MAKING RESEARCH EVIDENCE MATTER

A Guide to Policy Advocacy in Transion Countries

Eóin Young & Lisa Quinn

MAKING RESEARCH EVIDENCE MATTER
A Guide to Policy Advocacy in Transion Countries

Eóin Young & Lisa Quinn

© 2012 Open Society Foundaons.

The views expressed in this publicaon do not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society
Foundaons.

ISBN: 978-963-9719-29-3

Published by
Open Society Foundaons
Október 6 Street 12
H–1051 Budapest, Hungary

For more informaon contact:

Internaonal Centre for Policy Advocacy
publica[email protected]
www.policyadvocacy.org

Design l Oonagh Young l Design HQ

Layout l Judit Kovács l Createch Ltd.
Cover l The cover diagram was developed by think tank researchers in a policy training supported by the
German Council on Foreign Relaons (DGAP) in Dubrovnik, April 2011.

Printed by Createch Ltd. l Hungary, 2012

As politicians know only too well but social scientists often
forget, public policy is made of language.
Giandomenico Majone (1989)

It is not enough to show how clever you are by showing how

obscure everything is.
J.L. Ausn cited in Phillips (1993)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people have accompanied us in developing this guide and we’d like to thank them for
the combinaon of inspiraon, probing, steering, and paently waing.
First, much gratude to our former colleagues from the Local Government and Public
Service Reform Iniave for supporng the growth of our training program and for sending
us on hugely enriching assignments. Special thanks to Sco Abrams, Viola Zentai, Kristof
Varga, Masha Djordjević, Judit Benke, Éva Badar, and Szilvia Szekeres for your unwavering
support. Our paths will undoubtedly connue to cross.
We’d also like to thank our most valuable resource, our team of policy advocacy
trainers, especially Ashot Khurshudyan, Elena Klitsounova, Katarina Staronova, Lucian
Ciolan, Tamara Čirgić, and Vladimir Pavlović for your professional commitment, dedicaon,
and friendship over the years. Thanks also to the West African training team for an injecon
of passion in 2010. This guide was indeed “made in dialogue,” not only with colleagues and
trainers but also with over 3,000 trainees from over 50 countries over the years. We’re very
grateful to all, especially those from fellowship programs, for the role they’ve played in
helping us sharpen ideas and training materials.
Many colleagues and partners within and beyond the Open Society Foundaons
network have provided guidance and inspiraon over the years, especially: Dobrila
Govedarica and Lejla Memić, Open Society Fund–Bosnia and Herzegovina; Erdenjargal
Perenlei, Gerelmaa Amgaabazar, and everybody at the Open Society Forum, Mongolia;
Gábor Péteri at Local Governance Innovaon and Development Ltd; Leslie Pal, Carleton
University, Oawa; and Vesna Djukić and Milorad Bjeleć, Belgrade Open School.
Case studies have played a pivotal role in this manual, and we’re very grateful
to the following advocates for their me and openness in sharing their experiences:
Dorjdari Namkhaijantsan of the Open Society Forum, Mongolia; Gerald Knaus of the
European Stability Iniave; Neda Milevska of the Center for Regional Policy Research
and Cooperaon “Studiorum”; and Sultanat Janevova from Kazakhstan. Thanks also to the
reviewers who provided valuable feedback on the dra of this manual: Diane Stone, Gábor
Péteri, Goran Buldioski, Katarina Staronova, and Tamara Čirgić. Thanks also to Tom Bass,
Ari Korpivaara, Oonagh Young and Judit Kovács for turning a plain word document into a
polished product.
Last but by no means least, thanks to our friends and families for open ears and minds
in listening to us rabbit on about the advocacy guide for years! Eóin would like to thank the
beauful Adriac island of Korcsula, a sanctuary that allowed for much of the heavy liing
for the manuscript. Lisa is deeply grateful for the power of yoga, coffee, music, and wine
(but not all at the same me!).

Eóin Young Lisa Quinn

([email protected]) ([email protected])

Internaonal Centre for Policy Advocacy

www.policyadvocacy.org
FOREWORD

Back in the 1980s there was a popular television commercial featuring the slogan “Honda —the car
that sells itself.” A dejected salesman loitered about the showroom coming to grips with the fact that
his job had been rendered defunct by the ingenuity of the automobiles he was supposed to be selling.
The cars were in such demand that people simply came in and bought them, obviang the need for
a vendor. Made in jest, of course, the ad could easily be a parody of the world of policy research and
advocacy. Our experience shows that it’s not uncommon for policy researchers and acvists to employ
a “Honda approach” to their work, that is, invesng copious amounts of me in policy research and
recommendaons, only to assume that the ideas will sell themselves to their intended target audiences.
Alas, unlike the outcome of the Honda sales experience, as we witness me and me again, policy
products constructed without a thoughul and effecve advocacy strategy are normally condemned to
a lonely shelf life, if not the dustbin.

Making Research Evidence Maer: A Guide to Policy Advocacy in Transion Countries is an instrucve
guide to bridging policy research with policy change. Its authors are praconers and trainers who
have gained extensive experience in transion countries promong policy reform over the last decade.
They’ve trained thousands of budding and established researchers and advocates on the formulaon of
evidence-based policy papers and policy advocacy.

This advocacy manual has been long in the making. In 2002, Young and Quinn published Wring
Effecve Public Policy Papers: A Guide to Policy Advisers in Central and Eastern Europe, which has now
been reprinted mulple mes and translated into 13 languages. That guide supports researchers in
transposing their data and findings into compelling policy narraves. With this complementary guide on
policy advocacy, researchers and advocates should now be beer equipped to mobilize their findings to
affect change in policy.

This guide was developed under the auspices of the Open Society Foundaons, an organizaon that
has long championed independent thought, crical analysis, and evidenced-based policymaking.
Scores of our programs, including our annual policy fellowships, sponsorship of think tanks, and Roma
empowerment iniaves have benefited from the materials and trainings developed by Young and
Quinn. The thousands of parcipants at these trainings have come armed with rich experiences, stories
of success and failure, and colorful lessons learned in the field. This reservoir of insights has been infused
into the narrave of this advocacy manual.

We hope that think tanks, civil society organizaons, and independent researchers seeking to get more
mileage for their findings will benefit from this manual. We also trust that those who commission
evidence-based research such as donors and government enes will make more informed choices on
how best to do so because of this guide.

Sincerely,
Sco Abrams
Local Government and Public Service Reform Iniave
Open Society Foundaons
Budapest, November 2011
 |9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction 13

1.1 What Need Are We Addressing in this Guide? 14

1.2 How Have We Approached the Development of this Guide? 15
1.3 What Is Covered in the Guide? 16
1.4 What Is Not Covered in the Guide? 17
1.5 Who Is the Target Audience for this Guide? 18
1.6 How Can the Guide Be Used? 19
Notes 24

2. The Policy Advocacy Challenge 25

2.1 Defining Policy Advocacy 26

2.2 Different Approaches to Policy Advocacy 27

2.3 Research-evidence in the Policymaking Process 30

2.3.1 What is Evidence-based Decision Making? 31
2.3.2 Who Produces and Commissions Policy Research? 32
2.3.3 What Sources Other Than Research Influence the Decision-making Process? 34
2.3.4 How Does Research Feed into Policy Debates? 35
2.3.5 How Does Research Feed Into Decision Making Once Issues Are on the Agenda? 37
2.3.6 What Is the Goal of Policy Advocacy? 42

2.4 The Challenges for Advocates 44

2.4.1 Different Worldviews of Researchers and Policymakers 44
2.4.2 Unethical Client Expectaons for Policy-based Evidence 45
2.4.3. Researcher as Advocate 46
2.4.4. Taking and Ge ng Credit for Policy Influence 47
2.4.5. Power Over Knowledge or Knowledge Over Power? 49
2.4.6. Imbalance of Supply and Demand for Policy Research 50

2.5 The Foundaons of Effecve Advocacy for Policy Research 51

Notes 53
10 | Making Research Evidence Matter

3. The Advocacy Planning Framework 53

3.1 The Four Case Studies 54

3.2 Overview of the Advocacy Planning Framework (APF) 56
3.3 The Core Strategic Focus of Your Campaign 58
3.3.1 Map the Current Obstacles to Change 60
3.3.2 Assess Your Leverage 62
3.3.3 Set a Feasible Advocacy Objecve 64
Notes 68

4. Advocacy Planning Framework (APF)—Way Into the Process 69

4.1 Way Into the Process 70

4.2 Gauge the Level of Demand 71
4.2.1 Types of Demand—from Roune to Incremental to Radical 73
4.2.2 Challenges and Opportunies for Research Demand in Transion Countries 74
4.3 Map the Actors, Networks, and Power Centers 76
4.3.1 Decision Makers, Advisors, and Instuons Inside Government 77
4.3.2 Decision Makers, NGOs, Associaons, and Interest Groups 79
4.3.3 Decision Makers and the Media 80
4.3.4 Informal Networks 81
4.4 Understand the Decision-making Pracce 82
4.5 Get the Timing Right 84
4.5.1 Predict When Policy Windows Will Open 85
4.6 Understand Current Thinking in the Policy Network 91
4.7 Map the Current Posions of Key Stakeholders 94
Notes 95

5. Advocacy Planning Framework (APF)—Your Messenger 97

5.1 The Face of the Campaign 99

5.1.1 Assess Your Reputaon 99
5.1.2 Assess Your Communicaon and Social Skills 100
5.2 Choose Someone Else As Messenger? 103
5.2.1 Idenfy Policy Brokers or Champions 103
5.3 Mobilize Other Support 107
Notes 110
 TABLE OF CONTENTS | 11

6. Advocacy Planning Framework (APF)—Your Message and Activities 111

6.1 Targeng Ownership and Acon through Dialogue— An Advocacy

Communicaon Model 113
6.2 Develop an In-depth Audience Profile 115
6.3 Shape the Message for Your Audience 117
6.3.1 Make Sure Your Message is Policy-relevant 119
6.3.2 Make Sure Your Message Presents Praccal and Usable Soluons 120
6.3.3 Communicate Simply to Make Your Messages Accessible 121
6.3.4 Make Your Messages Memorable and Portable 123
6.4 Select Advocacy Acvies and Communicaon Tools 128
6.4.1 Choose the Advocacy Acvies that Fit the Role, Process, and Objecves 128
6.4.2 Choose Communicaon Tools to Support Advocacy Acvies 133
6.5 Assess the Strategic Risk of the Campaign 138
6.6 Plan for Challenges and Responses 140
6.6.1 Defend the Credibility of the Research 141
6.6.2 Take into Account Emoonal Responses 141
6.6.3 Get Ready to Manage Predicted Responses 142
Notes 145

7. Using the Advocacy Planning Framework Tool 147

7.1 The APF Tool 147

7.2 Advice on the Process of Using the APF Tool 156
7.2.1 Preparing to Use the APF Tool 156
7.2.2 Working Through the APF Tool 157
7.2.3 What Comes Next Aer Compleng the APF Tool? 161
Notes 164
References 165
 | 13

INTRODUCTION

This advocacy guide has been shaped by a decade of experience supporng a broad range of
governmental and civil society actors through all stages of policy research and advocacy projects in
producing research, evidence, and analysis that informs local and internaonal policymaking processes.1
Since the publicaon Wring Effecve Public Policy Papers in 2002,2 we have seen a steadily growing
demand in transion countries3 from donors, internaonal organizaons, think tanks, nongovernmental
organizaons (NGOs), and government agencies to develop their capacity to produce and consume
evidence-based analysis of policy issues in order to influence decision making. Developing the capacity
of individuals and instuons to effecvely produce such expert insights needs me, resources, and
considerable effort and is sll an ongoing project in the transion region. Unfortunately, the focus has
to date largely centered on the formulaon of policy research and analysis, and considerably less on the
communicaon of such policy insights. As a result, many smart ideas and soluons remain the preserve of
expert communies and the academy exactly in those countries where praccal insights are desperately
needed. This also means that such raonal, evidence-based thinking has not become a regular feature of
the culture of local policy debates and largely remains the preserve of the internaonal arena.

Our capacity development work focuses on bridging this key communicaon gap and this guide is the
next step: the last manual detailed how to produce effecve research-based policy studies, this sister
publicaon turns to their praccal use, that is, how to take the key insights learned through research
and analysis and feed them into the policymaking process to inform or influence decision making. Put
another way, the focus of this manual is on effecve policy advocacy that is firmly grounded in evidence
and expert analysis.
14 | Making Research Evidence Matter

1.1 WHAT NEED ARE WE ADDRESSING

IN THIS GUIDE?
From the very beginning of the postcommunist transion, the need to develop a more evidence-based
and inclusive decision-making process has been high on the agenda of all actors commied to the
establishment of democrac systems of governance. Yet the evidence, more than two decades into this
democrazaon process, is clear: there connues to be both a lack of evidence or research knowledge
generated and lile appreciaon of the importance of evidence in the decision-making process.4 The
relavely low level of domescally produced policy research, the persistence of highly value-driven
polical debates, and the ongoing struggle to reform public administraon systems around a strategic
and inclusive policymaking process is further evidence of this unfinished business. While some claim the
“transion” is over or fossilized, we sll believe that striking the right balance of evidence-based and
value-driven debate within any democrac system is a cornerstone to the establishment of a healthy
compeon of ideas through the decision-making process.5

Although the transion countries vary significantly in their level of development and sophiscaon and
the reasons for the low level of demand for research vary accordingly, there are some commonalies: the
development of government cultures (rather than just mechanisms) that appreciate the need to devote
substanal energy on developing strategic soluons to societal problems is sll ongoing. Much of the
business of government and public administraon is focused on the detail of administering government
programs and any larger policy quesons tend to fall to the wayside. Therefore, the demand for or use
of experse and policy research remains stubbornly low.6

However, when we discuss weak instuons in the region, this also includes the generally low capacity
of the NGO sector or the supply side of the policy research equaon. Although the capacity gaps on both
sides are substanal, it’s widely recognized in the literature that there is an urgent need to improve the
communicaon or advocacy of research, in order to make it more accessible, convincing, and usable for
policymakers and broader stakeholder groups.7 We also see that policy praconers from the NGO and
governmental side need a deeper understanding of the challenge of policy advocacy and a shi away
from the following three approaches, which are too commonly used yet overwhelmingly fail to yield
results:

• The tradional/academic approach employs the tools of academic disseminaon that are
familiar to most researchers. This short one-way engagement usually entails presenng at
a conference, publishing the paper in a journal, and/or meeng with a person in the relevant
ministry, and rarely brings results.
• The ad-hoc approach entails minimal disseminaon accompanied by an unplanned and rela-
vely random set of advocacy acvies and is driven more by response to the research from any
commentator rather than being proacve. No clearly defined advocacy objecve or target audi-
ence are idenfied at the beginning, and without this direcon or target, it rarely goes very far.
• The gap fill approach involves idenfying what is needed to reach a certain standard or solve a
policy problem and immediately making your advocacy objecve the filling of the gap. Then the
planning of acvies begins. No aempt is made to consider what is actually feasible under the
current condions e.g. a more modest change in the right direcon may be possible, rather this
approach only sees 100% as success. The common response from decision makers to such an ad-
vocacy effort is that it is too idealisc and/or impraccal. This approach oen leads to frustraon
and strong cynicism about the policymaking process among those leading the campaign.
 INTRODUCTION | 15

This guide tackles these challenges and puts forward a praccal approach to planning advocacy
campaigns in which the realies of the target policy context are at the heart of the approach.

1.2 HOW HAVE WE APPROACHED

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS GUIDE?
Feeding into the recent growing interest in developing advocacy capacity8, this guide provides a basis to
understand the experience and challenges of successful research-based advocacy in transion contexts,
best pracce in planning and conducng such advocacy campaigns, and an accessible advocacy planning
tool to allow praconers to apply these insights to their own policy advocacy efforts. Three core
principles underpin the development of the manual:

• Context determines the choice of an effecve advocacy strategy, and hence there are few
universally applicable prescripons.
• Effecve policy advocacy is a two-way process of mediaon and negoaon which is messy and
normally takes me, persistence, and commitment.
• Policy influence is broad and encompasses capacity building, changing the nature of policy
debates and thinking, as well as direct policy impacts.9

These principles and the insights developed in the manual are firmly grounded in the learning from four
main sources:

• The insights developed from two groundbreaking projects10 designed to understand effecve
approaches to bringing research into policymaking in developing and transion contexts. The
first is the Global Development Network’s Bridging Research and Policy project,11 built on by the
Overseas Development Instute’s Research and Policy in Development program.12 The second
is the Internaonal Development Research Centre’s The Influence of Research on Public Policy
project.13 The 78 case studies developed through these two projects were a valuable resource for
this guide.
• Broader literature in the field of bridging policy and research14 and the field of knowledge
ulizaon.15
• Four in-depth case studies where policy research influenced government decision making in
transion countries analyzed for this manual.16
• Our experience working in policy capacity development in transion contexts over a decade,
coupled with our communicaon-focused analysis of policy advocacy engagement framed in
sociolinguiscs perspecves.17

Through the cases, we seek to give readers a feel for the real world experience, challenges, and effort
it normally takes to achieve policy influence. Such an in-depth experienal account of the pracce of
policy advocacy in transion contexts is sorely lacking in many other guides. The insights and lessons
generated from the four cases are based on in-depth interviews conducted with advocates and analysis
of relevant documents. In addion, we seek to go beyond manuals that give advice, guidance, and tools,
but fail to connect them to the real world, leaving the reader unsure how to apply the advice given. As
such, we strive to take each point and develop it using the following approach:
16 | Making Research Evidence Matter

• Introduce the concept or piece of advice.

• Explain it in simple terms.
• Illustrate it in real world cases and draw out lessons.
• Provide quesons to prompt praconers to consider the point in their own advocacy plan (in
planning checklists).

The in-depth case studies are by no means exhausve, but cover a variety of contexts and actors from
transion countries: from an internaonal think tank campaign focused on Kosovo (under UN Security
Council Resoluon 1244),18 to a local think tank campaign in Macedonia, from an internaonally
sponsored individual researcher who is also a civil servant in Kazakhstan, to a naonal office of an
internaonal NGO in Mongolia. By examining a number of different sources and why these iniaves
worked in contexts that have very different levels of democrac development, we aim to paint a picture
of the challenge that is applicable to anyone who might aempt to conduct such advocacy throughout
the region.

Nevertheless, we do not see this manual as the definive guide to policy advocacy; we rather have
sought to directly address the recurring issues and capacity gaps for those people who are trying to step
into the world of policy research and advocacy or establish themselves once they have done so.

A number of important assumpons frame the work we present here:

• Research improves decision making—Although this may not always be the case in a region
where many decisions are made without even the most basic data or program evaluaon, we are
assuming some expert input is beer than none.
• We are focused on policy research, not academic research—The research we refer to has all
been commissioned and produced with the intent to influence decision making; it is not research
that is produced in an academic se ng and may end up influencing a decision.
• More liberal democracy is beer—Complex social problems need evidence, inclusion, and
strong polical representaon to be properly addressed.
• Ours is a “can-do” atude—We oen work with people who are firmly focused on many complex
and oen valid reasons for inacon. Although we recognize that certain polical regimes present
serious obstacles to effecve engagement and parcipaon, we subscribe to the view that it
is sll worth “looking for the cracks,” that is, finding an individual, instuon, or community
which is interested in making posive change and starng there (within reason, assuming that
the strategic risk is not too great for those involved).

1.3 WHAT IS COVERED IN THE GUIDE?

Building on the experienal insights of the cases, the guide is centered on a praccal tool called the
Advocacy Planning Framework or APF developed to support praconers in planning advocacy
campaigns. Founded on an important outcome of the Global Development Network and Overseas
Development Instute project,19 and operang on the principle that context is key, the APF provides you
the means to gain in-depth insight into the people and process you are targeng and, in parallel, develop
a nuanced and targeted advocacy strategy that has the best chance to engage both the target audiences
and process, therefore achieving influence. The need to target your advocacy strategy to fit the specifics
 INTRODUCTION | 17

of the decision-making process is central to APF and mapping and planning for that target context are
at its heart. Indeed, the APF planning process is one where key decisions and insights in your advocacy
strategy deepen and sharpen through the iteraons of each element of the tool.

