Development Communication, simply defined, is the use of two way communication to promote development. It is not just informative but interactive and reactive. Such communication thrives in a context of openness enabled by a democratic politico-legal regime, in the absence of which popular and indigenous communication strategies get stifled. Advocacy is an important tool for enabling developmental communication. While it is a demand from the people to be heard on rights based issues and ‘policy changes’, it is a supply side requirement for facilitating ‘practice changes’. Both are best facilitated through effective communication strategies. Advocacy as an instrument, works to resist injustices and uphold human rights, engages with governance institutions to do so, and applies the tools and strategies within the constitutional framework to persuade for change.

What is Advocacy and why do we need Advocacy?

Advocacy as a term involves ‘speaking up on behalf of others’. This broadly being the implication, advocacy involves ‘taking up issues through certain processes to influence policies’. In the context of social accountability (SA), advocacy refers to efforts of an individual or group to effectively communicate, convey, negotiate or assert the interests, desires, needs and rights of oneself or others or a collective. As such, it is used by a wide range of actors (citizens to parliamentarians), addressing a variety of issues (public policy, strategies, expenditure, service delivery and so on), using different strategies for the same (research, public monitoring, performance measurement, pro-active disclosure, participatory planning, civic education, media coverage, coalition building), thereby calling for different levels of action (from local to national to global). Advocacy finds meaning in letting know and putting across a demand or a message for greater accountability.

Principles of Advocacy 

Some of the principles of advocacy are:

1. Clarity of thought and intent is the first important aspect in advocacy: In advocacy it helps to have a clarity of thought on the issue and the intent to influence it for some desirable change;
2. Listening to people and having adequate skills to convey their views: As most policies pertain to citizens, directly or indirectly, it is important to know and understand  the issue in hand from the people’s perspective;
3. Ability to communicate effectively to elicit, depict information for further dissemination of information: Communication skills, such as listening, reverting back for feedback and clarifications on issues are important. Similarly, conveying the message in effective forms form the crux of effective advocacy;
4. Adequate knowledge about the systems, structures  and the formal ways of approaching them: Where advocacy takes place in a formal set-up, knowledge about the existing, systems, structures and the gaps therein are necessary to avoid faltering;
5. Readiness to face the intended as well as unintended consequences: Most advocacies for change are unwelcome to the governance systems that be and are hence repressed and/ or suppressed. The idea of advocacy is to be ready to all eventualities of both and yet plan for triumph against adversity;
6. Appropriate sense of timing: The timing and sequence of events that follow one another are important when approaching a government policy. Timing an advocacy issue for inclusion in the budget should necessarily, plan as per the timing of preparation, planning, tabling of budget. Appropriate measures have to be adopted at appropriate times;
7. Clear-cut planning: All steps and stages of advocacy are to be planned well ahead and some of the unintended consequences have to be foreseen. The plan of actions is necessary as most actions are inter-linked to the advocacy plan as well as the external environment;
8. Ability to mobilize similar opinions would enable people to do more for themselves as well as to others: Collectivization of opinion is necessary to gain support on the issue. More the numbers more is the obligation to listen as numbers cannot be ignored;
9. Help to make ‘informed choices’ as information is the base for people to know and make choices based on a complete knowledge of the choices available: While mobilizing support, openness in information and knowledge sharing would help as those who wish to support, know their stance in the matter and make a conscious choice on the same;
10. Avoid conflict of interest: In all circumstances, advocacy and its adherents must make sure that at no point of time is there a conflict of interest. If there is, then a conscious choice to stand by one of the roles and completely negate the other has to be made.