents Matrix (p.36) • Figure 2.3: Power Analysis (p.37 ) • Figure 2.4 Stakeholders Table (p.39 ) Part 3: Planning your Campaign • Figure 3.1: The Results-Chain as a Pyramid (p.49) • Figure 3.2: From Inputs to Impact (p.52) • Figure 3.3: Stepping Stones Example (p.57) • Figure 3.4: Action Planning Table Example (p.58) Part 4: Running your Campaign • Figure 4.1: Social Media Tools (p.80) • Figure 4.2: Online Collaboration Tools (p.81) • Figure 4.3: Surveying your survey (p.96) • Figure 4.4: Checklist for creating a set of guidelines on data collection and analysis (p.97) Part 5: In the Field • Figure 5.1: Audience Attention Span (p.99) • Figure 5.2: Public Narrative Technique (p.102) • Figure 5.3: The Drama Triangle (p.116)


GLOSSARY

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PART 1: WHAT IS ADVOCACY? Advocacy: Trying to attain public support for a particular cause to influence or change policy. It includes several different activities and methods, but essentially, it is a means of effectively putting across a message, communicating issues or causes in order to engage more people to support your ideas. Birddogging: A lobbying tactic that directly engages policymakers by asking them tough questions at public events. Boycott: A form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons. Campaign: The organised plan of action you take towards working for the change you want to see. Craftivism: A form of activism that often involves environmentalism, anti-capitalism and third-wave feminism. This is because it is about reclaiming domesticity for those feminists that wish to do so (in opposition to second-wave feminists that rejected aspects of the home); about using organic fabrics and fairly traded produced, or reusing goods to minimise waste; and by promoting the do it yourself movement that allows crafter’s to create things on their own rather than paying for a good. Culture jamming/subvertising: A tactic used to disrupt mainstream cultural institutions and corporate advertising, often by making parodies of corporate and political advertisements in a satirical manner. Common tactics include refiguring logos, fashion, and product images and make statements to force the viewer to think about our consumption habits and mainstream beliefs. Demonstration: A public gathering of a large group of people to express their support or opposition for a certain political, economic, social or environmental issue Die-in: A form of protest where participants simulate being dead, usually with signs. Direct action: A type of tactic used by a group of people to expose problems and that may challenge the law to claim rights that are currently denied. Divestment: A concerted economic boycott that emphasises “disinvesting� to pressure a government, industry or company towards changing a particular policy or regime. Fare strike: Direct action through avoiding paying transit fares, by jumping over turnstiles, getting on buses through the back and leaving doors open in subway stations. They can organise solidarity between the drivers and riders. Flash mobs: These are events during which a group of people show up in the same place at the same time and engage in the same behaviour. Hacktivism: The use of computers and computer networks to protest and promote political ends. Hunger strike: A method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikes have sometimes been forcibly ended through the use of forcefeeding.


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Letter writing: A method used to request a specific change in policy or law. Often this can involve creating a template letter or email on a postcard, or online and having others signing onto it and send it on their behalf. Lobbying: A form of advocacy that involves a group of people who try to influence politicians or public officials on a specific policy issues. Noncooperation: Involves the purposeful withholding of cooperation or the unwillingness to initiate in cooperation with an opponent. The goal of non-cooperation is to halt or hinder an industry, political system, or economic process. Online activism: Involves the use of internet communications and social media to spread information faster and to a wider audience. It can include awareness raising, mobilization, and action. Methods used include videos, e-mail lists, Facebook and Twitter. It can be used for fundraising, community building, lobbying and organising. Petition: Collection of a large number of signatures, names and addresses (on paper or online) to demonstrate support for your position. Often petitions are delivered to policy makers, and will use the media to gain attention and support for the cause. Picketing: A form of protest in which people (called picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Picketing is a common tactic used by trade unions during strikes that will try to prevent dissident members of the union, members of other unions and un-unionised workers from working, and thus preventing the business from operating normally. Those who cross the picket line and work despite the strike are known as ‘scabs’. Sabotage: A deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. Sit-in: A form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area in protest to nonviolently demonstrate for political, social, or economic change. The area chosen is usual a strategic area they are trying to blockade until they are evicted by force, arrested, or until their demands have been met. Slacktivism/Clicktivism: A term sometimes used to describe online campaigns that involved very little effort on the part of the individual supporter other than “liking” a cause or signing and sharing a petition, as opposed to actions that happen in a physical place. Strike: A work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines. Tax resistance: A form of civil disobedience through the refusal to pay tax in opposition to the government or government policy that imposes it. This is different from protesting the legal obligation or concept of taxes. Teach-in: A practical, participatory educational forum, on any complicated issue (usually on current political affairs) that is oriented towards taking action. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific frame of time or an academic scope of the topic. While they include experts lecturing on their area of expertise, discussion and questions are welcome. Viral video: Online videos that are dispersed quickly and can get a message across to thousands of people very quickly. Most videos that are truly viral are few and most aren’t produced for campaigning purposes.