More specifically, the following is an overview of the manual:

• Chapter 2—The Policy Advocacy Challenge—The manual opens by defining policy advocacy,
explaining the common role of research in the policymaking process and elaborang on the
challenges for advocates, and closes by arriving at a point to illustrate the centrality of the two-
way approach to effecve advocacy.
• Chapter 3—Overview of the Advocacy Planning Framework—This chapter provides an overview
of the APF tool and the core strategic focus at the heart of planning your advocacy campaign.
This is when you will weigh up the obstacles with an assessment of the leverage you have in
order to define a feasible advocacy objecve in the target policy context. We also provide a short
introducon to the four case studies drawn on throughout the manual.
• Chapter 4—The Way into the Process—This chapter introduces and provides a detailed
explanaon of the most important mapping element of the APF. By going through the six
elements that make up this pillar of the tool, you should arrive at a point where you have an in-
depth picture of the players and playing field and an idea of how you will literally find your way
into that process with your advocacy campaign.
• Chapter 5—Your Messenger—This chapter provides insight into the choices you need to make
about who will be the spokesperson or face(s) of your campaign as well as the support you will
need from others. Without support and a credible messenger, advocacy efforts can easily fail at
the first hurdle.
• Chapter 6—Your Message and Acvies—The chapter details the numerous interrelated ele-
ments that need to be considered in planning to develop the advocacy messages, acvies, and
communicaon tools for your campaign. The focus throughout this planning stage is engaging
and moving your chosen audiences to policy acon. We also introduce an advocacy communica-
on model to guide this engagement of target audiences from understanding to ownership to
acon.
• Chapter 7—Using the APF Tool—This chapter introduces the complete APF tool in a format ready
for photocopying. The final secon of the manual provides praccal advice on how to organize an
advocacy team to effecvely use the APF tool.

1.4 WHAT IS NOT COVERED IN THE GUIDE?

Simply put, by using this manual, you can build insight into how to develop a policy advocacy strategy
and its supporng communicaon acvies and tools to achieve a feasible objecve. The manual is
focused on the strategic planning level of an advocacy campaign. Usually, this part of the process is not
given nearly enough me or focus by advocates and capacity developers, an oversight that is at the core
of why many advocacy campaigns fail.

This guide does not cover the many areas that fall outside the focus of strategic planning. First, the skills
or knowledge necessary to develop the policy insights that are the foundaon of a campaign are beyond
the scope of this manual, that is, policy research design, data collecon and analysis, and policy wring
18 | Making Research Evidence Matter

in all its forms. Although you choose what communicaon tools you will need, we don’t provide an in-
depth focus on the specifics of policy studies, briefs, or policy presentaons.

Second, there is lile focus on how to plan the implementaon of the strategy—that is, who should
do what and when—or on budgets and evaluaon. We believe that the target audiences for this guide
are already adept in this kind of project implementaon or acon planning and that other manuals
adequately cover such project management skills.

Finally, although we make reference to them, we do not focus on the range of skills that are oen
needed in the advocacy process, for example, presentaon, negoaon, coalion building, leadership,
and team management. Again, we consider that these skills have been widely covered in many other
resources, courses, and training programs.

1.5 WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE

FOR THIS GUIDE?
This guide primarily targets those who advocate for the adopon of evidence-based proposals generated
through a policy research and analysis process. This most obvious target audience are policy research
producers and advocates from think tanks/research instutes, NGOs, associaons or interest groups,
donor organizaons, academics, or members of policy teams and advisors in government. Maybe less
obvious but an equally important target audience are the users or consumers of policy research, that
is, those who commission such research (for example, internaonal organizaons or governments) or
those who use the results of policy research to support their advocacy posions (for example, NGOs).
Indeed, we have recently worked with many NGOs that had previously engaged in mainly value-based
advocacy, but are shiing strategy to strengthen their posions with more evidence and policy insights.
The manual also targets those who want to learn how to either produce or use policy research, from
students to praconers.

Therefore, we place great emphasis on targeng those from both sides of the supply and demand side
of the research axis (which commonly converts into the government and NGO sectors). The idea is to
contribute to the further development of intelligent customers and providers of research, and thereby
to advance the culture of evidence-based decision making in the transion contexts.20

Geographically, we primarily address those involved in producing, commissioning, and using policy
research in transion countries of Central and South Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent
States (or former Soviet Union), and Mongolia. Nevertheless, we also hope the advice here may be
of relevance to those in developing countries as source literature; many cases and our experience of
working in West Africa reveal overlapping challenges in these contexts.

A key aspect of our work is striving to make core knowledge accessible to a wide range of policy actors
with varying capacity, from novice to seasoned advocate. So, you don’t have to have a background in
public policy or polical science to be able to access and grasp the concepts and insights in this guide.
We aim to bring central policy and advocacy concepts to a broad range of policy actors in a way that
removes the obstacles of jargon and disciplines complexity. Our approach in preparing the manual is to
“make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”21 A caveat, however: the content should not be
misinterpreted as something only for novices—we are just making it more accessible!
 INTRODUCTION | 19

1.6 HOW CAN THE GUIDE BE USED?

The content of the manual can be used in a number of ways and for a range of purposes:

• To support advocacy planning—The APF tool at the heart of this guide is designed to inform
and guide the planning process when advocang for proposals developed from a piece of policy
research. Chapter 7 includes the whole APF to photocopy for your own use.
• To support policy training and academic courses—Our previous guide has become a staple for
trainers and lecturers and this one also supports learning in different ways. Indeed, we use it in
our own policy advocacy module on developing effecve strategies and communicaon tools for
policy advocacy.22
• To support autonomous learning—You can use the guide as a purely autonomous learning tool to
build understanding of the key principles of advocacy and its challenges in a policy environment.
• To use in combinaon with our policy wring manual—The two manuals are designed to
complement and build on each other, i.e., the first to guide wring a policy study and this manual
to plan how to advocate for the insights of the research in a target policy network.

To allow ease of access for all these purposes, we have highlighted key issues and insights in the text and
provided visuals to orient and steer you quickly to seeing and extracng the main points:

• Key word boxes on the outer margins of the pages,

• Planning checklists in shaded boxes to help you apply the ideas to your own work. The APF tool
in Chapter 7 summarizes the essence of the many planning checklists you will find throughout
the manual.
• Case study insights are in shaded boxes to help disnguish the insights from the main body of
the text.

We hope this guidebook encourages you to become involved in policy advocacy or deepen your exisng
engagement by providing a useful resource to support you in the process of planning your evidence-
based advocacy campaigns and achieving the influence quality research and proposals deserve.
20 | Making Research Evidence Matter

THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK

—AN OVERVIEW

Principles that Form the Basis of Effective Policy Advocacy

(Chapter 2)

The following five principles have consistently emerged from the literature and real world
advocacy case studies as underpinning effecve policy advocacy:
It is a two-way process of negoaon and mediaon towards the transfer of ownership of the
findings and proposals developed in the research to key target audiences.
It is messy and normally takes me, commitment, and persistence.
The most likely outcome is policy influence, rather than direct impact.
It involves the “soening up” of specialist expert audiences and also more interest-based
coalion-building and bargaining with more polical audiences.
Context is key, as processes are always specific, evolving, and unpredictable.

The Advocacy Planning Framework (APF) (Chapter 3)

The APF is a praccal, muldimensional mapping and planning tool for effecve advocacy that
is built around three main pillars or circles and a strategic core, the overlap in the center. This
core overlap represents the target outcome of the planning process: a strategy for realisc policy
change.

Detailed mapping and planning process Core strategic focus for your campaign

Current obstacles
for change
WAY INTO THE +
PROCESS The leverage you
can bring and use
=
Feasible advocacy
objective

THE MESSAGE AND

MESSENGER ACTIVITIES
 INTRODUCTION | 21

Detailed Mapping and Planning Process (Chapter 4, 5, 6)

The three overlapping circles of the APF provide a foundaon and direcon for an in-depth
mapping and planning process by presenng a set of quesons that are key to planning any
advocacy campaign:
The way into the process—what is the best approach to get your ideas into the target policy
debate and who will be your target audience(s)?
The messenger—who should lead or be the face of the campaign and what kind of support
do you need from others?
Message and acvies—what can you say to the key target audiences that will engage and
convince them and how can you best communicate that message to them through carefully
chosen advocacy acvies and communicaon tools?

Core Strategic Focus of Your Campaign (Chapter 3)

By working with the APF to develop answers to the quesons in each circle, you will plan a
nuanced approach to mediate between what you want to achieve and what is possible in the
policymaking process. This should generate the best possible chance to achieve policy influence,
that is, locate the core overlapping part of the circles or the core strategic focus of your campaign.
In this process, you are connually looking to develop answers to three quesons:
Current obstacles to change—what is currently blocking the policymaking process from
moving in the direcon you want?
The leverage you can bring and use—what can you bring to and use in the process to move
it in the direcon you wish?
A feasible policy objecve—considering the obstacles that exist and the leverage you have,
how far do you think you can move the process?

Way into the Process (Chapter 4)

The top and most important circle in the APF is called the “way into the process.” Through this
circle, advocates map out and consider the target decision-making process, people, and thinking
in relaon to the advocacy effort they are planning. This sets the scene and points you in the right
direcon by guiding you in planning how to bring what you have learned from research into a
target decision-making process. This circle is broken down into six elements:
Demand—What is the level of interest in the researched policy issue in the target policy
process?
Actors, networks, and power—Who are the key decision makers and opinion leaders that
you need to influence?
22 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Decision-making pracce—How does the decision-making process really work?

Timing and openings—What is the best ming/opportunity to start or connue your
advocacy effort?
Current thinking—How do the stakeholders understand the target policy issue and the
potenal soluons?
Current posions—What are the current posions of key actors in relaon to any proposed
change in policy?

The Messenger (Chapter 5)

In advocacy, the messenger is oen as important as the message. The legimacy that comes
with the support from others and a lead advocate or organizaon with a solid reputaon are
key factors in ge ng doors to open throughout the advocacy process. The planning in this circle
involves a frank assessment of the reputaon and capacity in choosing the right messenger(s)
and supporters:
Reputaon—Do you have the resources, credibility, reputaon, visibility, and support to be
taken seriously by the key players?
Skills—Do you have the range of communicaon and interpersonal skills required to
successfully take on the mulple roles the messenger plays?
The face of the campaign—Who should be the face of the campaign? You or someone else?
Can you idenfy a suitable policy broker to play a specific role?
Other support—What other support do you need for your campaign to be taken seriously?

Message and Activities (Chapter 6)

This APF circle focuses on making plans for the communicaon of what you want to say and how:
in other words, your “message” and your set of advocacy acvies and communicaon tools.
Informed by your planning in the other APF elements, the following five steps will guide you in
making plans for construcng your message, deciding on advocacy acvies, and managing the
advocacy communicaon process:
Audience profile—Why do your target audiences hold the current posions that they do?
Will it be easy to move them from these posions?
Shaping messages—What message would appeal to and convince your target audiences?
How can you make your messages striking, memorable, and portable?
Acvies and communicaon tools—How will you get your message to your target audiences
(e.g., papers, video, social media)? What kind of events and meengs do you need to allow
you to engage your target audiences enough to convince them?
 INTRODUCTION | 23

Strategic risk—Will you upset powerful or influenal people with the posions you will
advocate for? Is there any risk to your sustainability or even safety in the posions you will
put forward?
Challenges and responses—What responses or challenges do you expect from the audiences
that you will present to? How will you defend or respond to these challenges?

The APF Tool—Advocacy Planning in a Team (Chapter 7)

To make it easier for you to use the APF as a tool for real planning, we have brought together
the key quesons from each element in a single, user-friendly document in Chapter 7, ready for
photocopying. For example, below is first element from the “way into the process” circle:

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

1. GAUGE THE LEVEL OF DEMAND
• Is your issue already on the government It is generally easier to influence policy if
agenda? If not, is there another group there is already some level of demand for
of people talking about it or advocang your ideas and proposals. The best case is
for it? if the government has chosen to act on the
problem you are also focusing on. If not,
• Does interest and momentum already see if there are other researchers, NGOs,
exist around the issue or do you have to government agencies, or stakeholders
create it? discussing it. It is beer to feed into an
ongoing discussion than to have to
create one.
NOTES
24 | Making Research Evidence Matter

NOTES
1 Up to 2011, our training program was supported by 11 hp://www.gdnet.org/middle.php?primary_link_
and housed in the Local Government and Public Service id=3&secondary_link_id=13.
Reform Iniave, Open Society Foundaons and from
12 hp://www.odi.org.uk/work/programmes/rapid/
2012 will come under the work of The Internaonal
default.asp.
Centre for Policy Advocacy (ICPA), available online:
hp:// www.policyadvocacy.org. 13 hp://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-26606-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html.
2 Young and Quinn 2002. 14 Carden 2004, 2009, Court and Young 2003, Global
Development Network 2003, Internaonal Development
3 Transion countries in this manual refer to Central
Research Centre 2005a, Overseas Development Instute
and South Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of
2004, Stone and Maxwell 2005, Stone 2009, Struyk and
Independent States (or former Soviet Union), and
Haddaway 2011.
Mongolia. Transion region or countries is used in the
manual as a shorthand reference. 15 Davies 2004, 2005, Neilson 2003, Nutley, Walter, and
Davies 2002, Solesbury 2001.
4 Carden 2009, McGann and Weaver 2000, Stone and
Maxwell 2005, Struyk 2006, UNDP 2003. 16 See secon 3.1 for an introducon to the cases.
5 Lindbloom and Woodhouse 1993. 17 Berkenkoer and Huckin 1993, Lave and Wenger 1991,
Russell 1997, Swales 1990.
6 Krawchenko 2006, UNDP 2003.
18 Hereaer, Kosovo (UNSCR 1244).
7 Carden 2004, 2009, Court and Young 2003, Grochovski
and Ben-Gera 2002, McGann and Weaver 2000, Young 19 Court and Young 2003, Overseas Development Instute
and Quinn 2005. 2004.
8 For example: Manuals: Data and Pellini (2011), Open 20 Davies 2004, Solesbury 2001.
Society Foundaons (2010), Roebeling and de Vries 21 Einstein cited in Kingdon 1984.
(2011), Weyrauch, D´Agosno, and Richards (2011) 22 See hp://www.policyadvocacy.org.
Blogs and discussion groups: 1. hp://www.ebpdn.org/
2. hp://goranspolicy.com/ 3. hp://onthinktanks.org/
9 Lindquist 2001.
10 For the backbone of the experiences and insights
developed through the projects that are the research
foundaon of this manual: ‘Bridging research and policy,’
see Global Development Network (2003); ‘Research to
Policy,’ see Internaonal Development Research Centre
(2004); The field of knowledge/research ulizaon, see
Davies (2004).
 | 25

THE POLICY ADVOCACY

CHALLENGE

We open the manual with an examinaon of the nature of policy advocacy and
how research and experse feed into decision making in the policymaking pro-
cess. The main focus of this chapter is on unpacking and building a broad under-
standing of key concepts, terms and principles towards providing the concep-
tual foundaon on which to present the Advocacy Planning Framework (APF).
This chapter draws heavily on the current literature that seeks to invesgate
and describe the interface between research experse and policymaking as
well as our experience in policy advocacy. Ulmately, we hope that readers get
a realisc picture of the challenges of influencing such processes, as the chapter
tle denotes; however, we also focus on balancing these challenges with iden-
fying opportunies presented by the transional nature of the target policy
contexts and the need to capitalize on them in order to achieve policy influence.

More specifically, this chapter

• defines core advocacy terms,

• looks at the policymaking process and actors involved from an advocacy
perspecve,
• details the ways in which research knowledge feeds into the policymaking
process,
• defines the broad noon of policy influence as the target outcome from
the policy advocacy process, and
• ulmately builds the conceptual framework in which the APF can be
understood.
26 | Making Research Evidence Matter

2.1 DEFINING POLICY ADVOCACY

The most basic meaning of advocacy is to represent, promote, or defend some
person(s), interest, or opinion. Such a broad idea encompasses many types of
acvies such as rights’ representaon1 and social markeng2, but the focus
of this manual is on the approaches adopted by organizaons and coalions in
trying to change or preserve specific government programs, that is, approaches
focused on influencing decisions of public policy. In order to disnguish this from
other types of advocacy acvies, it is oen referred to as “policy advocacy.”
This is also the term we use throughout the guide to make this disncon clear.

There are many definions of policy advocacy available from mulple authors
and perspecves.3 At their core are a number of ideas that connually come up,
characterizing policy advocacy as follows:

• a strategy to affect policy change or acon—an advocacy effort or

campaign is a structured and sequenced plan of acon with the purpose
to start, direct, or prevent a specific policy change.
• a primary audience of decision makers—the ulmate target of any
advocacy effort is to influence those who hold decision-making power.
In some cases, advocates can speak directly to these people in their
advocacy efforts; in other cases, they need to put pressure on these
people by addressing secondary audiences (for example, their advisors,
the media, the public).
• a deliberate process of persuasive communicaon—in all acvies and
communicaon tools, advocates are trying to get the target audiences to
understand, be convinced, and take ownership of the ideas presented.
Ulmately, they should feel the urgency to take acon based on the
arguments presented.
• a process that normally requires the building of momentum and
support behind the proposed policy idea or recommendaon. Trying
to make a change in public policy is usually a relavely slow process
as changing a tudes and posions requires ongoing engagement,
discussion, argument, and negoaon.
• conducted by groups of organized cizens—normally advocacy efforts
are carried out by organizaons, associaons, or coalions that represent
the interests or posions of certain populaons, but an individual may,
of course, spearhead the effort.

However, taking these basic elements outlined above a lile further and
emphasizing the specific challenge that we develop in this chapter, our
definion is as follows:

Policy advocacy is the process of negoang and mediang a dia-

logue through which influenal networks, opinion leaders, and,
ulmately, decision makers take ownership of your ideas, evidence,
and proposals, and subsequently act upon them.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 27

In our definion, we place a great emphasis on the idea of the transfer of

ownership of core ideas and thinking. In essence, this implies preparing decision Building
makers and opinion leaders for the next policy window or even pushing them to ownership is
open one in order to take acon. If advocates do their job well, decision makers at the core of
will take the ideas that have been put forward and make changes to the current policy advocacy.
policy approach in line with that thinking.

Pu ng the definion another way may be even more striking: your policy
advocacy campaign has been successful when policians present your ideas,
analysis, and proposals as their own and do not menon you! For those who
come from an academic background, this is oen a bier pill to swallow, but the
good news is that it will be no secret where the ideas originated. All those in the
policy network close to the decision will know where the idea came from and
you will, in fact, be engaged to do further work as your reputaon is enhanced.
From the praccal polical posion, decision makers have to present policy You have
changes as their own, as they are the ones taking a risk on actually delivering achieved
the policy change, have to sell the ideas to build the needed support for their success when
proposal, and ulmately will pay the price if it fails. decision makers
present your
Through this focus on mediaon, negoaon, and ownership, it could be ideas as their
inferred in our definion that we are only talking about a collaborave own.
working relaonship between pares involved in the process and that more
confrontaonal approaches such as whistle-blowing, watchdogging, or strategic
ligaon would not be covered under such a definion. However, it is our
contenon that such advocacy approaches are what negoators call a “high
opening posion,” and when following such a strong opening of an advocacy
process, there is sll a long way to go before actual policy change will be
delivered to ensure that such victories or exposure of policy failures are not
just given lip service by governments. Delivering on such victories sll takes a
process of building broad ownership of a new system that, for example, does
not infringe on the rights of a certain populaon.

