Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
ADVOCACY & POLICY INFLUENCING
ACTIONPLAN METHODOLOGY
CONTEXT ANALYSIS
1. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND
Describe the background and events that led to the choice of solutions envisaged by you
and/or your organisation/alliance – both practical as well as policy and political solutions.
2. POLICY ISSUE
Describe the policy issue. Describe political dimension of your problem solution. (What
has to change in the enabling environment)
3. FACTS & FIGURES.
Describe the facts and figures related to this policy issue, which explain the policy issue.
PREPARATION
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Describe the consultation process with the beneficiaries and the results of these
discussions. Most important is to describe how the beneficiaries experience the problem.
 MDF copyright 2016
4. CONSULTATIONS WITH BENEFICIARIES
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Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
5. DEFINE THE POLICY ISSUE using either PROBLEM TREE, OBJECTIVE TREE,
VISION, MISSION.
Describe your final analysis of the problem situation (what causes what/cause-effect
analysis),
Describe your vision on the solution to resolve your problems – both practical and
polititcal
Describe your mission regarding the role you or your organisation will play to bring
about the behavioral change.
6. EARLY MESSAGE
Formulate your position on the policy issue. Describe your message in a concise way so
that can be easily understood by a large audience. (political position)
 MDF copyright 2016
7. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
Take the EARLY MESSAGE / policy position as a starting point.
List all stakeholders that have a stake in the policy issue, and score them according to
their attitude, importance and influence against your position / message.
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Present the results of the stakeholder analysis in:
a. audience prioritisation matrix,
b. allies & opponents matrix
c. the audience targeting table.
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Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
8. MAPPING POLICY PROCESSES
Describe the major policy processes, events and opportunities for influencing policy
decisions relevant to your policy issue. Put these on a timeline.
What structure
Which Planning phases of the policy (brainstorm, pre-design, design, pre-decision,
formal decision, implementation, monitoring, evaluation)
Timeline per phase
STRATEGIZING
Based on your message, the stakeholder analysis and the mapping of the policy
process
a.
SELECT the your main allies
b.
IDENTIFY your opponents
c.
CHOOSE your MAIN POLITICAL TARGETS
d.
Choose the most important policy events and moments that you will to focus on
9. ALLIANCE BUILDING
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 MDF copyright 2016
Based on the stakeholder analysis, describe with which partners you will be seeking to
form an alliance. Describe also how you intend to manage the alliance and network
dynamics.
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Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
10. CLASP PRINCIPLES – ASSESS YOURSELF and YOUR NETWORK PARTNERS
Describe how your organisation, and your network score on the principles of Credibility,
Legitimacy, Accountability, Service orientedness and Power. Since these princples
determine the opinion of others about your organisation, please also describe how you
would like to strengthen these principles.
10. FINAL ACTION PLANNING – and APPLY CLASP on ALLIANCE ACTION PLAN
Describe your final action plan, based on the attached template, indicating:
* action steps
* division of tasks and responsibilities in your alliance members
* timeline
* resources (Financial, human resources, materials)
* potential barriers
* communications plan.
Short term: early encouraging response to programme – initial engagement
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
……
 MDF copyright 2016
Mid term: actively engaged – learning – commitment
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
……
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Long term: closest to outcome challenge – expanding influence
Step 7
Step 8
Step 9
……
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Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
Policy Influencing Action Plan Template
Purpose: To create a “script” for your improvement effort and support implementation.
Directions:
1. Using this form as a template, develop a work plan for each goal identified..
Modify the form as needed to fit your unique context.
2. Distribute copies of each work plan to the members of the collaboration.
3. Keep copies handy to bring to meetings to review and update regularly. You may decide to develop new work plans
for new phases of your policy influencing effort.
Goal:
Results/Accomplishments:
Action Steps
What Will Be
Done?
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
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Responsibilities
Who Will Do It?
Timeline
By When?
(Day/Month)
Resources
A. Resources Available
B. Resources Needed
(financial, human, political &
other)
A.
Potential Barriers
A. What individuals or
organizations might resist?
B. How?
B.
B.
A.
A.
B.
B.
A.
A.
B.
B.
A.
A.
B.
B.
A.
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Communications Plan
Who is involved?
What methods?
How often?
Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Office
Step 5:
This project is funded
by the European Union.
A.
A.
B.
B.
Evidence Of Success (How will you know that you are making progress? What are your benchmarks?)
Evaluation Process (How will you determine that your goal has been reached? What are your measures?)
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