123 PART 2: UNDERSTANDING YOUR ISSUE & PART 3: PLANNING YOUR CAMPAIGN Activity plan: Outlines the specific actions you will take, when they will take place, the resources needed, and who is responsible for carrying them out. BEEM: Build, Eliminate, Exploit, Minimise. Data collection methods: cf. handout 14.2 Evaluation: Process of collecting and analysing information, done periodically to take an in-depth look at the impacts of a project and see whether or not the stated objectives and goals have been achieved. Gantt chart: Type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. These charts show start and finish dates of terminal elements and summary elements of a project. They highlight critical and non-critical activities, slack time, and predecessor-successor relationships. Goals: General statements about the direction you would like to take. They may not be measurable and tangible. They refer more to a broad vision of your campaign. Hazard: Anything that can cause harm. Impact: The long-term cumulative effect of various projects and programmes in the project area. Indicator: Targets that provide well-defined information that allows you to measure and demonstrate that something has happened or a change has occurred. They are used as a signpost of whether or not you have accomplished what you set out to do. Input: The resources that are needed in order to conduct your project. Mitigation strategy: The actions you can take to reduce the chance of a hazard affecting your project. Monitoring: Process of continuously collecting, counting, recording and analysing information to make appropriate changes to your activities and project plans if needed to. Objectives: Concrete attainments that can be achieved by following a certain number of steps. They need to be “SMART�. Outcome: The medium-term effects achieved through the implementation of your project. Output: The products or services immediately resulting from an activity that has taken place during your project. Participatory rapid (or rural) appraisal (PRA): Methods that engage the communities to explore and understand the issues affecting them. Often done over a short, 2-3 week period of time. Often includes visual techniques such as drawing maps, diagrams, calendars and timelines using local materials. Qualitative: Information that is descriptive, and answers questions of how or why something has happened. It is often represented by words, images or objects. They reflect attitudes, beliefs and motives of individuals, in terms of quality, extent or levels of results attained. Quantitative: Information that is represented by numbers or statistics and answers questions of how many or how much through numbers, percentages, rates and ratios. Risk: The chance (low to high) that someone or the project could be harmed by a hazard. Risk assessment: A systemic way to identify things that can go wrong in your campaign, especially those that can harm or injure individuals involved in it.


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SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound. Stakeholder: Persons, groups, organizations, members or systems who affect or can be affected directly or indirectly by your project (goals, activities, results, etc.). Strategy: The plan of action you’ll take in order to achieve your vision. SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Results-chain: A project management tool that helps you understand the different levels of goals and targets in your project, and how they build onto one another. The results-chain visually demonstrates the flow between inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts. Rural Appraisal/Assessment (RA): Sharing some characteristics of PRA, is a cost-effective method of gathering data for decision-making, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, such as site visits, observations and sample surveys. Vision: Describes what the ideal world looks like in the future.

PART 4: RUNNING YOUR CAMPAIGN Closed questions: Are questions that can be answered with a “yes”, “no” or from a pre-defined list of possible answers.

Focus group: Moderated and guided conversation held with usually 6 to 10 people representing similar characteristics discussing experiences, feelings, attitudes or beliefs relevant to a certain issue. Interview: An interview is a conversation between two people when questions are asked by an interviewer to obtain more information from the person being interviewed. They can be held with interviews or groups, and be unstructured or structured. (See Data Collection Methods from Workshop 14 for more information). Open questions: Are questions that enable dialogue and can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” Press release: A written piece directed at members of the media that gives reporters all the information they need to write a story, even if they weren’t there in person.