2.2 DIFFERENT APPROACHES

TO POLICY ADVOCACY
Many people tend to immediately associate the term advocacy with media
campaigning, high profile legal challenges, or the street-based acvism of
peons, posters, and demonstraons. This is because these are the most
visible acons of actors aempng to make or force policy change. However,
this represents only one piece of the puzzle, and in order to further situate the
process of policy advocacy and develop and define concepts that are commonly
associated with the process, in this secon we look at the typical roles different
types of organizaons (both visible and less so) tend to play in conducng their
advocacy.
28 | Making Research Evidence Matter

The Overseas Development Instute produced a very useful way of illustrang

Policy advocacy these differences by mapping the typical advocacy acvies of different NGO
includes other actors on a graph covering two dimensions of the advocacy process:4
approaches
less visible 1. Whether an organizaon takes a cooperave to confrontaonal ap-
than media proach to their advocacy, that is, whether they are “whispering to or
campaigning shoung at government.”5
and public 2. Whether their advocacy messages are more evidence-based or more
activism. interest/value-based.

Our adaptaon of the diagram is included below as Figure 1.

FIGURE 1.
The advocacy roles of different types of NGOs

Evidence-based

A B

ADVISING MEDIA CAMPAIGNING

Confrontational/Outside Track
e.g. ECFR e.g. Human Rights Watch
Cooperative/Inside Track

European Council
on Foreign
Relations

C D

LOBBYING ACTIVISM
e.g. American Chambers e.g. Greenpeace
of Commerce Abroad

Interest/Value-based
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 29

Taking the figure one quadrant at a me:

a. Advising—think tanks (for example, the European Council on Foreign

Relaons) or researchers are commissioned by a client to invesgate
a certain policy queson or problem. This usually entails working with
those in authority and producing new empirical research to assist them
in making a policy decision. Even when commissioned, there is sll an
advocacy process of selling the ideas developed through the research to
the client, although the hurdles are obviously lower than working from
the outside.
b. Media campaigning—many advocacy organizaons decide to include
a public dimension to their campaign as they feel some type of public
or external pressure on decision makers is required to achieve results.
This type of approach is commonly used by watchdog organizaons
that monitor government acon, for example, Human Rights Watch,
Internaonal Crisis Group, or Transparency Internaonal.
c. Lobbying—face-to-face meengs with decision makers or influenal
people are a commonly used approach for many organizaons that are
defending the interests of a certain group of people, such as business (for
example, the American Chambers of Commerce Abroad, professional
or community associaons, or unions. These types of organizaons
tend to have ready access to powerful people and focus their efforts
on being present and visible during government and public discussions
concerning their interests.
d. Acvism—peons, public demonstraons, posters, and leaflet dissemi-
naon are common approaches used by organizaons that promote a
certain value set, such as, for example, environmentalism in the case of
Greenpeace, or have a defined constuency and represent or provide a
service to a group of people who are not adequately included within gov-
ernment social service provision like the vicms of domesc violence or
refugees. The main work of the laer groups centers on providing a ser-
vice to their constuency, but they also have a policy advocacy funcon.

However, in conducng an actual advocacy campaign, most organizaons do

not in fact fit neatly into one quadrant on the figure. To illustrate this, we have
ploed the common advocacy roles of a think tank we are familiar with: the
European Council on Foreign Relaons (ECFR). ECFR, as an internaonal think
tank, focuses on achieving impact on European foreign policy through direct
advocacy efforts in collaboraon with its many partners. The type of advocacy An organization
approach used by ECFR is mostly inside-track evidence-based supported by usually uses
publicaon, discussion, conferences, and lobbying, but the value dimension is multiple
also there with what they call “European values” dominang their advocacy approaches to
messages. ECFR has no problem giving advice to European instuons, policy advocacy.
governments, and partners willing to listen; nevertheless, ECFR oen goes to
the public to pressure governments and so media campaigning is a valid opon.
However, ECFR advocacy efforts do not include street protests or peoning.6
30 | Making Research Evidence Matter

The key lesson to be drawn for advocacy actors from such a mapping exercise
is that while it is evident that organizaons use mulple approaches to their
advocacy efforts, they are centered around the strengths and capacies of the
organizaon itself; for example, think tanks tend to focus on the producon of
quality research and working on the inside track as they don’t normally have
Organizations the resources or constuency to do big public media campaigns.7 In addion,
should adopt going outside a normal advocacy role can also present a strategic risk in some
advocacy cases, that is, think tanks that publicly cricize partners are unlikely to receive
approaches research commissions from them in the near future. Most organizaons with
that fit their an advocacy focus would like to survive beyond a single campaign, and hence—
capacities. considering the potenal effects of a parcular advocacy effort in terms of
benefits or losses of funding—support, access, and reputaon is crucial.8 Such
consideraons are oen one reason to build coalions where different types of
organizaons, such as watchdogs and acvist groups, will combine capacies
and share the risks of a policy advocacy push. Such longer-term thinking about
your role as an advocate is crucial and we will return to this in Chapter 6.

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Think of your organization in relation to Figure 1:
 What type of organizaon do you work for?
 What are your strengths as an advocacy organizaon?
 What approaches do you normally take to advocacy?
 How effecve has this approach been to date?
 How could you adjust these approaches to maximize your influence?

2.3 RESEARCH EVIDENCE IN THE

POLICYMAKING PROCESS
We opened this chapter with a broad definion of the concept of policy advocacy
encompassing many actors and approaches. However, the focus of the guide is
specifically centered on advocacy to improve evidence-based decision making,
and more specifically research-based evidence. Therefore, in this secon we
take a deeper look at the process of how research evidence feeds into the
decision-making process. The intenon is to give an overview of this admiedly
messy process and then to consider the nature of advocang a research-based
posion to achieve a parcular result. This provides the foundaon for the
next chapter where we examine four in-depth cases of research-based policy
advocacy and extract key approaches and lessons learned.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 31

2.3.1 What Is Evidence-based Decision

Making?
While the term is widely used and accepted, we consider it useful to ground our
discussion with the following comprehensive definion:
Evidence-based decision making “helps people make well in-
formed decisions about policies, programs, and projects by put-
ng the best available evidence from research at the heart of
policy development and implementaon. This approach stands
in contrast to opinion-based policy, which relies heavily on ei-
ther the selecve use of evidence (for example, on single studies
irrespecve of quality) or on the untested views of individuals
or groups, oen inspired by ideological standpoints, prejudices,
or speculave conjecture.”9

Policy research that feeds into evidence-based decision making usually provides
an in-depth expert analysis of an emergent policy problem based on empirical Evidence-
data collected in the target context. Such research can have a wide variety of based decision
methodological foci and may include, for example, a broad-scale legal analysis, making is
a pilot study evaluaon, or in-depth muldisciplinary case studies. Further, driven by
an analysis of the potenal soluons available to address the problem is also empirical
provided. While there is a strong commitment to academic integrity and analysis
evidence, policy research is by no means neutral in its analysis, but rather is of policy
shaped by the polical context in which it is produced and used to propagate problems.
the values of those who produce and commission it.10

The types of evidence commonly generated through the process of policy

research are mulple and varied, but oen include some of the following:

• Impact evidence (reviewing effecveness).

• Implementaon evidence (determining effecveness of implementaon
and delivery).
• Descripve analycal evidence (measuring nature, size, and dynamics of
problems, populaons, and so on).
• Public a tudes and understanding (via methods such as opinion polls or
focus groups).
• Stascal modeling (linear and logarithmic regression methods to make
sound predicons).
• Economic evidence (cost-benefit/cost effecveness of policies).
• Ethical evidence (social jusce, redistribuon, winners and losers).11

Evidence-based decisions bring a focus on soluons rather than just polics and
this rebalancing of priories has been at the heart of governance reform efforts
throughout the transion countries for the last 20 years, with varying levels of
success in its adopon and implementaon.
32 | Making Research Evidence Matter

2.3.2 Who Produces and Commissions Policy

Research?
Policy research is usually commissioned by a client who is involved or interested
in influencing the debate around an upcoming policy decision. The “classic” client
is a decision maker who commissions a researcher or research group to conduct
a study and find soluons to a policy problem that needs to be addressed.
Most think tanks aspire to engage in this classic client-advisor relaonship. The
following table lists the typical examples of the players commonly involved in
such a client-researcher relaonship and also shows the types of researchers
that different clients can commission.

TABLE 1.
Range of typical clients and policy researchers

CLIENTS RESEARCHERS

Typical government clients In government

• Ministry, regional • Policy advisors, teams, or units

government or municipality in the execuve branch
• Government officers (for • State research instutes
example, deputy ministers)
and offices with policy
responsibilies (for example,
State Secretariat)
• Parliamentary working
groups
• Specialized government
agencies

Typical clients from outside Outside of government

government

• Polical pares • Think tanks

• Internaonal organizaons/ • Individual researchers/
donors academics
• Individual NGOs and • Consulng firms
coalions • University centers
• Associaons (business,
professional, and so on.)

In the transion countries, it has been typical of governments to hire prominent

local academics to do this type of research. However, recently there is a shi
away from the “usual suspects” to commissioning the types of actors more
commonly involved in the producon of policy research/analysis.12 This is a
slow process and some actors have been a lot more acve in the producon and
commissioning of policy research, most notably, internaonal organizaons.
More broadly, the connuing lack of such research in most countries and
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 33

governments in the region underscores how lile they value the role of policy
research in effecve decision making. Building further demand for policy Demand for
research is a major challenge in the establishment of a culture of evidence- policy research
based decision making.13 in transition
countries is still
Clients commission researchers/analysts to help them develop a posion to low.
either lead or influence an upcoming or ongoing policymaking process. This
implies far more than simply coming up with an answer to the target policy
challenge and usually includes explanaons, evidence, raonale, and arguments
to support all aspects of a policy posion. This is summed up simply: “among
the knowledge that they need is not just ‘know how’ (praccal experience of
what works) but also ‘know what’ (the state of the world), ‘know why’ (causes Clients need
and explanaons), and ‘know who’ (contacts and networks).”14 to know more
than just the
To flesh this out a lile more, the client usually wants you to develop extensive solution—they
answers to these quesons in the commonly accepted formats such as a policy also need to
study, policy brief(s), or oral presentaons. The core elements of any policy know the how,
argument are centered on a movement from problem to soluon to applicaon. why, who, and
Taking this framework, the following table illustrates the key quesons that when.
need to be answered in each element.

TABLE 2.
The elements of a policy argument

ELEMENTS OF A POLICY QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED

ARGUMENT

Problem • What is the background to the current

Providing the raonale problem?
for acon (core queson: • What is causing the current approach to fail?
why act?)
• In what ways is the current policy failing?
• What is the impact of this failure?
• What is the key evidence to support this
interpretaon of the problem?

Soluon • What are the strategic opons available to

Providing a choice of and solve the current problem?
jusficaon for a strategic • What is the best opon to address
soluon (core quesons: the current problem that also fits the
what to do? And what not contextual challenges?
to do?)
• Why should we choose that opon and not
choose the others?

Applicaon • What should be done to implement the

Providing a plan to chosen strategy?
implement the chosen • Who should do it?
strategy (core queson:
• When should it be done?
how to implement?)
34 | Making Research Evidence Matter

However, the client normally retains copyright control of the research through
the contract signed with the research organizaon, meaning they can choose
whether the research produced will be made public or not. This somemes
means that a client will choose not to publish or publicly use the research if
they feel that the response to it from various audiences could pose a strategic
risk for them.

2.3.3 What Sources Other than Research

Influence the Decision Making Process?
Clearly, evidence plays only part of a role in the decision-making process, as it is
clear that decision making is informed by many other sources. Research is really
“one voice in a noisy room” that must compete directly with easily accessible
and influenal sources such as newspapers and television.15

Although the specific polical structures and associated incenves will shape
what is influenal, a diverse range of sources other than research evidence
commonly believed to influence decision-making include the following:

• Experience and personal views: The appraisal of a decision maker and

his/her close circle of advisors on the basis of their personal views or
professional experience will be one of the most influenal sources in
any decision-making process.
• A “resources-over-everything” perspecve: The amount of funding
available and the capacity of organizaons/agencies to deliver will
also tend to have a strong bearing on a decision. Maximizing cost-
effecveness or cost-efficiency is the goal in this case to the exclusion of
all other analysis.
• Prevailing polical climate: Governments in power will normally
have a clear value-based agenda, for example, neo-liberalism, social
democracy, socialism. Policy proposals that clearly fit into advancing
the administraon’s values will normally have a much beer chance of
being adopted.
• Habit and tradion: Government instuons (parliament, judiciary,
ministries) tend to have established pracces of doing things in relavely
fixed ways. Instuonal memory of “how we have always done things
around here” will also be influenal in any discussions of a policy change.
• Pressure groups, lobbyists, and opinion leaders: Strong lobbying
by influenal individuals or groups can be very influenal in terms of
how the problem and soluons are discussed and finally, in the actual
bargaining for the final decision.
• Public opinion surveys and focus groups: Gauging the reacons of
the broader public or a specific demographic to policy opon choices
and even the language and framing of policy issues through surveys or
focus groups is common and influenal in the final decision for focused
policians.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 35

• What works: The urgency of making a decision within a parcular

parliamentary metable or budget period using the informaon
available within the allocated budget and instuonal framework and
which is a suitable compromise for all the players will undoubtedly have
a strong influence on the direcon chosen.16

Even from this relavely short list, it is clear that significant compeon exists Research
for the ideas developed through the research or analysis process, and many evidence
of the sources commonly seek to challenge the seemingly raonal soluons competes
proposed on the basis of the evidence. Further, research evidence is oen with many
not priorized by decision makers because it oen tends to “confuse as much other potential
as clarify” by quesoning the fundamentals.17 Commentators have recently sources of
started to use the term “evidence-influenced” or “evidence-informed” rather influence.
than evidence-based decision making, as the laer seems to overplay the role
of evidence in such decision-making processes.18

2.3.4 How Does Research Feed into Policy

Debates?
Due to the pressures of me, resources, value priories, and also based on the
events that occur during their me in office, every government will choose to
priorize and work on certain policy issues and devote lile or no aenon to
others. When a government decides to include an issue on their agenda, the
urgency to have your analysis ready and join the discussion increases, as these
decisions will be completed within a budgetary or parliamentary cycle. When
advocates talk about ge ng the ming right, this refers to the pressure to have
the research, analysis, and wring up-to-date and ready to go, if not already
part of the policy discussion when the actual decision-making process starts.

Also, the type of discussion around an issue tends to change once it becomes part
of the agenda of the government. Discussion and debates about policy issues
before they are on a government agenda tend to be more focused on whether
the proposals being put forward are useful, innovave, and applicable to the The nature of
current problem and less focused on the potenal redistribuve effects of the policy debates
changes on parcular stakeholders. Once the issue gets on the agenda, this bal- change before
ance shis: stakeholders from all areas who could be affected by the proposed and after the
changes become more involved, push to promote their own interests, and so the issue is put on
discussion changes and centers on the winners and losers who will result from the government
the choice of opons. We develop more on each stage in the next two points. agenda.

• The “soening up” process: the more problem-focused debate stage

In governance circles, there are many small groups of experts (for
example, academics, researchers from think tanks and research ins-
tutes, government advisors) and professionals (for example, civil ser-
vants, NGO representaves, journalists, members of parliament) whose
job it is to be connually involved in the discussion of how best to solve
the policy challenges relang to a parcular issue like local government
financing, agricultural development, fiscal policy, or minority rights
36 | Making Research Evidence Matter

protecon. Within these communies, research and analysis within the

policy field is connually introduced, discussed, and debated and this
sets the “specialized agenda” for such communies.19
As discussed, policy research is generally commissioned by governmen-
tal agencies or NGOs seeking to change a current government program
that they feel is not working well. The research is mostly conducted by
experts from within these specialist communies and/or internaonal
consultants with similar backgrounds, both client and researcher shar-
ing the same goal of influencing the specialist agenda. Generally, the
researcher’s advocacy goal is to convince the community of the implica-
ons of the new research unl it becomes the “new convenonal wis-
dom” of the professional community or at least a part of it through the
publicaon of detailed research-driven policy papers, reports, confer-
ence presentaons, and discussion.20 Such a process among a naturally
skepcal expert audience usually takes me, requires a comprehensive
argument with supporng evidence, engagement in discussion and
debate, and rarely results in the 100-percent adopon of research
findings into the newly held posions of the community.21 Some believe
that fundamental policy shis can take years of persuasion and mulple
layers and sources of evidence before the core shi will take place.22
Thus “soening up”23 implies an approach that is slow and deliberate.
Soening up cannot be underesmated, as once the target issue
becomes part of a government agenda (or a policy window opens), it is
The “softening members of this specialist community who will emerge as key players in
up” process is a shaping the discussion towards the final decision. However, this is not
slow, deliberate to say that the soening up process stops once an issue gets on the
process of agenda. In fact, it will probably connue in earnest but be balanced with
persuasion. a bargaining process.
It may not only be experts who are involved in shaping the convenonal
wisdom of the field, for members of the broader policy network can and
do exert influence. However, under normal circumstances, experts will
have a considerable influence in at least shaping the policy opons that
are on the table.

• Interest or value-based bargaining: the more outcome-focused debate

Oen overlapping with these specialist or expert communies are many

external individuals and organizaons with a large stake in the outcomes
of parcular policy decisions. Examples of people who could be included
in this group are government officials, NGO representaves, the media,
polical pares, and cizens’ groups. Such people connuously work
and comment on parcular policy issues in mulple fora, but they do not
normally get involved in academic or expert discussions or do research
on a parcular issue. They are the consumers of research and their
interests lie more in the potenal outcomes of public policy proposals
and decision making and its impact on a parcular constuency or value
set they are defending.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 37

Such nonexpert communies tend to be much more vocal once a policy

issue becomes part of the decision-making agenda of a government as
the urgency to represent or defend their posions becomes greater.
Through the consultaon process, the nature of the debate becomes
more a balancing act between the policy proposals on the table and Interest or
winners and losers of any proposed changes. The praccalies of the value-based
decision-making process take over, as a decision will be made within a bargaining is
certain parliamentary cycle. Different sides will seek to build support a negotiated
through coalions and eventually strike a bargain that is a suitable settlement.
compromise for the more powerful actors involved.24
This movement from academic or expert debate to the bargaining
period close to the actual decision is key to understanding how to get
involved in any type of policy advocacy iniave, especially one based
on research or expert analysis. Unsurprisingly, policy research has a
more natural audience in the expert-oriented soening up process and
discussion. Once the debate reaches the bargaining phase, the basis
for negoaon is normally the choice of policy soluons reflecng the
convenonal wisdom of the experts.
Introducing new research at this stage of the process would be difficult,
unless it was striking enough in its findings to slow down or derail the
process. Untangling how such debates develop during the policymaking
process gives advocates an important insight into the nature of the
challenge of influencing decision making with new research in oen
heated discussions.

2.3.5 How Does Research Feed into Decision

Making Once Issues Are on the Agenda?
An important aspect of planning to get research into the policy-making
process is considering how the debate will develop once the issue gets onto
the government agenda. In fact, the findings of policy research itself can be
the catalyst for an issue to move from the expert agenda to become part of
government’s decision-making agenda by showing, for example, that a current
government program is underperforming or by suggesng a new soluon or
applicaon of a new technology to an old problem. New research findings are
but one way in which issues can make it onto the government’s decision-making
agenda. Focusing events (such as natural disasters, economic or security crises)
or change in value priories (for example, following the elecon of a new party
to government) are also major drivers of agenda se ng.25

Once an administraon decides to tackle a policy issue or problem, advocates

have to consider how policies will be made and how best to contribute. The
policymaking process has variously been described as a raonal, logical,
and sequenced process (for example, the policy cycle26), a gradual process
of steady change (for example, incrementalism27), a set of interacng and
overlapping networks,28 or even “a chaos of accidents and purposes”29 (for
example, the garbage-can model30). This is a highly contested debate spanning
38 | Making Research Evidence Matter

decades in academic policy science circles, and scholars have yet to reach a
broad consensus on a model that adequately represents the complexity of
policymaking processes from one policy issue to another.

