Understanding advocacy, social mobilisation and communication

What is advocacy?

Advocacy is the action of delivering an argument to gain commitment from political and social leaders and to prepare a society for a particular issue. Advocacy involves the selection and organisation of information to create a convincing argument, and its delivery through various interpersonal and media channels. Advocacy includes organising and building alliances across various stakeholders.

On its own, advocacy cannot achieve much. Social mobilisation and effective communication are also essential to achieving its objectives.

There are several different ways of looking at and understanding advocacy. In this overview we follow a well-tested approach that sees advocacy as part of a wider continuum of a communication process, that includes social mobilisation and programme communication (McKee 1992). The first component in this continuum is creating awareness and gaining the commitment of decision-makers for a social cause, and this is called advocacy. Increasingly, advocacy is people-based and people-driven. A rights-based approach to development is also very helpful in understanding advocacy.

Continuum

Below is an example of how McKee's communication planning continuum was used for the Sanitation for All in Bangladesh programme that the Government of Bangladesh implemented from 1993 to 1998 with UNICEF and Danish and Swiss support. Political will, when combined with an investment of over 4 million US dollars and the support of appropriate and effective allies, contributed to an increase in the use of sanitary latrines from 10 percent to nearly 40 percent of the population.

Figure.1 Communication planning process (McKee, 1993)

After 1998 the outbreak of arsenic pollution of groundwater in Bangladesh triggered different advocacy action in and outside Bangladesh. As a result less attention was paid to sanitation promotion and the commitment for action dwindled.

Advocacy action

Advocacy is the action of delivering an argument to gain commitment from political and social leaders and to prepare a society for a particular issue. Advocacy involves the selection and organisation of information to create a convincing argument, and its delivery through various interpersonal and media channels. Advocacy consists also of organising and building alliances across various stakeholders.

Advocacy starts from the basic premise that the issues we are concerned about are political and politicised. Questions such as who decides to place what infrastructure, when and where; when to prioritise or de-prioritise services for the poor; how much to allocate and why - these are all political questions. How people gain a voice to argue for their positions, regardless of how well researched or presented, is also a political question.

Existing policies, current attitudes to the poor, ongoing practices by development practitioners and bureaucrats and the relatively weak voice of poor people in determining priorities, all contribute to lack of prioritisation of water and sanitation services for the poor and marginalised.

Goals

The goal of advocacy is not only to make the issue a political or national priority and to achieve change in policy and practice. It also aims to build transparency and accountability in policy-making and decision-taking, and to build the capacity of civil society and of grassroots people and organisations to act for change.

Advocacy is carried out through a large number of what are traditionally known as information and public affairs activities.

Advocacy, in the first instance, may be carried out by key people in international agencies, as well as special ambassadors, but is gradually taken over by people in national and local leadership positions and by the print and electronic media. Increasingly in this multi-polar world where e-mail communication is used by NGOs in the remotest areas, advocacy may be led by local actors from the south, then picked up by international agencies - especially in relation to highlighting issues.