Structured closed-ended interviews: Sticks to the pre-defined list of questions, with set answers (e.g. yes or no; or multiple choice answers).

Survey: A survey collects specific types of information from a defined group of people. Can be done in several ways: 1) A census that includes everyone in the group ; 2) large sample with a random representative group of people; or 3) small scale that includes a non-random purposeful selection of people who are asked a few questions. Unstructured open-ended interviews: An interview used to obtain qualitative information. The aim is to understand issues in greater depth and asks questions like how and why. Are analysed though transcription and coding the common themes.


125 PART 5: IN THE FIELD Elevator speech: Describes your pitch for your project or campaign, is the way you would answer the

question “What do you do?” in 20 seconds. Public narrative: A storytelling technique pioneered by Professor Michael Ganz, and made popular by

the 2008 Obama campaign. It is about being able to tell a personal story in such a way that inspires other people to take action. It is a three-step process including the story of self, the story of us, the story of now. Storytelling: Communicating and sharing experiences, values and knowledge, in a way that is often

entertaining.

RESOURCES Advocacy Skills & Organising 350.org: http://workshops.350.org Citizen’s Handbook: www.vcn.bc.cac/citizens-handbook Gordon, G. 2002. Advocacy Toolkit: Understanding Advocacy. Tearfund. http://tilz.tearfund.org/ webdocs/Tilz/Roots/English/Advocacy%20toolkit/Advocacy%20toolkit_E_FULL%20DOC_ Parts%20A%2BB.pdf International HIV/AIDS Alliance. 2002. Advocacy in Action: A toolkit to support NGOs and CBOs responding to HIV/AIDS. http://www.aidsalliance.org/includes/Publication/adv0602_ Advocacy_toolkit_eng.pdf National Council for Voluntary Organisations: http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/campaigningresources Partington, P.J. Climate Change:Youth Guide to Action. 2007. TakingITGlobal. www.climate. takingitglobal.org Practical Action Climate Campaigner Training: http://practicalaction.org/climate-changeadvocate-training Rabble.ca. Activist Toolkit: http://rabble.ca/toolkit Rainforest Action Network: http://action.ran.org/index.php/Activist_Materials RESULTS: http://results.org.uk/get-involved/activist-toolkit Seeds for Change: www.seedsforchange.org.uk Sudbrock, C. and Pearce, T. 2007. Handbook for Action Against Climate Change. International Falcon Movement-Socialist Educational International. http://www.ifm-sei.org/toolbox/all-together-against-climate-change


126 The Change Agency: www.thechangeagency.org The Community Toolbox: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/default.aspx The Ruckus Society: www.ruckus.org Training for Change: www.trainingforchange.org WaterAid: http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/advocacy_sourcebook _2.pdf Youth Action Network.VIP KIT.Vol 1. & Re: Action. Impact Toolkit.Vol. 2 www.youthactionnetwork.org.uk Media Media Awareness Network. Media Toolkit http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/toolkit/accessing_media/index.cfm Media Trust: http://resources.mediatrust.org/ Movements.org How Tos: http://www.movements.org/how-to/ Shirky, C. 2008. Here comes everybody: How change happens when people come together. Penguin Books. Meetings, Networking & Presentation Skills Carnegie, D. 1936. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Simon & Schuster. Ferrazzi, K. 2005. Never Eat Alone. Crown Business. Rahman, M. 2002. Navigating International Meetings: A Pocketbook Guide to Effective Youth Participation. United Nations Association in Canada. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/intl_meetings_eng.pdf Health GAP Global Access Project, Birddogging 101: http://www.healthgap.org/documents/birddogging101goodfont2small.pdf Management Extra. 2007. Effective Communications. Pergamon Flexible Learning. Pitch: http://www.businessballs.com/business-networking.htm