However, our aim in this discussion is not to contribute to the ongoing debate
over what model best captures the mulfaceted realies of policymaking.
Ours is a pragmac and pedagogical imperave to allow novices without a
background in public policy an understandable point of entry into the complex
work of policymaking. For this reason, we will focus on the policy cycle, which
serves as an accessible way for praconers to understand a staged and raonal
decision-making process. This is important, because for beer or worse, raonal
models of policymaking such as the policy cycle have had a strong influence
on capacity building and governance reform in transion countries and it is
certainly worth recognizing this desire for raonalism in the process. In fact,
such a wish for informed, inclusive, and staged decision making represents a
significant opportunity for research input to be both significant and influenal.
Finally, even if the learner reflects on the reality of policymaking in their context
and sees that the policy cycle is an inaccurate reflecon of this process, it
The policy cycle remains a useful entry point to achieve this understanding and more broadly,
is a useful point as a way of talking about policy processes. For these reasons, the policy cycle
of entry to is the (albeit flawed) model around which we base our consideraon of the
considering the policymaking process.
reality of the
policy process. We use an adapted version of the policy cycle to discuss the various stages
where research feeds the policymaking process. First, to improve accessibility,
we have removed as much of the confusing jargon from the naming of the stages
of the cycle to produce a relavely jargon-free policy cycle. Second, we have
grouped together stages in the cycle to reflect the nature and development of
discussions through the policymaking process. The addion of what we refer
to as “the kidneys” in Figure 2 seeks to focus the advocate on what part of the
decision-making process to target.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 39

FIGURE 2.
The nature of debates around a policy decision: “the kidneys”

1
Problem put on
government agenda CHOOSING
1 A STRATEGIC
SOLUTION

at 6
Evaluate Develop options
2 for strategic solution

POLICY CYCLE

3 Choose a strategic
Implement and 5 solution
monitor targets

2
4
IMPLEMENTING
THE CHOOSEN Plan to implement
SOLUTION the chosen strategy

As menoned previously, a change in value priories (for example, following

the elecon of a new party to government), focusing events (such as natural
disasters, economic or security crises), the emergence of new technologies
or soluons, or striking program evaluaons or research can be the impetus
to set the agenda or start the process. Once a policy problem becomes part
of the government agenda, the first type of discussion usually is centered on
the choice of a suitable strategic soluon to solve the problem (for example,
should religious educaon be confessional or secular?). In such a discussion,
parcipants debate the nature of the problem, the aspiraons of society, and The first
the effecveness and feasibility of the proposed soluons on the table. This first “kidney” is
debate connues unl a strategic soluon is chosen by the government in the a discussion
wake of this broader debate. about the
choice of
This first stage of the debate is the most opportune me to feed in research a suitable
evidence. In fact, this debate or the prospect of an upcoming debate of this sort strategy.
oen serves as the impetus to commission research in a certain area or at least
further expert analysis. Unsurprisingly, this kind of debate is commonly led and
framed by the current convenonal wisdom of specialist communies.

Once a strategy has been chosen the process moves onto the second “kidney”
—implemenng the chosen soluon. In this stage, a suitable approach to the
implementaon of the chosen strategy is designed and implemented. Discussions
here focus on how to organize instuons, resources, and policy instruments
40 | Making Research Evidence Matter

(for example, from legislaon to incenves to public awareness campaigns) to

effecvely deliver the chosen strategy (to connue the example from above: if a
secular approach is chosen, the discussion would be centered around such issues
as how to train teachers, develop textbooks, engage parents in the process,
secure funding, and evaluaon). This is not just the preserve of the relevant
public body tasked with delivering the strategy: independent experse and
research into suitable approaches are very much needed and can make a vital
contribuon. For example, the Open Society Foundaons had a research group
The second in 200631 that researched the implementaon of local economic development
“kidney” is strategies in the Western Balkans. It was felt that the chosen strategies were
a discussion effecve, but the policy design and implementaon were failing. There are
about how numerous examples in transion countries of strategy decisions that were taken
to effectively and either never implemented or very badly or inconsistently delivered.
implement the
chosen strategy. The final step in the cycle is evaluaon. Program evaluaon connues to be one
of the weakest links in the policymaking process throughout the region, with
many NGOs taking on this role in place of public administraon. As was the
case with other stages, policy research can also feed in here. Indeed, inherently
any policy research project evaluates the current approach being taken by an
administraon and generally this leads to one of two conclusions: that a new/
adapted strategy is needed or that the strategy is good but a new/adapted
approach to implementaon is needed, that is, moving forward or backward in
the policy cycle.

What we have described above is a process that may not be recognized by many
as a reality in the transion context, but we believe that, slowly but surely,
elements of the process are becoming instuonalized pracce. In the worst
case scenario, an issue is put on the agenda and immediately the discussion
of one soluon is framed by the need to change the current legislaon, that is,
move straight to a very limited discussion of policy design, and revised legislaon
is passed with a minimum of public debate or stakeholder interacon.

There seems to be a legislave “fixaon” in transion contexts: when people

consider policy, they automacally think about laws, as if they were the only
policy instruments available. In the next step, the revised legislaon is passed
The policy cycle quickly without much public debate and the implicaons of the new legislaon
often does not are then absorbed by the relevant public instuons. They decide what it will
reflect reality mean to them and accordingly change their current pracces. The new pracces
in transition are implemented uncrically in a civil service culture that sees itself as rowing
countries. the boat rather than steering it.32 In this vein, there is lile or no evaluaon by
the public instuons involved and lile public discussion of the implicaons of
the change. Broader public debate on the issues remains discreonary and tends
to come only if there are reform-oriented policians in place or there is pressure
from the public, media, or an internaonal organizaon. Figure 3 represents our
aempt to capture the dimensions of the worst-case scenario.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 41

FIGURE 3.
Worst-case scenario of the policymaking process in transition countries

Problem put on
government agenda
1

MOSTLY
LITTLE OR NO
NGOS
TIME FOR PUBLIC
DO THIS
DISCUSSION
Evaluate 6
2 Develop options
for strategic solution

3 Choose a strategic
Implement and 5 solution
monitor targets

4
Plan to implement
the chosen strategy

However, the news is not all negave, as increasingly there is a push (both
internal and external) and a realizaon that such closed processes are highly
ineffecve and there needs to be a focus on working together to find sustainable
soluons. Reform-oriented leaders and the need to respond to internaonal
organizaons and in-depth accession processes (for example, to the European
Union or NATO) within such policy frameworks are leading this change.33

The implicaons of this discussion for the advocate are that it is crucial to have
in-depth knowledge of how the policymaking process works for your issue and
what stage or discussion in the process you will target, and therefore know
exactly how and when to exert pressure at the most suitable key points. We
develop this extensively in Chapter 4.
42 | Making Research Evidence Matter

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the policy process you are targeting in your own advocacy
campaign:
 Is the inial focus of your advocacy campaign on “soening up” experts and informed
praconers or is it mixed with more interest-based bargaining with broader stakeholder
groups?
 Which “kidney” in the decision-making process are you targeng in your research and
advocacy? Is your research about the choice of a new strategy or on how to properly
implement an already chosen strategy?
 How well does the policy cycle describe the policymaking process you are targeng in your
campaign?

2.3.6 What Is the Goal of Policy Advocacy?

A common oversimplificaon of the very messy reality of policy change is that
a policy research project is only successful if the recommendaons put forward
are adopted wholesale and implemented by the government, that is, that it has
direct policy impact.34 Such a view underesmates the role of mulple voices
and deliberaon in any policymaking process, not to menon the mulple
sources of influence on the decision-making process. While some authors claim
that such direct impact is more of a possibility in the transion context due to
a lack of compeon from other experts/research,35 our experience of working
with individual researchers and think tanks in the region is that the influence
of policy research comes about much more slowly. This is in line with the
Policy influence “percolaon” or enlightenment process36 where research slowly changes the
involves language, understandings, and opons available to policymakers more oen
capacity than providing the direct basis for policy programming.
building,
broadening of Therefore, in this manual, we have adopted the broader noon of policy
policy thinking, influence to describe what the goals of an effecve policy advocacy campaign
and direct should include. We use the framework developed by a leading policy scienst
impact. and praconer37 to describe policy influence made up of three core elements:

• Developing policy capacies

The development and disseminaon of a policy research project can help
to advance the skills and knowledge of both the researchers and organi-
zaons directly involved, but also among the target audiences for such
research (for example, advisors, government officials, media). A very im-
portant aspect of this type of influence in transion countries may be the
building of an understanding of and appreciaon for the value of research
in decision making.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 43

• Broadening policy horizons

Although the recommendaons from policy research may never
become part of a target government program, they may be successful in
introducing, for example, a new perspecve or framing of the problem
or a new policy alternave that hadn’t before been considered. Through
the soening up process, this new insight will broaden the nature of
the debate and become a pillar in the new convenonal wisdom of the
specialist community. A researcher at the Internaonal Development
Research Center put it well when she said that even rejecon by a policy
community is in fact success in having policy influence—the fact that
a jusficaon to reject your recommendaons has been developed
means that policy learning has occurred.
• Having policy impact (more commonly called “affecng policy regimes”)
As described above, this is the process through which a piece of research
will be adopted as the basis for changing legislaon and government
programs. It should be noted that even if this does happen, it is only in
rare cases that 100 percent of the recommendaons are adopted.
Broader
This concept of policy influence is a much broader idea than impact and allows influence is a
us to take a developmental perspecve and also see more feasible goals for more realistic
advocacy iniaves. The adopon of such a broad perspecve may also help expectation
others involved in the producon and commissioning of policy research to see than direct
more realiscally the effect of their work and not be frustrated by se ng the impact.
mostly unrealisc goal of direct impact.

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider your advocacy campaign in terms of its potential policy
influence:
 What kind of capacity will you build?
 What kind of policy thinking or learning are you trying to achieve?
 What specific piece of public policy are you aempng to change?
 What type of policy influence can you realiscally expect to achieve through your advocacy
campaign?
44 | Making Research Evidence Matter

2.4 THE CHALLENGES FOR

ADVOCATES
Given the diversity and complexity of policy communies and processes, it
is unsurprising that there are a number of widely recognized challenges for
advocates in striving to bring research into acon. We have also added two
challenges that seem to be parcular to transion countries. Together, they are
the following:

• The different world views of academics/researchers and policymakers.

• Unethical client expectaons for policy-based evidence.
• The role of researcher as advocate.
• The problem of taking credit for policy influence.
• The current dominaon of power over knowledge in many transion
countries.
• The current imbalance of supply and demand for policy research in the
transion context.

These issues are connually challenging for fledgling and even established
researchers and organizaons.

2.4.1 Different Worldviews of Researchers

and Policymakers
The most basic premise of this guide is that experts and professionals can develop
advice in a way that it becomes praccally implementable within government
programs.38 This assumes a strong relaonship and easy communicaon
between experts/advisors and those supporng and managing such programs,
that is, government officials, civil servants, and policians. However, according
to the literature in this area, this relaonship is a connual challenge because
academics and policymakers tend to see the world in very different ways.39
A basic overview of the hurdle is as follows:
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 45

TABLE 3.
The different worldviews of researchers and
policymakers

RESEARCHERS TEND TO: POLICYMAKERS TEND TO:

• connually queson the • have a program management and
fundamentals of policy approaches polical view of public policy and
and thus are oen seen as too are resistant to changes
radical in their proposals
• be impraccal or not see enough • be driven primarily by budget and
of the constraints of management capacity restricons, polical will,
and delivery of everyday and elecon/budgetary cycles
government and services
• talk in academic concepts and • talk in terms of bureaucracy,
jargon budgets, and polics
• be movated by publicaon, • be movated by doing what
funding, and donor agendas, works and what fits
recognion and new research
commissions

As one source put it, “Oen it seems as though the two groups not only come
from different cultures, but in fact speak different languages. As a result
communicaon between the two oen falters, leaving both frustrated.”40 The
challenge as advocates is to bridge between with two different percepons: one
more theorecal, objecve, and universal and the other more praccal, polical,
and context-driven. Realizing the shape of the challenge is an issue that goes to Researchers
the heart of all aspects of a policy research project from the research design to often see
the policy paper wring and advocacy at all levels. Ulmately, having a chance objective
of influencing a target decision means having to contend with a percepon policy choices;
oen held by decision makers that policy research is “the opposite of acon, policymakers
rather than the opposite of ignorance.”41 see practical
and political
This tension between researchers and policymakers assumes a developed
ones.
culture of research influencing decision making that is oen not the case in
transion countries, which we discuss further in secon 2.4.5. Nevertheless,
the core of this challenge is sll relevant to anyone coming from outside of
government and trying to advocate for change in public policy.

2.4.2 Unethical Client Expectations for

Policy-based Evidence
The classic definion of the role of the advisor is to “speak truth to power.” This
assumes that what clients want from their advisors, in addion to experse, is a Produce
certain level of independence and skepcism.42 However, not all clients are this evidence-based
enlightened and somemes they try to employ analysts to develop a raonale policy, not
for a previously chosen strategy, as a mentor for a fellowship group recently put policy-based
it: “policy-based evidence, rather than evidence-based policy.” Taking on such evidence!
a job will create an ethical problem for the researcher or analyst and could also
46 | Making Research Evidence Matter

damage the longer-term reputaon of the researcher or his/her organizaon.43

It is best to try to avoid such commissions or renegoate the terms of reference.

2.4.3 Researcher as Advocate

Not all researchers are good at or interested in actually doing advocacy work.
For many with a more academic or analycal focus, the research, analysis, and
Policy wring process is where their talent and interests lie and venturing from that
researchers world is not something they are willing to do.44 For others, being involved or even
may be leading the advocacy efforts through the soening up and interest bargaining
expected phases is also a key part of their job. However, many policy researchers complain
to take on about the mulple roles that they are asked to play, for example, researcher,
multiple roles writer, presenter, lobbyist, facilitator, and media representave. One researcher
in the advocacy shared this frustraon, memorably saying: “You have to be like Erin Brokovich,
process. no? . . . I said, come on, I’m a researcher.”45

For those who are willing and interested in playing a central role in the advocacy
efforts, the challenge is to find me to fulfill all roles while connuing to work
on other projects. However, the good news is that such policy research and
advocacy is usually conducted in teams and in fact, the teams are oen selected
based on the range of specific research and advocacy skills and knowledge
necessary to develop effecve research and influence decision making. An
example of such a focused policy research/advocacy team was put together by
the Centre for European Policy Studies to convince Ukraine to sign a free-trade
agreement with the EU.46 Members of the team were chosen specifically for the
Policy advocacy following purposes:
is usually
conducted in • one person to do econometrics
teams. • one person who knew the internal workings of the Ukrainian government
• one person who had specific business sector knowledge and had access
to all the World Bank networks
• one person who was an agricultural economist (a key sector) and access
to UN networks
• one person who had understanding of and access to the Ukrainian
business sector

These people were selected in addion to the team leader and a number of
others, but it shows the thinking that helps in pu ng together a research/
advocacy team.
At minimum,
researchers For those researchers not so intrigued by advocacy, there is an important
need to defend dividing line which they need to consider: policy research is not conducted in an
the research ivory tower and the legimacy of the researcher and his/her organizaon (not
during the to menon the advocacy campaign itself) is dependent on the foundaon of a
advocacy sound research project. If others outside of the research team become involved
debate. or are leading the advocacy efforts, it is rare that they will be able to defend
quesons on the research from other experts. As a minimum, researchers must
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 47

stay involved to the extent that the legimacy of the research and its findings
are not undermined. This may simply involve leading the push among a group
of experts who you already know and are comfortable working with, to playing
a support/advisory role in all phases of advocacy.

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider your role and your team in the upcoming advocacy
campaign:
 To what extent are you willing or interested in being involved in the advocacy process
beyond conducng research?
 What kinds of capacies and resources can you draw on in pung together an advocacy
team?
 Can you get people from your organizaon or coalion partners who would be willing to be
part of the team?

2.4.4 Taking and Getting Credit for Policy

Influence
When someone is in the business of producing or supporng the producon
of policy advice (for example, donors), it goes without saying that success
in any such project will ulmately be measured in the extent to which they
influenced the final decision. For researchers and analysts, this link is proof that
their experse is an essenal part of a decision-making process in a certain
policy area, and therefore the basis for future commissions and sustainability.
Donors want dollars turned into change in ways that support their own goals.
Linking their support to partners who achieve such change is the basis for them
to prove that they are fulfilling their mission.

However, making clear links from your own input to the final decision or adopted
policy is usually a very difficult proposion. First, if decision making is a long-term Linking one
inclusive process of convincing and bargaining, then many people will have a say input to a
in the final outcome and yours will only be one voice in this mulstakeholder multi-sourced
discussion: for example, the final approach adopted will probably not look very final decision is
much like the proposals you put forward at the beginning.47 Second, through difficult.
the process and over me, people will be movated to make decisions on the
basis of mulple and overlapping inputs and may even forget that it was you
who made a certain proposal at the beginning. In addion, for donors, policy
processes rarely fit neatly into budgetary cycles and this can create its own
problems in reporng results.48
48 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Of course, there are instances where new ideas or desperately needed

soluons are relavely uncontested and the link to the decision made is plain
to everyone. Most oen, the key is to adopt a broader definion of success,
such as policy influence (see secon 2.3.7). Broadening this definion to include
capacity building and contribuon to policy dialogue does not mean lowering
the hurdle, but se ng a target that is a beer reflecon of an extremely messy
and challenging reality that then allows you to see the influence of your ideas
in the broader process. In contrast, only targeng direct policy impact is usually
se ng yourself up to fail from the start. Se ng such an unrealisc goal can and
does have serious implicaons for fostering policy communies throughout the
region, since many iniaves are doomed to be considered failures.

Researchers in the region also struggle with the following issue:

• Keeping your name as the source in a policy discussion

For policy researchers from an academic background, it is worrying to see

people within the policymaking world take on others’ ideas all the me and
make them their own without menoning or giving credit to the original source
of the idea. In a formal academic se ng, this would amount to plagiarism.
However, in the policymaking world, this in fact should be the goal and also
makes sense in this context.

As researchers or analysts, the best-case scenario is that a target policy dialogue

In public, the is dominated by your insights, analysis, and even your language. What’s more,
sources of ideas if someone is convinced by your posion, as in any argument, they will begin to
get lost in most process it, repeat it, and take ownership of the ideas themselves. Finally, for poli-
policy debates. cians to be convincing and sound legimate in a policy debate, they must put for-
ward their proposed posion as their own. They may at some point find it useful
to acknowledge the source of some ideas, especially if it is parcularly reputable,
but mostly it is their “own” posion that will be at the center of the argument.

The silver lining to this apparent cloud is that most specialist policy communies
are relavely small, even in the internaonal arena, and if you or your instuon
comes up with something new, interesng, innovave, and/or brilliant, it will
not be forgoen. In fact, this is how policy researchers build their reputaons
and as a result, the chances of connuing to be included in the discussion and
receiving new commissions for analysis or research are increased—even if your
name is not all over the newspapers.

For example, in a conference in 2008, a representave from the European

Council on Foreign Relaons reported on how the European Commission’s
Opinion leaders foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, had substanvely adopted and presented
will remember their posions (as outlined in a policy brief) on how Europe should respond
where all inputs to the growing strength and power of Russia. Of course, these ideas were put
come from. forward as the European Commission’s own posion and no menon was made
of the European Council on Foreign Relaons’ paper. The researchers took this
as a considerable victory.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 49

2.4.5 Power Over Knowledge or Knowledge

Over Power?
What we have described above is a policymaking process that, on the one hand,
is oen resistant to research evidence and, on the other, is completely dependent
on it to move forward. This can be seen as one part of what is oen described
as the ongoing tension between knowledge and power where “emphasising the
role of power and authority at the expense of knowledge and experse in public
affairs seems cynical; emphasising the laer at the expense of the former seems
naïve.”49 However, this apparent tension is beer considered as interdependence
especially if we view such decision-making processes as a connuous discourse.50
Our descripons of the process through which a research-based idea actually
becomes part of a government program directly supports this logic of a slow,
ongoing, mul-voiced dialogue or as we referred to in the introducon, a two-
way process of interacon towards a negoated selement.

