TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
Leaders Guide Five
Advocating for Young People and
Influencing Policies
TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
This session will help you and your organization to:
• Understand the overall context for a policy and identify the decisionmakers to reach in advocating for a greater focus on young people in PRSP
or other national policies;
• Tailor your advocacy messages to various audiences by effectively
presenting supporting evidence for your case;
• Consider the elements and characteristics of an effective communication
strategy or public information campaign;
• Look at examples of successful campaigns to generate ideas and explore
possibilities for your own organization or TPT network’s public advocacy
work.
TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
What makes advocacy effective?
•
STRATEGIC – Effective advocacy is researched and planned carefully.
•
A SERIES OF ACTIONS - Advocacy is not simply one phone call, one petition, or one march but
a set of coordinated activities.
•
DESIGNED TO PERSUADE – Good advocacy presents arguments and solutions that convince
people that the desired change is important.
•
TARGETED – effective advocacy efforts are directed at people who have influence to affect
change.
•
INVOLVES ALLIANCES – often advocacy campaigns work with many stakeholders to increase
the impact of the effort.
•
RESULTS IN CHANGE - Advocacy results in positive change in the lives of the people affected
by the problem.
TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
Guide Five is organized around four steps that can be used in your
organization’s advocacy efforts to increase the focus on young people in
national policies, such as your country’s Poverty Reduction Strategy paper.
Step 1: Understanding the overall policy
context
TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
Step 2: Identify the stakeholders and decisionmakers in the policy process
Step 3: Tailor advocacy message and supporting
evidence to the target audience
TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
Step 4: Outline an effective communications
campaign
TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
Dialogue Questions
•
Does anyone in your group know of a really good campaign that has been use to
mobilize action and sway decision-makers around an issue? If so, briefly describe
the advocacy effort and share some of the characteristics that made it effective.
•
How well does the group think it understands the overall context surrounding your
country’s PRSP or similar policy? How could you validate your understanding or
seek to clarify or improve it, if needed? From where could you gather more
information?
•
Take any one of the steps outline in a typical policy process (consultation; situation
or poverty assessment; policy formulation and prioritization/ decision-making;
implementation and monitoring & evaluation). Who do you think are the actors
involved in your chosen step? How could you outreach to them? What kinds of
messages and evidence would you use?
TACKLING POVERTY TOGETHER
Youth Contributing to Poverty Reduction
(Template slide – to be used to add additional
material as needed).