127 Leadership Skills and Teambuilding Farrow, A., Badham, B., and Davies, T. 2011. Leading for the Future: A Leadership Programme for Young People. Woodcraft Folk. http://www.woodcraft.org.uk/resources/leading-future Information and Communication Technologies, College of Agricultural Sciences. 2005. Learning Today Leading Tomorrow: Developing Leadership Potential. The Pennsylvania State University. http://pubs.cas.psu. edu/FreePubs/pdfs/ua414.pdf (For more resources in this series change the ending “/ua414” until “/ua424” or search “leadership” here: http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/Publications.asp) Yes! Activities facilitation manual for young changemakers. http://www.yesworld.org/sites/default/files/ media/jamfacilitationmanual.pdf Problem Solving & Conflict Resolution Aspira Association. Conflict Resolution and Group Dynamics (workshop outline): http://www.aspira.org/files/documents/youthdev08/U_III_M_11_cr.pdf Fisher, R. 2000. Sources of Conflict and Methods of Conflict Resolution. The American University. http://www.aupeace.org/files/Fisher_SourcesofConflictandMethodsofResolution.pdf Ford, J., Knight, J., McDonald-Littleton, E. 2011. “Lesson 21: Problem Solving Process” from Learning Skills. Center for Literacy Studies, The University of Tennessee. http://www.cls.utk.edu/pdf/ls/Week3_Lesson21.pdf Hailey, J. 2006. NGO Leadership Development. International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC). http://www.intrac.org/data/files/resources/248/Praxis-Paper-10-NGO-Leadership-Development.pdf Keulder, T. 2009. Principles of Internal NGO Management. Namibia Institute for Democracy. http://www. nid.org.na/pdf/publications/Internal_management.pdf Mantha, S. & Sivaramakrishna, D. Handbook on Problem-solving Skills. Centre for Good Governance. http://www.cgg.gov.in/Handbook%20on%20Problem%20Solving%20Skills.pdf Mind Tools: Essential Skills for an Excellent Career: http://www.mindtools.com/fulltoolkit.htm


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Research, Data Collection & Evaluation Asibey, E. and van Fleet, J. 2011. Continuous Progress. The Aspen Institute. Gelfland, R. and Godefroy, R. 2010. Participatory Research Kit: Conducting Interviews. DataCenter. http:// www.datacenter.org/research-tools/ Horsley, K., and McCabe, A. The Evaluator’s Cookbook: Participatory Evaluation Exercises. National Evaluation of the Children’s Fund. www.ne-cf.org Kloosterman, P., Giebel, K., and Senyuvam, O. 2007. T-Kit No. 10. Educational Evaluation in Youth Work. Council of Europe. http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/Publications/T_kits/10/ T-Kit_10.pdf Ragan, L. 2011.Volume 5: Participatory Planning and Program Evaluation in Urban Youth Centres. UNHABITAT. http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=3297 Research Into Use. 2007. The Field Guide to Photography. http://www.researchintouse.com/rnrrslegacy/ pub_photoguide.html The Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development. 2005. Reflect and Improve: A toolkit for Engaging Youth and Adults as Partners in Program Evaluation. www.theinnovationcenter.org


ADVOCACY EVALUATION FORM

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his is the second version of our advocacy toolkit. To improve our resources in the future, we would appreciate if you could send us back your feedback on this toolkit. Please e-mail it to advocacy@peacechild.org or fax it to +44 (0) 1763 274460.

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself first: Name:

E-mail address:

Age:

Occupation:

Gender

Country:

2. General comments or suggestions: 3. How did you find out about the Advocacy Toolkit? Peace Child International (e.g. e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, website) Colleague Search engine Friend or relative Another organisation Other (please specify): 4. How did you use the toolkit? Check all that apply. a) To lead a workshop** a) I participated in a workshop outlined in this toolkit** b) To learn more about advocacy* c) Personal use d) Shared with other organisations or networks e) Other (please specify) *If you answered (c) in the above question: 5. How much did you know about advocacy before using the toolkit? Nothing A little bit A fair amount A lot I’m an expert 6. Did the toolkit change what you know about advocacy? No change – I didn’t learn anything new. Some change – I learned a little bit Significant change – I learned a lot!


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Your Workshop **If you answered (a or b) in question 3—we’d love to hear more about how your workshop went! (see Part 2 b below), or send email us advocacy@peacechild.org. Workshop(s) run: Where did the workshop take place? (City, Country) Date delivered:

Number of participants:

Where were the participants from? 7. What was your main reason for running this workshop(s)? 8. Do you feel that there were enough instructions given on how to deliver the workshop? Yes No If not what additional information would you need? 9. How will you use the workshop in your work going forward?


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