The literature we have drawn from is mostly based on research developed in

transion and developing countries and the underlying assumpon for these
authors is that all countries are in various stages of moving towards inclusive,
open, funconing democracies.51 We also make this assumpon in our work,
but this does not get away from the fact that there seem to be parcularly
difficult obstacles to overcome in making the next steps in this direcon. One In many
of the current key hurdles relates directly not to the tension, but to the current transition
dominaon of power over knowledge or, to put it another way, polics over countries,
soluons. This tends to result in a public and polical dialogue that is based on politics still
taking sides and where policy decisions are only portrayed as a win for those in dominates over
power and a loss for the opposion. For example, both Hungary and Bosnia and solutions.
Herzegovina have sadly gone down this path in the last decade: there is hardly
ever enough facts or evidence available from independent, reputable sources
to ground a policy debate and move it towards a focus on the best soluon to
the current problem; and even if evidence is available, there is a tendency to
cherry pick the source for polical ends. Moreover, compounding the problem,
policians do not see such pracces as an ethical problem, but rather just as a
normal part of the game.

This reinforces the absolute necessity in the transion context to promote

an evidence-based decision-making culture and further, the need to stay the
distance for those involved in producing and advocang for policy research You not only
and analysis. However, it is also a clear illustraon of a further challenge for have to sell
advocates: in some cases, it will probably not be enough to try to sell the ideas the research,
developed though the research, but you will probably also have to sell the but also the
idea and ethics of research evidence in the policymaking process, especially idea of why
to those who may see it as an unnecessary obstacle for them to retain power. such research
In the short term, the key must be to illustrate that their longer-term polical is important
lives are actually dependent on improving the lives of their voters, and without in decision
the experse and evidence to support complicated policy decisions, there is making.
lile chance that they will survive. In the longer term, we all hope that such
instrumental movaon would not be part of the equaon and all actors will
see the centrality of this interdependence between knowledge and power.
50 | Making Research Evidence Matter

2.4.6 Imbalance of Supply and Demand for

Policy Research
Another implicaon from this dominaon of power over knowledge within the
decision-making bodies and public administraon is a lack of appreciaon for
and understanding of the role of policy research in the decision-making process.
Post-Soviet public administraons are portrayed as struggling to incorporate
the broader, strategic perspecves of public policy within instuons and a
decision-making culture dominated by vercal structures in which civil servants
do the bidding of their superiors in an ad-hoc and clientelisc manner.52 In many
countries, large public administraons oen exist as a way to provide jobs to
cizens and help ensure the polical future of those in power. However, all
is not so bleak as many transion countries have sought to place the policy
perspecve as a central focus of their public administraon reform process,
usually with support and pressure from transnaonal networks, internaonal
organizaons, convenons, and agreements (for example, European Union,
World Bank, Internaonal Monetary Fund).53 We can see these instuons
gaining even more influence since the financial crisis that began in 2008.

Nevertheless, one outcome of the current stage of the reform process is an

imbalance between the supply and demand for policy research. To be more
precise at the moment, there tends to be more supply of such research from
outside of government than demand from within.54 With policy reform at the top
of the agenda for many internaonal organizaons and donors, it is unsurprising
that substanal resources have been spent on developing the capacity to deliver
At the moment, such experse and analysis both in the governmental and NGO sectors. Due to
supply of the flexibility of the organizaons and their close relaonship to donors, NGOs
research have strongly responded to this call, resulng in a booming number of think
outweighs tanks in the region through the late 1990s.55 However, it is clear that the reform
demand. of public administraon is a much slower process and so there is a mismatch
between the suppliers of such policy advice and the body that is their tradional
and, in many ways, their ulmate client: the government.

Correcng this imbalance will ulmately be a long, slow process, but there are
posive signs that many government bodies are aempng to build-in such pro-
cesses as Regulatory Impact Assessment56 and are developing their core policy
analysis component in ministries, municipalies, agencies, and policy analysis
units, as well as establishing special offices to deal with internaonal accession
and integraon processes (e.g., EU and NATO). Such capacity development will
be at the heart of building increased demand for policy research and it is not
only within government structures that such learning needs to happen: The
NGO community has a responsibility to become a supplier of quality advice that
stakeholders will be unable to ignore.

An addional factor evident from our experience and extensively developed in

the literature is the posive influence of the “revolving door” of experts from
NGO to government and back again.57 The classic descripon of this situaon is
of a newly elected government inving an expert from a think tank to join the
administraon. This means that you have an individual whose enre approach
is centered on evidence-based decision making who will advocate in this
direcon. Usually such experts lose their posions if their party loses power. At
this point, they tend to return to their NGOs or think thanks.
 THE POLICY ADVOCACY CHALLENGE | 51

Somemes this imbalance of supply and demand is portrayed as an illustraon

of why NGOs have so much more capacity and innovaon than governments, More and more,
but such percepons reduce the complexity and seem to be more borne out there is less
of frustraon at the slow pace of change rather than a reality informed of the separation
challenges. As one Canadian source tells us: “Policymakers are people, too,”58 between
and the target must be a healthy compeon of ideas that supports evidence- government
based decision making where intelligent providers and intelligent consumers and NGO
interact to support such a process.59 sectors.

2.5 THE FOUNDATIONS OF EFFECTIVE

ADVOCACY FOR POLICY RESEARCH
Having developed a relavely in-depth descripon of the nature of policy
advocacy, the role of research and experse, and the challenges of bringing
them into the decision-making process in a way that guides the choices and the
thinking, it is obvious that the final decision stems from the input of mulple
voices from mulple sources through mulple stages. This is true both in the
best funconing democracies as well as in most transion countries. Fewer
voices and sources, plus the lack of appreciaon for policy research and the
unpredictability of the process itself, make influencing decision making in
transion countries even more of a challenge.

Given these realies, it is unsurprising that an approach to policy advocacy

where the researcher publishes and disseminates his or her paper, presents the
findings once at a conference, and has a meeng with a government official is
unlikely to produce much influence. Such a one-way approach, even if it includes
great ideas and analysis, is more likely to be ignored and confuses the totally
messy and evolving realies of the policy-making process with the tradional
processes of academia.

Based on the challenges detailed in this chapter and insights developed though
the invesgaon of mulple cases of research achieving influence in transion
and developing countries,60 the following are the basic principles that frame
and guide an effecve approach to policy advocacy:
• It is a two-way process of negoaon and mediaon towards the
transfer of ownership of the findings and proposals developed in the
research to key target audiences.
• It is messy and normally takes me, commitment, and persistence.
• The most likely target is policy influence, rather than impact.
• It involves the “soening up” of specialist expert audiences and also
more interest-based coalion building and bargaining with more poli-
cal audiences.
• Context is key, as processes are always specific, evolving, and unpredictable.

In the next chapter, we provide an overview of how to take these principles

and operaonalize them in your policy advocacy planning process using the
Advocacy Planning Framework tool.
52 | Making Research Evidence Matter

NOTES
1 The protecon of the rights of a certain constuency, 31 Policy research fellowship programs at the Open Society
such as, for example, ensuring that public services such Foundaons engage researchers to conduct policy
as educaon are equally accessible for a parcular research commissioned by Foundaons over a one-
marginalized group or minority. year period, and they are supported by training and
2 Public informaon campaigns to inform and persuade mentoring to develop their capacies. For this specific
cizens of government strategies and programs, such as, fellowship group see: hp://lgi.osi.hu/documents.
for example, government-produced adversing warning php?id=3259&m_id=177&bid=4.
of the risks of smoking. 32 Peters 2008.
3 Carden 2009, Court and Young 2003, Data and Pellini 33 Bokros cited in Peteri 2005, Jones et al. 2009.
2011, Open Society Foundaons 2010, Roebeling and de 34 Carden 2009, Weyrauch, D´Agosno, and Richards 2011.
Vries 2011, Weyrauch, D´Agosno, and Richards 2011.
35 Stone and Maxwell 2005, Carden 2005.
4 Start and Hovland 2004.
36 Cited in Internaonal Development Research Centre
5 Krastev 2000. 2005.
6 See: hp://ecfr.eu/content/about/. 37 Lindquist 2001.
7 Start and Hovland 2004. 38 Jones 2009.
8 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2004. 39 Canadian Instute for Health Informaon 2004, Carden
9 Davies 2004. 2004, 2009, Court and Young 2003, Davies 2004, Glover
10 Davies 2004, 2005, Global Development Network 2003, 2005, Internaonal Development Research Centre 2004,
Jones 2009, Majone 1989. Jones 2009, Neilson 2003, Stone and Maxwell 2005.
11 Davies 2004. 40 Canadian Instute for Health Informaon 2004.
12 Buldioski 2007. 41 Court and Young 2003.
13 Peteri 2005, Stone and Maxwell 2005. 42 Mintrom 2004.
14 Solesbury 2001. 43 Weimar and Vining 1996.
15 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2004, 44 Court and Young 2003.
Carden 2009. 45 Carden 2004.
16 Global Development Network 2003, Carden 2009, Davies 46 Available online: hp://www.ceps.be/.
2004, 2005, Internaonal Development Research Centre 47 Carden 2004.
2004, Solesbury 2001.
48 Ryan and Garret 2005.
17 Davies 2004.
49 Solesbury 2001.
18 Stone 2009, Weiss in Carden 2009.
50 Ibid.
19 Kingdon 1984.
51 Global Development Network 2003, Internaonal
20 Start and Hovland 2004, Global Development Network Development Research Centre 2004.
2003.
52 Krawchenko 2006.
21 Kingdon 1984.
53 Weyrauch and Selvood 2007.
22 DeLeon 1997.
54 Carden 2009, Peteri 2005, UNDP 2003.
23 Kingdon 1984.
55 Carden 2009, McGann and Weaver 2000, UNDP 2003.
24 Ibid.
56 OECD 2009.
25 Ibid.
57 Carden 2009, Global Development Network 2003,
26 Howle and Ramesh 1995, Anderson 1994. Kingdon 1984, McGann and Weaver 2000.
27 Lindbloom and Woodhouse 1993. 58 Canadian Instute for Health Informaon 2004.
28 Marsh 1998. 59 Davies 2004.
29 Clay and Schaffer 1984. 60 Global Development Network 2003, Internaonal
30 Kingdon 1984. Development Research Centre 2004.
 | 53

THE ADVOCACY PLANNING

FRAMEWORK

Chapter 2 outlined that the challenge of having influence in a policymaking

process normally involves commitment and persistence through a process
of mediaon and negoaon, unl your ideas and proposals have become
accepted by at least a part of the key target audience and, at best, accepted by
the powerful majority, thus providing the basis for acon. In understanding policy In advocacy,
advocacy in this manner, one of the main lessons is that context is everything context is
when it comes to advocacy.1 What this naturally implies is that advocates need everything.
to be very careful in transferring “best pracce” advocacy approaches from one
context to another. Taking this idea further, we have seen that even within the
same naonal context, one policymaking process will differ significantly from
the next depending on the policy issue (for example, from higher educaon
to fiscal policy). Thus, advocates should be wary when transferring advocacy
approaches from one policymaking process to another, even within the same
naonal context.

However, this does not mean there is nothing to learn from the advocacy
pracces of others. The lesson to draw is that in order to conduct effecve
advocacy, the first essenal step involves gaining an in-depth understanding
of the context and policy landscape itself, that is, the target policymaking If context is
process and people involved. What can be transferred is a common approach everything,
to analyzing a target policy context in order to plan an effecve advocacy then questions
campaign. Or put another way: if context is everything, then quesons are the are the answer.
answer. By understanding your own context in an in-depth manner, you will
have the crical knowledge necessary to evaluate whether you can employ
previously used approaches, and how to adapt these approaches to effecvely
54 | Making Research Evidence Matter

fit your own advocacy challenges. In sum, you first need to map out your target
context and then make plans for your advocacy.

In adopng this approach, the chapter introduces the key mapping and planning
tool that is at the heart of this guide: the Advocacy Planning Framework (APF).
First, we present a short overview of the raonale, focus, and architecture of the
APF, followed by introducing, explaining, and illustrang the central element of
the APF that focuses on three key strategic level planning quesons called the
“core strategic focus of your campaign.” However, before introducing the APF,
we provide a brief overview of the four case studies we used in developing the
guide and use throughout our discussion of the APF.

3.1 THE FOUR CASE STUDIES

The four case studies are real examples of research-based advocacy campaigns
that were successful in influencing policy decision making in transion countries.
In this chapter and also Chapters 4, 5, and 6, we take the main elements of the
APF in turn and build on the case studies to develop and illustrate core concepts
and to draw out deeper advocacy lessons and insights. We advise that you take
some me to become familiar with the basics of the cases provided in the table
below as we will reference them throughout the guide.

KAZAKHSTAN
Improving One Stop Shops (2006–2007)
Policy fellow 2 and civil servant

One Stop Shops were introduced by presidenal decree in Kazakhstan a few years prior to this
research as the soluon to corrupon and weak public service delivery. There had been much
cricism in public and the media of the supposed effecveness of the One Stop Shops and the
minister in charge desperately needed an evaluaon of the current problems and suggesons
for improving the approach so it could fit with local capacies. The researcher, who at the
me was a PhD student and a policy fellow, was on a leave of absence from a government job
in the Civil Service Agency. She was able to produce the research that was needed and made
a connecon to a key advisor in the Ministry of Jusce (the agency with the responsibility to
manage the implementaon of One Stop Shops). They readily accepted her research input and
her soluons focused on local capacity development.
 THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK | 55

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

Reorganization of local administrative units in Mitrovica
(2003–2006)
Think tank (European Stability Initiative)

At the beginning of the European Stability Iniave research and advocacy, the town of Mitrovica
was the poster child for the problems of Kosovo (UNSCR 1244), with two ethnic groups enrely
separated from one another by the Ibar river. The challenge of Mitrovica had been extensively
discussed in naonal, regional, and internaonal policy circles and the media but they were
stuck on how to solve what they viewed as primarily a policing/security problem. The European
Stability Iniave started from a different point and looked at the basic socioeconomic issues
in the town. What they found was that the town was living off the crisis, with most people
exisng on subsidies and spends from Belgrade, Prisna, and the internaonal community;
for example, only 14 percent of cash income for the Serbian populaon was coming from
private business. Once the crisis was over and the spends dried up, the town would be dead.
It was on this basis that they were able to get the Albanian and Serbian sides to accept the
division of the town into separate municipalies (to keep the Serbs in the town), but only on
the condions that there was freedom of movement, full property return on both sides, and
joint economic planning. This soluon was also included in the Ahsaari Plan, the blueprint for
status talks on the independence of Kosovo (UNSCR 1244).

MACEDONIA
Introducing and passing a Patients’ Bill of Rights (2006–2008)
Policy fellow 3 and think tank (Studiorum4)

The passing of a Paents’ Bill of Rights for Macedonia was one of the commitments made by
the country through the EU preaccession process. It was on the country’s legislave agenda but
not a stated priority for the new administraon elected in the summer of 2006. The researcher,
who worked for the Studiorum think tank in Skopje, had completed research on a Paents’ Bill
of Rights early in 2006 through the Open Society Foundaons’ Internaonal Policy Fellowship5
program. A colleague and friend became the new advisor to the minister of health and was
looking for policy suggesons to put forward. The researcher showed the recent research,
which the advisor liked and presented to the minister. Soon aer, the researcher was asked to
become the NGO representave on the ministry’s working group that draed the legislaon.
She was also a member of the parliamentary working group when the dra bill went through
the legislature and the Paents’ Bill of Rights was passed in July 2008.
56 | Making Research Evidence Matter

MONGOLIA
Preventing the signing of an ill-considered mining contract
between the Mongolian government and an international mining
consortium (2006–2007)
National and international NGO coalition (Open Society Forum, Mongolia and
Revenue Watch Institute)

The issue of the revenue received by the Mongolian government through mining contracts
with internaonal mining companies has been hugely debated for more than a decade in
Mongolia. Stories of large-scale corrupon, unfairly negoated contracts, and environmental
damage have been at the center of the discussion. All sectors have been involved because the
mining sector has the potenal to revoluonize the economic future of the country. The debate
centered around the discovery of one of the largest copper deposits in the world, the Oyu
Tolgoi mine. It was esmated that this one mine alone had the potenal to double government
revenue, if negoated and managed properly. The inial negoaon with the mining consora,
completed with the ministerial working group (from the ministries of finance, energy, and
mineral resources), was a closed discussion, although many tried to get involved. Once the
dra contract was submied to Parliament, it became public in July 2007, and the Open
Society Forum pushed quickly to reveal the shortcomings of the contract by commissioning an
expert analysis and making the findings public. This was one key ingredient that led to street
protests, and with this push they were able to prevent the quick approval of the agreement by
Parliament.

3.2 OVERVIEW OF THE ADVOCACY

PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)
The Advocacy Planning Framework builds on one of the main outcomes of the
work from the Bridging Research and Policy project6: the Research and Policy In
Development (RAPID) framework.7 The main focus of the RAPID framework was
to describe what is referred to as the “knowledge-policy nexus” in transion
and developing countries, that is, the key elements of how research evidence
becomes part of a target policymaking process.8 Our focus was to turn this very
useful research outcome into a praccal tool for the day-to-day planning of
advocacy campaigns. With this focus, we have developed what we simply call
the Advocacy Planning Framework or APF, for short.

In the last chapter, we defined successful advocacy as a process through which

the main target audiences, including decision makers, need to build ownership
of the ideas and proposals put forward, which will then direct them in leading
any upcoming decision. If this is the ulmate goal, APF provides the foundaon
for advocates to map out their target policymaking process and through the
mapping answer the key advocacy planning quesons necessary to give them
the best possible chance of achieving their specified goal.
 THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK | 57

FIGURE 4.
The Advocacy Planning Framework (APF)

Detailed mapping and planning process Core strategic focus for your campaign

Current obstacles
for change
WAY INTO THE +
PROCESS The leverage you
can bring and use
=
Feasible advocacy
objective

THE MESSAGE AND

MESSENGER ACTIVITIES

Figure 4 illustrates that APF is a muldimensional mapping and planning tool

that is built around three main pillars or circles and a strategic core, that is, the
overlap in the center. This core overlap represents the target outcome of the
planning process: a strategy for realisc policy change. The three overlapping
circles of the APF provide a foundaon and direcon for an in-depth mapping
and planning process by presenng a set of quesons that are key to planning
any advocacy campaign:

• Way into the process—what is the best approach to get your ideas into
the target policy debate and who will be your target audience(s)?
• The messenger—who should lead or be the face of the campaign and
what kind of support do you need from others?
• Messages and acvies—what can you say to the key target audiences
that will engage and convince them and how can you best communicate
that message to them through carefully chosen advocacy acvies and
communicaon tools?

Hence, the tle of each circle indicates the decisions you will have made upon
compleng the mapping and planning process for that circle. We develop the
three circles separately in Chapters 4, 5, and 6. However, it is also important
to note that the overlap between the three individual circles is integral to the
58 | Making Research Evidence Matter

architecture of the APF as one circle influences and feeds into the planning for
the others. To give just one example: in planning your advocacy messages and
acvies, you will draw on insights from the mapping completed in the “way into
the process” element to ensure that your messages are framed to fit the current
debate and are chosen to appeal to or appease those whose posions need to
shi in order for the policymaking process to move in your intended direcon.

By working with the APF to develop answers to the key interdependent

quesons in each circle, you can plan a nuanced approach to mediate between
what you want to achieve and what is possible in the policymaking process and
this should generate the best possible chance to achieve policy influence, that
is, to locate the core overlapping part of the circles or the core strategic focus
of your campaign. In targeng the strategic core, you are connually looking to
develop targeted and nuanced answers to three quesons:

• Current obstacles to change—what is currently blocking the policy-

making process from moving in the direcon you want?
• The leverage you can bring and use—what can you bring to and use in
the process to move it in the direcon you wish?
• A feasible policy objecve—considering the obstacles that exist and the
leverage you have, how far do you think you can move the process?

These three interrelated quesons of the core element of the APF are fleshed
out in the next secon.

3.3 THE CORE STRATEGIC FOCUS

OF YOUR CAMPAIGN
The most common objecve in policy advocacy is to change thinking about
a parcular issue and ulmately government pracce or programming in a
target area. Some people also conduct advocacy to prevent or block change,
The advocacy but for the sake of clarity and to represent the majority of cases we’ve
challenge is experienced, here we focus more on advocang for change or reform. Through
ultimately to your advocacy efforts, you are hoping to start, connue, or restart a process
move the target of change in government acon that, even in the least democrac sociees,
process. requires relavely broad consensus building among those who can influence
the decision-making process. Ulmately, your voice in the advocacy process
is one among many, but if you do a good job, it can serve as the catalyst for
advancing the change you are seeking in the broader policymaking process. As
such, we would characterize the challenge of policy advocacy as an aempt to
move the policymaking process. This perspecve is illustrated in Figure 5.
 THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK | 59

FIGURE 5.
Moving the policymaking process

Your leverage—
the combination of
evidence, support,
and opportunity
you can use to push the
change you want

Your feasible objective—how far you think you can move

the current process with the leverage you have

The process The process

in its current moved after
state your campaign

The central quesons that advocates need to answer through the APF planning
process rest around the potenal outcome of their advocacy efforts, or in
other words, if and how they can move the policymaking process. In answering The core
these quesons about how to move the process, there are three main areas strategic focus
you need to focus on: the challenges or obstacles to moving the process in the questions
desired direcon; the leverage you can bring and use to push the process in ensure that you
that direcon; and how far you can expect the process to move as a result. In target realistic
considering the relaonship between these three elements of the core strategic policy change.
focus, we tentavely offer the following equaon:

FIGURE 6.
The relationship between the core strategic focus questions

Current obstacles to change + Your leverage =

A FEASIBLE
ADVOCACY OBJECTIVE

The crux of strategic advocacy planning involves finding a feasible objecve

by weighing up the push and pull factors of the obstacles prevenng the
policymaking process moving forward and balancing that with the leverage you
60 | Making Research Evidence Matter

can bring to the process to move it in the desired direcon. The result of this
The crux is to combined approach is that you sele on an advocacy objecve that is realisc
find a feasible and targeted for the specific policy context. We realize that the equaon offered
objective based is rather crude, but it has turned out to be a helpful orientaon for our trainees
on the obstacles in seeing the relaonship between the three core strategic elements of the APF.
identified and Being able to answer the three strategic quesons at the core in a nuanced and
your leverage. clear manner will ensure you have a well-considered and solid strategy.

Careful consideraon of these core strategic quesons also helps researchers

to transion into the role of advocate. Researchers devote considerable me
and effort to an in-depth study on a policy issue and oen feel that they have
generated an “opmal” soluon to the problem and cannot see why it would
not be quickly adopted and implemented. However, oen such soluons
are generated in a “laboratory” se ng and with limited consideraon of the
constraints, polics, and complexies that occur in the actual policymaking
realies around the issue. The overall strategic focus encompassed in these three
quesons, especially starng with considering the challenges and obstacles in
the policymaking process, helps to temper this oen unrealisc ambion and
ensures you are grounded in the real policy context and its constraints.

3.3.1 Map the Current Obstacles to Change

Before beginning any advocacy iniave, it is essenal to understand the
obstacles and challenges to moving the process in the direcon you intend. The
challenges vary but common types include

• a relavely closed decision-making process

• a government that does not share the same values or protect the same
interests as you
• a policy issue that is not on the government agenda
• a lack of knowledge or understanding among a certain audience of the
problem or potenal soluons
• a lack of data to support decision-making or even a complete absence of
research in your policy area

Starng from a focus on the obstacles ahead immediately contextualizes your

Mapping research results and proposals, thus beginning the shi from researcher to
the current advocate. Knowing these obstacles and challenges helps you to be realisc
obstacles allows about what kind of change your advocacy can be expected to bring and focuses
you to see the your advocacy messages and acvies to address such challenges.
potential for
policy change. In the following case, the significant obstacles idenfied played a major role in
determining how to approach the advocacy campaign and deciding what was
achievable in that challenging context. The issues of leverage and advocacy
objecve are also included in the box as all three are interconnected and the
insights from the other two are needed to make sense of the third.
 THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK | 61

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

MAPPING THE OBSTACLES/CHALLENGES:
The obstacles in this case seemed insurmountable at the beginning. The European Stability
Iniave had previously avoided working in Kosovo (UNSCR 1244) since so many internaonal
organizaons, NGOs, and media had been working, wring, and thinking about the challenges,
especially aer NATO’s intervenon in 1999. However, being an organizaon that was focused
on the Balkans, at a certain point it became me to work on the issue.
By 2003, Mitrovica had become the leitmof of the conflict with the two ethnic populaons
living separately across the Ibar river and protected from each other by UN troops. It was also
the only significant urban populaon of Serbs le in Kosovo (UNSCR 1244). The problem was
seen as a security issue, with the Serbs in the north of the town demanding that a separate
administrave unit be established for them. The administraons in Prisna and Belgrade, as
well as the internaonal community and the media, were also very focused on the events in
the town with the prospect of talks about the “final status” or independence of Kosovo (UNSCR
1244) in the background. The process was at a stalemate within the framework of this highly
charged security discussion.

ASSESSING THE LEVERAGE:

Reframing of the problem away from just a security issue to a basic survival issue for the
town was pivotal to the success of this advocacy iniave. The European Stability Iniave’s
approach to researching any situaon is to first gather the most basic socioeconomic data; once
they collected the data from Mitrovica, both the demographic informaon and the sources of
income in the town showed that the town had no future aer the conflict was over and outside
subsidies dwindled away. By highlighng this dramac sustainability problem, immediately
local policians took note and began to talk about ways to solve this local problem—a big
turning point in the discussion.
In addion to the research, other elements contributed to making this change:
• The European Stability Iniave had built a strong reputaon as a provider of quality
research for the region.
• They had been directly contracted by the UN as an evaluaon unit in Kosovo (UNSCR 1244),
allowing them access to the de facto government and all local networks.
• They also had a strong and established network of experts, opinion leaders, academics, and
policians on both sides of the conflict and built strong relaonships with the spokespeople
on both sides.
• They had strong links to the internaonal community actors, the diplomac community,
and local and internaonal media in Kosovo (UNSCR 1244).
• Their whole team made a huge effort over a year to mediate and push this decision by
producing mulple policy papers, holding a number of conferences, and connually
meeng all the actors and responding to the challenges as they emerged.
• The fact that the process was stuck for so long around a security discussion was indeed a
challenge and an opportunity once ESI reset the agenda and broke the deadlock.
62 | Making Research Evidence Matter

SETTING A FEASIBLE ADVOCACY OBJECTIVE:

Having defined the problem as a local issue, the soluons they defined were also local: to allow
a separate administrave unit to be established in the north of the town for the predominantly
Serb populaon, but only on the condions that freedom of movement between the two
parts of the town was returned, full property rights were to be respected, and local economic
development planning would be done together. The European Stability Iniave went through
many stages of first ge ng this problem and an associated soluon on the table in public,
media, and expert discussions. It then went through a lengthy and difficult convincing and
bargaining phase, and in the end the proposals were wrien into the independence plan for
Kosovo (UNSCR 1244)—the Ahsaari Plan.

3.3.2 Assess Your Leverage

The second issue that the APF asks you to consider is the queson of leverage:
this is a combinaon of what you can bring to the target policy debate together
with what opportunies you can capitalize on in the process to address the
challenges and start the process moving. This assessment asks you to look at
your research and its insights in a purposeful manner, figuring out how you
will use the findings to catalyze the policy change you are seeking. In tandem,
you are also seeking to idenfy suitable opportunies or policy windows in the
Leverage is the policymaking process that you can capitalize on with your research findings.
combination of Your leverage as a policy advocate oen is a combinaon of the following:
what you can
bring and use • surprising or new research evidence or analysis
to start moving
• a new soluon to an old problem
the process.
• an open policy window or opportunity you can use to push forward a
new idea
• support from influenal or powerful individuals or groups

In the next case study, leverage underpinned many decisions on the approach
to advocacy undertaken.
 THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK | 63

MONGOLIA
MAPPING THE OBSTACLES/CHALLENGES:
The issue of the potenal revenues from mining projects had been a major public issue in
Mongolia for a decade or more. Previous contracts or deals by the government with mining
companies had been conducted in a very nontransparent manner and there were many claims
of bribery and corrupon. In 2006, a new law on mining was passed which sought to open up
this process and protect the public interest in such dealings. The Oyu Tolgoi mine was a copper
and gold deposit on a completely different scale to any previously discovered in Mongolia and
had the potenal to double government revenue if managed correctly. This contract and its
potenal outcome was the focal point of discussion among all sectors in Mongolia.
In spite of the new law on mining, the first stage of the negoaon process with the mining
consorum was completed with the ministerial working group behind closed doors. The
Open Society Forum asked to see a copy of the dra agreement and also to be invited into
the discussion but was never given access. The only access they had was delivering training on
such negoaons to those in the government involved in the negoaon process. One of the
other big challenges in this process was a me-related issue: the working group brought the
agreement to Parliament on the day before a weeklong naonal holiday, trying to slip it through
the legislature unnoced. Luckily this did not happen, and Open Society Forum had a three-
to four-week period to complete an analysis and publish an opinion on the dra agreement.

ASSESSING THE LEVERAGE:

In this case, the Open Society Forum’s leverage was a combinaon of the following:
• Reacng with an analysis of the mining agreement in a very short four-week window: two
recognized experts (an economist and a lawyer) showed that most of the risk was being
carried by the state and that many important issues were unclear.
• Publishing this expert analysis in an opinion piece that was easy to access by all:
“7 Quesons on the Oyu Tolgoi Mining Agreement”9 pointed out what issues had not been
dealt with. Managing to arrange publicaon for this arcle was a major contribuon.
• Having an established reputaon as an independent player in Mongolia and volunteering
their experts as advisors to the government.
• Accessing the experse of the Open Society Foundaons’ worldwide network and Revenue
Watch on extracve industries.
• Accessing the dra of the mining contract going to Parliament thanks to the Open Society
Forum’s strong es with many people there.
• Acng as a bridge to broader civil society: once they held a meeng with their network to
announce the findings of the analysis, CSOs mobilized, and these findings were an important
ingredient that led to street demonstraons protesng the agreement.

SETTING A FEASIBLE ADVOCACY OBJECTIVE:

From the beginning of the process, the Open Society Forum was worried about the quality of the
deal and the risk of repeang past mistakes on such a hugely important development opportunity.
Once they saw the dra agreement, their advocacy objecve was to prevent the passing of this
version and then to have further and broader consultaons to come up with a fairer and more
developed deal. By drawing on their network in Parliament, they succeeded in achieving this.
64 | Making Research Evidence Matter

3.3.3 Set a Feasible Advocacy Objective

Balancing the obstacles and the leverage you can use and bring into the process,
you then need to consider to what extent you can expect the process to move
based on your advocacy efforts. Se ng a feasible advocacy objecve can range
from starng a discussion to closing a decision:

• raising public awareness

• starng a stakeholder discussion
• changing expert thinking on an issue or opon
• pu ng an issue on the government agenda
• ge ng dra legislave proposals tabled for discussion in parliament
• having your policy recommendaons adopted and implemented

Of course, it is possible that the APF planning process may lead you to conclude
that it is not actually feasible at the moment to move the process and that
Your advocacy waing for a more favorable environment is prudent.
objective is
the kind of It is important to point out that in planning a policy advocacy campaign your
change you objecve should be focused on the kind of change you are targeng in the
are expecting policymaking process, as you can see in the list of examples above, and not on
in the process, the resulng policy outcome. For example, you may want to improve access to
from starting healthcare services for a parcular minority group (your planned outcome), but
a discussion in planning your advocacy iniave, you need to think how far you can move
to closing a the process towards making this a reality, for example, convincing a polical
decision. party to commit to this in an upcoming elecon manifesto. Even if you are at
the point where a decision-making body is ready to pass the legislaon needed
to deliver your target outcome, in planning your advocacy campaign the focus
needs to be on ge ng that legislaon passed. Advocacy planning is always
firmly focused on process changes and these changes in process, if achieved,
will deliver an outcome.

The following table gives more insight into these three interrelated dimensions
of strategic advocacy planning in two of our cases. In both cases, a feasible
objecve was set aer a process of weighing the obstacles with the leverage.

KAZAKHSTAN
MAPPING THE OBSTACLES/CHALLENGES:
The government’s big idea of One Stop Shops was failing and being cricized in public. The
Ministry of Jusce realized that the implementaon of One Stop Shops was not easy within
the Kazakh culture of public administraon and the assumpons underlying internaonal best
pracce in this area did not hold to Kazakh realies. One main advisor to the minister was seen as
the sole expert in the area of One Stop Shops, and there was lile or no policy research available.
 THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK | 65

The challenge here centered around the legimacy of both the new research and the researcher
herself. The fact that the researcher worked in the government was a good start in a fairly
closed system of government. However, the researcher worked in the Civil Service Agency and
had lile background or reputaon in advising on the area of One Stop Shops. Further, this
work was done in her other roles as a PhD student in a foreign university and as a research
fellow exactly on the issue of One Stop Shops, so ge ng the research into the decision-making
process and ge ng it taken seriously was a real issue.

ASSESSING THE LEVERAGE:

In this case the main leverage was a combinaon of the following:
• Long-term relaonships built with One Stop Shop managers and the relevant government
officials by arranging trainings and foreign site visits through the Civil Service Agency.
• Research and, in essence, a program evaluaon of One Stop Shops done by a civil
servant researcher who understood Kazakh realies The research, using and building on
internaonal best pracce, concluded with praccal suggesons for improvement and
a long-term training program established in collaboraon with professionals from the
University of Edinburgh (where the researcher was studying), which is housed in a local
training organizaon.
• The combinaon of the researcher being a government insider (civil servant) who brought
indepth knowledge of internaonal best pracces and an internaonal network of resource
people on One Stop Shops was also appealing.
• Convincing the main advisor to the Ministry of Jusce on One Stop Shops that the research
and its findings were worth using in the improvement of the One Stop Shop system in
Kazakhstan.
• Broad cricism of the One Stop Shop model in the media put a lot more pressure on the
Ministry of Jusce to find a soluon.

SETTING A FEASIBLE ADVOCACY OBJECTIVE:

Knowing the relavely closed and hierarchical decision-making pracces of the Kazakh
government, the researcher sought to influence the expert thinking and drive at least some of
the soluons by pu ng a new opon on the table for improving the implementaon of One
Stop Shops in the upcoming decision-making process. Her proposal was a combinaon of an
instuonal fix in the short term (a new model for implemenng One Stop Shops) combined
with a longer-term capacity building approach. The fact that she was working from the inside of
government made this considerably easier. She explicitly menoned that this would not have
been easy at all for an outside expert or someone from civil society.
66 | Making Research Evidence Matter

MACEDONIA

MAPPING THE OBSTACLES/CHALLENGES:

The elecon of a new government in the summer of 2006 provided a window of opportunity
for this piece of fresh research produced earlier that year. The new minister for health was
looking for fresh iniaves to take forward in his new mandate. The research was also mely
as Macedonia had already commied to delivering a Paents’ Bill of Rights in the EU accession
process.
The challenges for this advocacy effort came first from finding a way to get the research into the
hands of the minister and convince him it was a priority area. Second, reframing the provision
of health services to protect the rights of paents was something that was immediately met
with skepcism from the very powerful medical professional community. They were afraid that
this would change the legal posion of doctors with regard to insurance claims.

ASSESSING THE LEVERAGE:

In this case the main leverage was a combinaon of the following:
• The appointment of a close friend and former colleague as an advisor to the minister of
health. At the beginning of his appointment, the advisor was looking for new iniaves to
put to the minister and immediately liked the idea of a Paents’ Bill of Rights.
• A piece of research that had done all the ministry’s homework in this area, including a
survey of internaonal best pracce, regional pracce in the area, and a public opinion
survey in Macedonia showing support for the idea.
• The appointment of the researcher as NGO representave to the ministerial working
group to dra the legislaon and also on the parliamentary working groups to follow the
parliamentary stages of passing the bill.
• An already established reputaon of working with the Ministry of Health in a different
health-related area.
• An established name as the one think tank/NGO in Macedonia that was a member of the
network that had established the European Charter on Paents’ Rights.

SETTING A FEASIBLE ADVOCACY OBJECTIVE:

Once the door to the minister was open and he was commied, few real obstacles impeded the
passage of the bill, which with a lot of effort, eventually did happen in July 2008.
 THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK | 67

The following quesons are designed to help you consider your own project
from this strategic perspecve:

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the key strategic questions for your advocacy plans:

MAPPING THE CURRENT OBSTACLES/CHALLENGES

 What’s holding back the process from moving in the direcon you wish?
 What obstacles or challenges exist to having your proposals accepted and acted upon?
For example, in terms of the decision–making process, polics, interests, knowledge, or
capacity.

ASSESSING YOUR LEVERAGE

 What have you got that will catalyze movement of the process in the direcon you want?
 What combinaon of new insights, evidence, supporters, and opportunies can you use to
move the process?
 Is this combinaon enough to overcome the obstacles and challenges you idenfied and
enough to achieve your objecve(s)?

SETTING A FEASIBLE ADVOCACY OBJECTIVE

 What kind of change can you realiscally expect to see in the decision-making process?
 Given the leverage you have got and obstacles outlined, how far can you realiscally expect
to move the process?

Remember not to get too stuck on these quesons at the beginning, as the detailed mapping and
planning that follow will provide much more insight into how to nuance or shape your answers
at this level.
68 | Making Research Evidence Matter

NOTES
1 Carden 2005, 2009; Nutley, Walter, and Davies 2002. 7 Crewe and Young 2002, Overseas Development Instute
2 See: hp://lgi.osi.hu/documents.php?m_id=127. 2004, Stone 2009.

3 Available online: hp://www.policy.hu. 8 These insights were developed based on 50 case

studies of research projects in developing and transion
4 Center for Regional Policy Research and Cooperaon
countries that were successful in influencing decision
“Studiorum,” hereaer Studiorum in the guide.
making.
5 Available online: hp://www.policy.hu.
9 Open Society Forum 2007b.
6 Global Development Network 2003.
 | 69

ADVOCACY PLANNING
FRAMEWORK (APF)—THE
WAY INTO THE PROCESS

For any policy advocate, as the most basic element of trying to be influenal,
you have to engage the key actors in the target decision-making process.
Knowing exactly who to engage, as well as when, where, and how to get
involved, can make the difference between success and failure in an advocacy
effort.1 Building on an inial consideraon of the core strategic focus quesons
outlined in Chapter 3, looking to find a way into the process is the next major
point when leaving the one-way delivery of research or supply-side approach
and beginning to consider the real and rather messy challenges of truly having
policy influence.

The top and most important of the circles in the APF is called the “way into the
process.” Through this circle, advocates map out and consider the target decision- The starting
making process, people, and thinking in relaon to the advocacy effort they are point of
planning. This is the major starng point in the detailed part of the APF mapping detailed
and planning process as most other advocacy planning decisions will be guided planning is to
and influenced by the nature of the opportunies and challenges you map out in understand the
this circle. It basically sets the scene and points you in the right direcon by guiding players and the
you in planning how to bring what you have learned from research into a target playing field.
decision-making process. One recent training parcipant nicely summarized this
challenge: “We need to understand the players and the playing field.”

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the way into the process circle and
then develop the six key areas of mapping and planning that together constute
the basis for a detailed picture of the policy landscape. In each of these key
areas, we illustrate the key quesons and advocacy lessons through the four
70 | Making Research Evidence Matter

cases studies (introduced in secon 3.1) and close each sub-secon with a set
of basic planning quesons to help in your own planning.

4.1 WAY INTO THE PROCESS

FIGURE 7.
Way into the process (APF)

Core strategic focus

for your campaign
WAY INTO THE PROCESS
Demand—issue on the
agenda/debated?
Actors, networks, and power
—key players Current obstacles
Decision-making practice for change
+
—how are decisions really made? The leverage you
Timing and openings can bring and use
—in the target process =
Current thinking Feasible advocacy
THE —on problems and solution objective
MESSENGER
Current positions
—values and interests,
consensus or conflict?

MESSAGE AND
ACTIVITIES

In Figure 7, we have broken down this first detailed mapping and planning
process into six elements which address the following quesons:

• What is the level of interest in the researched policy issue in the

target policy process?
• Who are the key decision makers and opinion leaders that you need
to influence?
• How does the decision-making process really work?
• What is the best ming/opportunity to start or connue your
advocacy effort?
• How do the stakeholders understand the target policy issue and the
potenal soluons?
• What are the current posions of key actors in relaon to any
proposed change in policy?
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 71

There is considerable overlap in many of the categories presented separately

in the APF—for example, demand and openings/ming—but we feel there is
value in looking at the advocacy challenge from each of these perspecves
as they ask you to consider slightly different elements and lend the required
depth and nuance to strategic planning. This process should reveal an in-depth
insight into the opportunies and challenges that lie ahead of you, which in turn
inform all other aspects of your advocacy plan.

4.2 GAUGE THE LEVEL OF DEMAND

Governments will choose to make decisions and take acon on certain policy
issues (and ignore others) during their me in office, that is, these will be issues
on the agenda and a “policy window” will open in these areas.2 Once an issue
is on the agenda, they will invite debate and input through public parcipaon,
commissioning and publishing research, establishing various working groups,
and promong their posions through the media and in Parliament. Some type
of debate will probably happen in public and through formal procedures and/
or in a more quiet, behind-the-scenes manner among experts and interested
pares. If you are interested and prepared to advocate on agenda issues at this
me, there will naturally be more interest in the posions put forward by any
stakeholder. This is the simplest and most obvious idea behind the noon of
demand. You will not have to create momentum around the issue; it already Determine
exists. whether there
is a call for
Of course, a policy issue does not necessarily have to be on the government change.
agenda for debate to exist. Groups of experts, public officials, and interested
stakeholders connually discuss their professional policy issues, and players
such as acvists, watchdogs, internaonal organizaons, polical pares,
associaons, and unions oen start or connue debates on many issues that do
not appear on the current government agenda. Nevertheless, from an advocacy
perspecve, the ulmate reason they iniate and engage in such debates is to
get the government to actually respond and act on their concerns.

The fact that a government chooses to act in a parcular policy area simply means
that more people are likely to be interested in reading, listening, responding to,
and engaging with your advocacy efforts. Much of the literature points to the
fact that you are much more likely to be successful in influencing policy if some
level of demand for it already exists.3 Further, it is worth nong that “policy
influence is not a spontaneous by-product of good quality research”4 and that
Try to feed into
supply without some exisng demand will not easily lead to policy change.
an existing
While this insight should not discourage you from developing issues on which
policy debate.
there is lile debate, it should make you realize that your first feasible advocacy
objecve is to create the type of discussion that puts pressure to get the issue
on the agenda. You should also realize that in this case, your proposed policy
change will probably take me and considerable resources and commitment.
72 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Some level of demand already existed in all four of our cases analyzed at
the point where the advocates started their campaigns. The following three
examples illustrate different dimensions of demand:

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

At the beginning of the European Stability Iniave research and advocacy, the town of
Mitrovica was the leitmof for the problems of Kosovo (UNSCR 1244), with the two ethnic
groups living enrely separately from each other divided by the Ibar river. The challenge of
Mitrovica had been extensively discussed in naonal, regional, and internaonal policy circles
and the media and stakeholders were stuck on how to solve what they viewed as a policing/
security problem.

MACEDONIA
The passing of a Paents’ Bill of Rights for Macedonia was part of the commitments made by
the country through the EU accession process. It was on the legislave agenda but was not
really a high priority for the new administraon in 2006. The fact that Studiorum was able to
show that much of the hard work was already completed through their research from 2006,
combined with having access to the new advisor to the minister of health, meant that the issue
moved easily onto the agenda of the government. In fact, the EU accession process has created
many opportunies for such research to have influence, as the EU/EC oen frames it quesons
in policy-oriented terms and wants to see evidence-based answers in return.5

MONGOLIA
Revenue received by the Mongolian government through mining contracts with internaonal
mining companies has been a huge issue for over a decade in Mongolia. Stories of large-scale
corrupon, unfairly negoated contacts, and environmental damage have been at the center
of the debate. All sectors have been involved in this issue because the mining sector has the
potenal to revoluonize the economic future of the country. Through this broader discussion,
a new mining law was passed in 2006 to regulate the contracng process.
The discovery of one of the largest copper deposits in the world, the Oyu Tolgoi mine, focused
this debate on the potenally richest reserve in Mongolia. Despite this pressure, the inial
negoaon undertaken with a ministerial working group was a closed discussion, although
many tried to get involved. Once the dra contract was submied to Parliament for approval
in July 2007, the Open Society Forum got an advance copy, made it public, and pushed quickly
to publish an expert analysis of the dra and to try to stop the signing of what their experts
evaluated to be a badly negoated contract.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 73

In the following secons, we develop the need to understand the type of change
that is being discussed as well as the unpredictable nature of demand.

4.2.1 Types of Demand— from Routine

to Incremental to Radical
Advocates must be aware of the types of change discussed or called for in the any
exisng discussions on the issue, that is, roune, incremental, or fundamental.6
Put simply, these types of change can be defined as follows:

• Roune change—this normally refers to the change of a day-to-day

administrave procedure and governments usually will not call for
analysis or research input to make this change; it is more trial and error
by officials to find what works for the given situaon.
• Incremental change—this refers to a change in the overall approach to
implemenng a current policy or, to use the jargon, a change in policy
design. An example might be to contract out the delivery of a social
service to a local NGO, rather than connuing to use a local government
agency to do so. This may need more expert input, especially where the
capacity of local officials is low, which is oen the case in many transion
countries.
• Fundamental change—this refers to a radical change in the strategic
direcon of a policy, for example, changing the approach on minories
from a mulcultural approach to one that is rooted in assimilang such
populaons. Unsurprisingly, this is an opportune moment to achieve
influence with research evidence, as governments who adopt radical
changes are pu ng their polical lives at risk and tend to take as much
input on that change as possible.7 Many commentators from transion
countries say it is more radical reformers who have presented the real
opportunity for research and experse to influence decision making.8

Whether or not you actually agree with the administraon on the level
of change being discussed or proposed, it is essenal to be aware of the
discussion and shape your argument accordingly. Policymakers oen remark
that researchers are too willing to push for fundamental change, when that Be aware of the
really is not on the agenda.9 If fundamental change is not on the government type of change
agenda but you think it is needed, you would need to make an extremely achievable.
compelling case for your recommendaons. You may also realize that over me
small incremental changes will not fix the underlying problem, and a discussion
about a fundamental shi will slowly develop, and hence it is worth staying the
course and connuing to push for such a fundamental change.

Two of our cases illustrate how addressing the level of demand can be a step
towards influence.
74 | Making Research Evidence Matter

KAZAKHSTAN
One Stop Shops were introduced by presidenal decree in Kazakhstan as the soluon to
corrupon and weak public service delivery. There had been much cricism in public and
the media of the effecveness of One Stop Shops and an assessment of the implementaon
problems for this model was being called for, together with a proposal that would address
the local constraints but improve the delivery of services through One Stop Shops, that is, an
incremental change. It was at this level, directly feeding a demand from government, that the
researcher put forward her recommendaons.

MACEDONIA
The issue of a Paents’ Bill of Rights for Macedonia was indirectly related to the criteria for
Macedonia as a candidate country in the EU accession process. Therefore, the government had
commied to this level of fundamental rights-based change throughout the medical system, a
radical change of sorts, in that these issues had been the subject of legislaon in the past but
not from a paents’ rights perspecve. As part of the accession commitments, there was lile
room for maneuvering and Studiorum did research and made proposals at this level, directly
addressing the elements of how to put such a Bill of Rights together to suit the Macedonian
context.

4.2.2 Challenges and Opportunities for

Research Demand in Transition
Countries
The specific characteriscs of transion contexts impact on the push and pull
for research in a number of ways. The fact that governments will only ask for
input on decision making from anyone if there is instuonal stability and a
relavely open decision-making process10 Is of parcular relevance. One of
the main challenges to instuonal stability in transion countries is the over-
policizaon of the execuve branch, which usually results in the sacking of staff,
all the way from senior to quite a low level, in a ministry when there is a change
of administraon.11 For this reason, commentators and praconers advise that
Work with in order to work with such public agencies in the long term, it is beer to target
second- and and build relaonships with second or third-er officials, as they will be the
third-tier ones to survive the cuts and are also the ones who possess the instuonal
government memory that always strongly influences decisions and implementaon.12
officials, as they
will normally The literature also reveals that the transion process itself and/or strong
survive a economic pressures create condions for strong research uptake.13 This can be
political true when a government has the will and/or is under pressure (for example, from
change. the internaonal community) to actually make radical changes. Unfortunately,
many leaders are more commied to patronage than policy change and sign
internaonal convenons to appease donors, with lile desire to deliver on the
policy commitments made in these documents.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 75

Open decision-making processes are also a cornerstone to greater research

uptake, and decentralizaon has provided more opportunies for research to
influence policy when decision making, along with competencies and associated
budgets, have been devolved from the center.14 In fact, we take this insight a
lile further when we advise trainees from transion countries that “you’ve got
to ‘look for the cracks’ in the process.” Nonetheless, decision-making processes
that include public parcipaon and/or research evidence remain largely at
the discreon of the individual(s) in power and this can indeed be at any level
of government, central or local.15 If an individual or representave of a more
progressive polical movement becomes minister or mayor in a certain agency,
region, or municipality, decisions ideally will be made in an open and experse-
informed manner for the duraon of his/her administraon. This is the kind of
“crack” we are looking for. Unfortunately, when this person or party loses power
and the next person takes over, the decision-making process oen then returns
to the much more familiar polically driven and closed process of old.

More inclusive decision-making processes also commonly happen when an

issue is hotly contested and the administraon is under pressure from the
internaonal community, the media, or the public.16 Again, this is another type
of crack for those interested in pu ng their voice in the debate. Aer two
decades of the transion process, the fact that inclusive policymaking processes
remain discreonary rather than instuonalized as a standard would imply Even in less
that capacity development in this area for all actors (including decision makers) open decision-
should stay high on the agenda.17 making
processes, you
Even within more authoritarian sociees, opportunies, however unexpected, can still find
do arise for research to influence policy.18 Our case from Kazakhstan19 clearly “the cracks.”
shows that more modern technologies such as One Stop Shops are being
used to try to solve the basic challenges of government in such a country. Of
course, this requires the input of experts with the capacity to invesgate and
understand the challenges of the local context. Furthermore, with the massive
development of extracve industries and accompanying large increases in tax
revenue in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, the general public and private industry
is expecng more professionalism and delivery from their governments,
creang more opportunity and demand for experse in making decisions. This
development, unfortunately, should not be confused with a larger commitment
to democracy, but it may act as a catalyst in this direcon. Of course, the
experse in our Kazakh case comes from within the government structure and
this clearly shows that the lack of openness of the system severely restricts the
opportunity to influence such decisions. Moreover, such a situaon seems quite
common in many transion countries where the power and resources are held
ghtly in the ministries and it is very difficult for any outsiders, and especially
NGOs who may be perceived as enemies of government, to influence decisions.
76 | Making Research Evidence Matter

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider your advocacy plan from the perspective of demand:
 Is your issue on the current government agenda?
 Is there a clearly stated demand for your research or ideas from government, internaonal
organizaons, or other stakeholders?
 What kind of change do the main players say is needed? Is it something small and procedural
or a change in strategy?
 If demand is low or nonexistent, can you sll idenfy a “crack” in the policymaking process
to work on?
 Is your advocacy objecve sll realisc based on the current level of demand or interest in
the issue you’ve idenfied?

4.3 MAP THE ACTORS, NETWORKS,

AND POWER CENTERS
Another dimension of this mapping process is understanding who is involved,
the networks they are part of, and where the power lies in the network.20 As one
commentator put it: “Understanding who makes decisions—and who influences
the decision makers—is paramount.”21 People who have such influence can
range from advisors to bureaucrats, journalists, academics, or NGO leaders,
from leaders of unions or associaons to even family members. Understanding
these interacons and the power dynamic will provide you with an even deeper
understanding of what we have referred to earlier as the pracce of decision
Identify the making.
main players
with decision- At this stage, you are sll mostly trying to map and understand how the decision-
making power making process really works by adding another layer for consideraon, that is,
and their the players in the playing field. This will help you to make an informed decision
networks. on finding your way into the process as a player, who should be the target of
your message, and potenally what kind of support you need and from whom.
We approach this secon by mapping the most formal relaonships to the least.
This order in no way reflects the level of influence; in fact, it is oen the inverse
that is the case.22
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 77

Figure 8 illustrates the grouping of actors and their relaonships to the decision
makers, and we develop these connecons next.

FIGURE 8.
Actors, networks, and power centers

NGOs, Institutions,
interest advisors,
groups bureaucrats

Target
decision
makers

Informal,
personal Media
relationships

4.3.1 Decision Makers, Advisors, and

Institutions inside Government
In a representave democracy, we elect leaders to represent us in making
decisions, which we hope are made in the public interest. Such leaders have roles
in the legislave arms of our governments as parliamentarians or councilors, and
if they are prominent figures in their polical pares, they may also be members
of the cabinet and have a role as a minister or deputy minister at the naonal
level or mayor at the local level. Further, in any polical party, influenal opinion
leaders in a parcular area (such as foreign policy or environmentalism) are
oen the appointed leaders of commissions or working groups in these areas.
The first task in this mapping is idenfying those who are in the decision-making
roles through all stages of the target decision-making process.

It is then worthwhile to find out about the individuals themselves in these roles,
honing in on their past, interests, background, and educaon, as well as their
rise to power. As menoned above, the posion of an individual decision maker
can mean the difference between a decision-making process that is open and
interested in research evidence and one that is not.23 Also, finding out whether
78 | Making Research Evidence Matter

a minister has any strong interest or experse in the assigned role can be a
strong indicator as to whether she or he will lead the decision-making process
or whether it will be lead more by advisors and advisory bodies such as working
groups or research instutes.

For example, an associate of ours works as a researcher in a think tank with a

strong liberal bias in Slovakia. The head of the think tank became a minister in
Find out about a recent administraon. Knowing about his previous work in the think tank tells
the background you much about both his interests and how he might approach decision making
and interests of as well as the networks he has been a part of in the past.
decision makers
and the circle of Knowing the circle of advisors around a decision maker is also crucial: if a
advisors. decision maker has a limited background in a certain policy area, he or she will
oen simply follow the word of an advisor or advisory body in making decisions.
Higher-level civil servants or bureaucrats may also be very influenal in leading
decision making, as they are the ones who can advise what works in terms of
the management, administraon, and capacity of a public instuon. It is oen
said that decision makers set the agenda, but advisors and bureaucrats are the
ones who elaborate the alternaves on an agenda issue.24

The following cases examined illustrate how in-depth knowledge of decision-

making circles was key to success.

KAZAKHSTAN
In this case, the researcher knew that one advisor to the minister was the opinion leader in the
area of One Stop Shops and she targeted him with her research in advocacy efforts.

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

In the Mitrovica case, the European Stability Iniave quickly idenfied and primarily targeted
the main spokespeople for the two sides in this dispute: on the Serbian side, this was a member
of Parliament, and on the Albanian side, the person was the first postconflict mayor of Mitrovica
and prime minister of Kosovo (UNSCR 1244) at the me of the campaign. Without engaging
these two, nothing could have happened in this advocacy effort.

MACEDONIA
As in the Kazakh case, the idenficaon and targeng of an advisor to the minister of health
and an almost accidental relaonship through academic circles with a future deputy minister
were pivotal in making this advocacy effort work.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 79

4.3.2 Decision Makers, NGOs, Associations,

and Interest Groups
It is also crical for the advocate to understand “where power lies and the inter-
relaonships between government and nongovernment actors.”25 Although the
level of engagement of NGOs in decision making in the region is well below
what we might consider to be the target of a strong governance model, as me
passes, there is an increasing recognion of the value of including NGOs in
such decision making. Advice from NGOs to government can range from formal
commissions of think tanks and academics, to parcipaon and consultaon
through working groups and formal hearings, to more ad hoc interacons
commonly through lobbying, conferences, and publicaons.

In addion, the lines between government and NGOs are blurring as the
“revolving door” syndrome26 becomes more evident, a situaon where NGO
figures take up government roles for the duraon of an administraon and
return to their former NGO posts when they are voted out. The Slovak think
tank director menoned earlier is the perfect example. Much more broad-
scale involvement of former NGO acvists in government has also occurred (for
instance, in Georgia and Bulgaria in the last decade).

Two of our cases illustrate long-term and developing partnerships between

NGOs and government agencies and the importance of these connecons in
advocacy efforts:

MACEDONIA
Studiorum began cooperang with the Ministry of Health in Macedonia on how to safely
use contaminated land before this project began. They were then invited to be the NGO
representave on the working group for the Paents’ Bill of Rights and were prominent during
all stages of the bill’s draing and passage through the execuve and parliamentary stages. The
ministry then connued the cooperaon with Studiorum on the publicity campaign or social
markeng around the Paents’ Bill of Rights following its adopon. Upon the suggeson of
Studiorum, the ministry also has formed working groups to look into introducing public-private
partnership modalies into the health sector, including dialysis treatment, eye surgery, and
health technologies.

MONGOLIA
Open Society Forum has maintained a posion as an independent player in Mongolia and
this means that it has made many friends in various polical pares. They had lile or no
access to the Ministry of Finance during the early stages of the negoaon of this agreement.
But once it was submied to Parliament, which at the me was made up of a broad range
of representaves from different polical pares, they were able to get access to the dra
agreement and lobby their parliamentarians to wait and take heed of their analysis. These
connecons or networks proved very valuable in this advocacy effort.
80 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Hence, looking at the es between decision makers or government bodies and
the NGO sector is also important. Many NGOs, think tanks, and organizaons
compete with each other to be the recognized voice or the “go to” organizaon
on certain issues or represenng certain constuencies. There may be more
than one organizaon in such a network or they may actually comprise a more
formal coalion or an umbrella organizaon. Nevertheless, having this access
Evaluate the and reputaon is a primary goal for many NGOs and understanding the role
connections these connecons and networks play in decision making is important.
between
decision makers Associaons represenng large or powerful constuencies can also be very
and NGOs. influenal in such decision-making processes. For example, in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, associaons that represent the interests of war veterans are very
powerful and it is difficult for any government to be seen to queson the broad
range of benefits they have been given. Obviously, business associaons and
the private sector can also be of significant importance in certain issues, for the
economic impact of policy change is always a major consideraon, and business
interests are oen very close to parcular polical pares and movements.

4.3.3 Decision Makers and the Media

In countries where the media holds a certain level of independence, many
media outlets can be an important actor in influencing decision making. As
menoned above, the decision-making process itself is oen opened by the
influence of public pressure coming from all kinds of media: from the tradional
sources of newspapers, TV, and radio and now even more so from social media
outlets such as Facebook, Twier, or blogs. However, in many countries of
the region, substanal numbers of media outlets connue to act more as the
public voice of their polical and/or corporate masters and are more focused
on announcing and defending government posions that have already been
made, rather than acng as the checks and balances to such posions. Social
Consider the media can be especially important in circumstances where there is an aempt
role of both to control the broader public discourse or harsh repression on calls for change.
traditional and
social media. Hence, understanding the level of independence and role of various media
outlets is very important in knowing where the power lies, as the reputaon
and polical future of policians oen rests in the hands of the discussions
that are brought to the public through the media. Media outlets or parcular
commentators will oen have a parcular interest in certain issues or polical
stances and can be very influenal in policy decision making as they hold a lot of
leverage. Knowing these potenal players is vital to understanding the potenal
dynamic of a decision. The Mitrovica case illustrates the potenal importance
of the media in advocacy efforts and how ge ng it right really maers.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 81

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

The European Stability Iniave worked relessly through the process on a broad range of
media in Albanian and Serbian languages and also had a lot of interacon with the internaonal
media outlets covering the development of the situaon in Mitrovica. For example, once
the European Stability Iniave had convinced the Kosovar polical leadership to accept an
administrave division of the town, it was essenal that Albanian-speaking media understood
why this decision was taken and that it would not be painted as a sell-out to internaonal
pressure.

4.3.4 Informal Networks

Informal connecons or relaonships cannot and should not be discounted.27 As
one commentator remarked, “Relaonships are crical. Regardless of the formal Don’t overlook
or bureaucrac systems in which they operate, the personal and professional or reduce the
links among individual researchers and decision makers are decisive in affecng importance
policy influence.”28 For example, a trainee from Tajikistan mapped out the circle of informal
of influence around the president and found that the people with the most or personal
influence were members of his family. The Macedonian example is also a good connections.
illustraon of the importance of personal and informal relaonships.

MACEDONIA
The key path to influence in this case was through a newly appointed advisor to the Ministry
of Health. He happened to be a colleague and friend of the researcher’s, and although he had
graduated in medical sciences, he had not worked in the area of healthcare for quite a while.
He came to the researcher and her think tank to get some new ideas to present to the minister.
Also, within the framework of an academic conference, the researcher had been trying to
promote a more academic publicaon from Studiorum called the Journal for European Issues,
“EuroDialogue.”29 Aer her presentaon of the journal, one of the conference aendees
expressed interest in publishing an arcle in this journal. This person turned out to be the
future deputy minister of health and this informal academic connecon turned out to be useful
in the advocacy effort. In truth, this is more an example of luck and the benefits of being well-
connected than planning, but oen this kind of good fortune is also an ingredient of policy
influence.
82 | Making Research Evidence Matter

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the important actors and networks in your advocacy plan:
 Who are the main stakeholders in the target policy issue?
 Who are the actual decision makers on your issue? Where does the real power lie?
 Who are decision makers connected to in government and in the NGO sector?
 Are there informal or personal relaonships that maer?
 Who should be the main target audiences for your advocacy?

4.4 UNDERSTAND THE

DECISION-MAKING PRACTICE
Here, we focus on how the decision-making process actually happens. The how
and who are obviously two sides of one coin, but we feel they are worth looking
at individually.

We’ve emphasized that a starng point for effecve advocacy is having a good
understanding of the policy landscape, that is, the target decision-making
process. However, there is oen a great difference between the formally stated
decision-making process and the reality of how the decision is really made. For
example, the formal statement of a policy process for an environmental policy
It’s crucial may be that an iniave starts in an environmental ministry where they have
to know how an internal working group of officials, advisors, and invited stakeholders who
decisions are then submit dra legislaon to the Parliament, which opens a public debate
really made. and starts a working group of their own. Aer the requisite me for public
discussion and input from other experts, the iniave is then brought up in
the Parliament for discussion and a vote. The reality of this decision might be
that it is actually a negoated selement between the government, business
interests, and an environmental coalion of local NGOs backed by internaonal
organizaons and donors. This is where the deal is done and where the real
decision is made.

This is why we choose to focus on decision-making “pracce” rather than

process, as the emphasis is rather different.30 This focus on pracce may be
especially important in transion countries, as even the formal processes oen
tend to happen at the discreon of the individual or instuon leading the
process or because of external pressure (as menoned in the secon above).
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 83

The following case studies illustrate that knowing the reality of the decision-
making process was an important factor:

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

In the Mitrovica case, the European Stability Iniave ran and mediated an enre informal and
parallel process to get the two sides to discuss and respond to their research and proposals,
and also facilitated the inclusion of the internaonal community, local polical pares,
governments, and the media.
A good example of their understanding of the real pracce of decision making is illustrated in
how they dealt with advisors and opinion leaders in Belgrade on the Mitrovica issue. During the
inial meeng of both sides from Mitrovica in Wilton Park, the Kosovar (UNSCR 1244) prime
minister commied to the administrave division of the town as well as freedom of movement,
the full return of property, and joint economic development of the town. Knowing there were
opinion leaders in Belgrade who could possibly force local Serb leaders to back down on these
commitments, the European Stability Iniave went to Belgrade to try to convince them not
to. While they did not convince them to buy into the whole idea, it was enough to convince
them to not block the process at a certain me. This was very important in moving the process
forward.

MONGOLIA
The history of contracts between Mongolian government officials and mining companies has
been one marred by allegaons of large-scale corrupon. The law on mining in 2006 was an
aempt to formalize and make more transparent and inclusive these negoaon processes.
So, once the negoaon began in 2006 about the Oyu Tolgi mine (one of the largest copper
deposits in the world), there was a great worry from those outside the execuve of how well
these new procedures would actually work.
The inial negoaons happened between the companies and a ministerial working group,
but did not allow any outside parcipaon in the group. The Open Society Forum tried to get
access to the debate but was only allowed to offer training to the group, and never got to see
the dra agreement. It was only when the agreement was submied to Parliament that it
became available to the Forum and only at that point because the government was made up of
a broad coalion of polical pares, some of which had worked closely with the Open Society
Forum in the past.
84 | Making Research Evidence Matter

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the reality of the decision-making process for your
advocacy plan:
 What are the formally stated stages of decision making on your issue?
 Are there more informal decision-making structures and networks that will influence or
lead the decision in your area?
 Who is involved in these more informal discussions?
 How does this balance of formal and informal decision making feed into your advocacy plan?

4.5 GET THE TIMING RIGHT

One piece of advice that seems to come from all commentators is that ming is
Plan to have crucial in advocacy.31 Simply put: in order to have the best chance of influencing
your research a policy decision, you must try to have your research or analysis ready to feed
and analysis into the target discussion at the me when decisions are going to be made on
ready for when the issue, that is, when policy windows are open.32 Having a deep understanding
a decision is of the people and processes around a parcular policymaking process will
being made. effecvely guide you in understanding when such windows may open and also
when is the best me to make your move. Two of our policy advocacy cases are
illustrave of ge ng the ming right.

KAZAKHSTAN
One Stop Shops were introduced by presidenal decree in Kazakhstan a few years prior to the
research as the soluon to corrupon and weak public service delivery. Following much public
and media cricism of the implementaon of One Stop Shops, the researcher knew that the
government agency with the task of making the One Stop Shop model work had really not done
the required research or evaluaon and had lile capacity to do so. There was clear demand
from the Ministry of Jusce to get this input and they immediately took the research on board.

MONGOLIA
The Open Society Forum and Revenue Watch had been trying and failing to get informaon
on and access to the dra agreement between the mining consorum and the government
while it was being negoated in a ministerial working group for nearly a year. Once it came to
a parliamentary discussion, it was suddenly available and they acted immediately to prevent
the signing of what they judged to be a contract not in the best public interest. We oen
experience that such discreonary processes mean there may be a very short me given for
stakeholders, especially NGO actors, to respond to dras of policy proposals or legislaon.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 85

4.5.1 Predict When Policy Windows Will Open

One of the greatest challenges for analysts and researchers and their
organizaons is to be ready with their evidence and analysis when a policy issue
comes onto the decision-making agenda. In most instances, policy research
can take anywhere from two or three months to two years to complete. In all
four case studies, the organizaons had been working on their issues for over
a year before they were ready and the policy window was open. In addion,
conducng such research takes me and resources, and in order to fund these
iniaves you need to show some return, which in the case of policy research
or analysis means influence of some kind. So, in planning your advocacy work,
you need to try to predict what will come on the agenda and when and make
plans accordingly.33

Making such predicons is notoriously difficult as policymaking and polical

processes are dynamic and volale34 and it oen turns out that there is as much
luck as strategy in ge ng this right. Nevertheless, experience has shown that
there are ways to look at an upcoming process to guide your predicon of what
may occur. As previously raised in Chapter 2, there are a number of recognized
ways to influence agenda-se ng:

• New research evidence se ng the agenda

• New technologies and trends and their transfer to address policy
problems
• Changes of leadership or polical pares in government
• Focusing events such as emergencies, security or economic crises, or
natural disasters35

Exploring these four categories helps to unpack ideas of how to facilitate the
predicon process:

• New research evidence seng the agenda

This can be the easiest situaon for policy researchers since, in essence,
the research they are doing leads to a decision to act on the part of the
government. In such cases, the research normally brings out something “Striking facts”
that is unexpected, surprising or unignorable— what we call a “striking from your
fact”—that does not fit into the commonly held understanding of research can
the problem or the current soluon. A common scenario is that the help open a
research shows that the current government policy is not performing policy window.
to the expected level or that the assumpons that led to the decision to
take the current policy approach have changed, for example, in terms of
demography or economic development.36
86 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Two of our cases nicely illustrate situaons where research and analysis
lead the agenda:

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

In this case, the European Stability Iniave started their research by looking at the most basic
socioeconomic quesons: What are the populaons of both ethnic groups and how do they
live? They found that the populaon levels of both Serbs and Albanians in Mitrovica were
falling, which completely contradicted what polical leaders on both sides were saying. Further,
they found that the town of Mitrovica was essenally living off the crisis, with subsidies going
to a majority of the populaon from all sides. Once the crisis was over, there would be no
economic future for the town. These findings were something that local policians could not
ignore. The research’s economic sustainability dimension opened a new line in the discussion,
which previously had focused solely on the security and territory component. Ulmately, this
lead to a decision that took the economic element into account.

MONGOLIA
The Mongolian government was set to sign an agreement on the Oyu Tolgoi mine with an
internaonal mining consorum in July 2007. The Open Society Forum introduced their
economic and legal analysis of the agreement and showed that the monetary returns had
not been well evaluated or elaborated and that many of the legal posions were not clear.
Through these revelaons, the Open Society Forum successfully mobilized a significant public
and NGO response that was instrumental in ge ng the government to reconsider its posion
and connue the negoaon process instead of signing the agreement.

The cases illustrate examples of when research results can lead the
agenda, but there is sll an element of predicon involved. In terms of
helping on agenda predicon, it is also advisable to try as much as possible
to stay informed on the research agendas of other relevant organizaons.
Another aspect of research leading the agenda that may be parcularly
relevant to the transion context is the fact that even the most
striking research evidence may not be listened to or taken seriously by
government.37 Hence, the standing and credibility of an organizaon
producing research is important for predicng agenda issues. This
element of the perceived legimacy of those producing research or
analysis will be developed in detail later in Chapter 5, The Messenger.

• New technology, trends, and transfer

There is a connuous discussion of how to innovate to employ new tech-
nologies and approaches to find beer and more efficient soluons to
policy challenges. The example of how informaon technologies and the
internet have been harnessed to network cizens, provide informaon,
and even deliver public services in the last two decades is the most il-
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 87

lustrave example of such innovaon. The development and availability

of new technologies oen provide the impetus for governments to act
to solve public policy problems, thereby pu ng them on the agenda.38
Somemes called “policy spillovers”39 or transfers, the development of
new technologies or new approaches to solving policy problems oen
become internaonal trends that then lead policy discussions in many
countries. This is certainly true of transion countries where neighbors
quickly transfer successful or “trendy” policy soluons from country to Stay informed
country. A recent example is the introducon of a flat income tax and on new
simplificaon of the tax return process to try to reduce the informal trends and
economy and increase government revenue. technologies
used in other
However, the transfer of policy soluons may not always be a purely
countries as
raonal or internal polical decision and is oen led by a mixture of
they can lead
pressure and incenve from internaonal organizaons.40 Throughout
the agenda-
the 1990s, the World Bank and Internaonal Monetary Fund offered
setting process.
huge monetary support to transion and developing countries on the
condion of deep structural reforms led by the thinking of what is called
the “Washington consensus,” that is, a market-based reform of public
services. The EU accession process has also pushed broad reforms
incenvized by the promise of investment and membership.
In two of our cases, agendas were led by the introducon of such new
technologies.

KAZAKHSTAN
The One Stop Shop model has been a popular approach throughout the region to try to reduce
the obstacles to cizens accessing public services and, as in this case, improving the quality
and efficiency of public services and reducing corrupon. This model of public service delivery
is one of the implementaon models that came from the new public management (NPM)
approach that seeks to bring the professionalism and responsiveness of the market to public
service delivery.41 Such an approach would also be posively received as a step in the reform
process by internaonal donors and banks.

MACEDONIA
The passing of a Paents’ Bill of Rights was indirectly related to the criteria for Macedonia as a
candidate country in the EU accession process.

You should also be aware that trends only have a limited shelf life and
these windows may close as quickly as they open. In summary, you have
got to be aware of the end as well as the beginning of such trends in the
policy world.
88 | Making Research Evidence Matter

• Change of leadership or polical pares in government

This most predictable way for agendas to be reset is through a change of
the polical party in power.42 The basic compeon of values between
pares through the electoral process normally means that pares
idenfy policy issues, approaches, and soluons they will priorize and
which will be different from other pares. Also, when a new party is
elected to government there tends to be more openness to new ideas
as well as a change in the source of ideas and advice.43 Such a change
in agenda priories can also result from a change of leadership within
the governing polical party or a change in the balance of power in a
coalion government.
Given the realies of polics, it is unsurprising that research advice that
fits the value framework of a new leadership is a lot more likely to be
influenal than advice that does not.44 This is certainly something to
consider in making your plans for policy advocacy campaigns. One of
our cases illustrates a new agenda development following a change of
government.

MACEDONIA
Studiorum finished the research on a Paents’ Bill of Rights in the beginning of 2006 and
decided that with an upcoming elecon in the summer, it was beer to wait for the outcome
of the elecon than begin advocacy work at that me. Following the elecon, a colleague and
friend became advisor to the minister of health and he was interested in best advising the
minister with ideas for ongoing healthcare reforms. The researcher put forward the research
on a Paents’ Bill of Rights, which would not only fulfill EU accession criteria but also fit into the
new government’s polical agenda. Not surprisingly, the minister put this on the agenda more
or less immediately and the researcher was invited to parcipate in the ministerial working
group as the NGO representave in November 2006.

The experience from this case does not mean that you should not
engage in any advocacy unl a polical party that shares your values
is in power. In fact, this kind of value opposion is the key to strong
democrac debate. Moreover, research can give a decision maker
the confidence to act or not to act.45 You may, for example, introduce
research that creates enough doubt or discussion to prevent a decision
going ahead. Nevertheless, advocates should be clear about what is
a feasible objecve under such condions: feeding or supporng an
opposion posion, for example, or soening up expert communies
to bring your perspecve into their discussion. Of course, waing is also
always an opon.
However, elecon cycles and possible changes in administraon are not
the only thing to consider. Planning and budgetary cycles mean decisions
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 89

will be made according to set deadlines and will determine when policy
windows open and close.46 Being aware of the execuve planning of If the timing
your policy issue can also help in ming your advocacy intervenons. is not right,
developing
• Focusing events such as emergencies, security or economic crises, or opposing
natural disasters positions or
For obvious reasons, these situaons are the most difficult to predict as waiting are
they tend to occur without warning. The global financial crisis of October often the best
2008 is a good example of how the sudden failure of the internaonal options.
banking system quickly brought onto the agenda decisions on the ways
to save key banking instuons in naonal and internaonal arenas, and
in the medium to longer term a discussion to rethink state regulaon
of the banking system. Under these condions, all other items on the
government agenda are put on hold and all opinions get a decent airing,
especially those with workable and praccal soluons aached.
Such focusing events mean that researchers and analysts have a chance
to react to but not plan for these events. A quick response is required, as
suggested in one of the “Ten Commandments for economists”: “Dare to
be quick and dirty. Paral analysis is beer than none.”47 In essence, the
advice is to work with what you have to get your voice in the discussion
within that short span of me before some acon has to be taken. An To respond
organizaon like Internaonal Crisis Group48 is a good illustraon of in a crisis,
this kind of tension between connually monitoring potenal conflict “partial
situaons and the need to respond quickly once something happens analysis is
with the informaon and tools available. Put simply, when a crisis better than
erupts, it is me to act, not commission a two-year research project. none.”49
However, we would sound a note of cauon: avoid becoming the
“instant expert” on issues you are unprepared to respond to! This will
probably damage your reputaon in the long run more than any short
term media aenon would bring.
Two of the case studies are examples of where a focusing event led to
a response from the researchers and analysts involved. In both cases,
they had been monitoring and studying the situaons for some me and
were prepared to respond.

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

In March 2004, violence erupted across the bridge over the Ibar river in Mitrovica between
riong groups of Serbs and Albanians, with UN peacekeepers in between. This received a lot of
internaonal press aenon and everyone in the internaonal sphere began to take the issue
much more seriously. This, in turn, opened the space for the European Stability Iniave to
act, since the think tank had just introduced its proposal (in February 2004) for a separate Serb
municipality in the North of Mitrovica coupled with commitments to freedom of movement,
property return, and joint economic planning.
90 | Making Research Evidence Matter

MONGOLIA
This was not a crisis or emergency per se, but a situaon where researchers had to react in
a similar fashion. A ministerial working group from the Mongolian government was in closed
negoaon with an internaonal mining consorum on the Oyu Tolgoi mine up to July 2007.
They submied the agreement to Parliament on the eve of the opening of the biggest naonal
fesval in the country. During this week-long fesval (Naadam) period, most people are on
holiday. The Open Society Forum suspected that the Ministry of Finance was trying to push the
agreement through Parliament when very few people would noce.
The Open Society Forum and Revenue Watch had been trying to gain access to the negoaon
process and had even conducted training for those involved during 2006. But at no me did
they get access to the dra agreement. Once the agreement was submied to Parliament, it
became public and the Open Society Forum worked intensively with the experts from Revenue
Watch to produce a legal and economic analysis of the dra before the end of July. They
released an analysis that seriously quesoned the economic return predicons presented by
the Ministry of Finance as well as the soundness of the legal agreement. This was presented to
the press and NGOs, which immediately put pressure on parliamentarians not to agree to this
version of the contract, succeeding in holding up the process.

It is evident from the commentary and cases that ge ng the ming right is a bal-
ance of being able to predict openings and closings of policy windows and being
ready to respond to windows that open in a predicted manner or quite suddenly.

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the timing and openings for your advocacy plan:
 When is the best me to make your move or start your campaign?
 Is there a specific event or process that you can target? For example, a conference, a public
or expert debate, a working group?
 Can your research drive the process? Can you show very striking insights or facts and/or
offer a much-needed soluon?
 Can you draw on momentum around a popular or trendy internaonal new technology or
approach that is relevant for solving the problem?
 Can you predict an opening that will emerge through some form of change? For example,
an elecon or a change in polical leadership?
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 91

4.6 UNDERSTAND CURRENT

THINKING IN THE POLICY NETWORK
When targeng experts in a policy community with a new piece of analysis,
advocates strive to persuade them to buy into their interpretaon of the
problem, their assessment of the opons available, and ulmately their
recommendaons, so that their thinking and proposals become part of the
new convenonal wisdom on the issue. This speaks to an idea of a commonly
shared current interpretaon of any policy issue, which is also commonly called
the “dominant discourse” or “policy narrave.”50 Such a narrave or story oen You need to
includes a framing of the problem, an interpretaon of the effecveness of the understand
current approach, a bank of evidence to support these interpretaons, and an how
elaboraon of the possible soluons available. Very importantly, there is also stakeholders
a commonly shared language or jargon around the issue. Of course, there may discuss the
be compeng interpretaons of all aspects of the problem; nevertheless, there target issue
is usually a significant overlap in the current opinion on the policy challenge and potential
itself. Having a good understanding of all aspects of the current narrave or solutions.
thinking on a policy issue is a crucial foundaon for construcng an advocacy
message that effecvely engages target audiences and is considered a relevant
contribuon to the policy debate around the issue.

Two more specific points about policy narraves are worth raising:

• Policy narraves of the past inform current thinking.

Understanding past policy narraves is also important, especially
knowing the kind of informaon or evidence on which previous decisions
have been based.51 In our experience of transion contexts, this may
be parcularly important as many decisions have been made with low-
quality and/or very limited empirical data sets. In fact, decisions are
oen lead by a combinaon of the current interpretaon of internaonal
best pracce by leading experts in the capital city and the oen-limited Due to limited
data available in the central stascs office. This presents both an research,
opportunity as well as the obvious challenge, as any in-depth policy current
research that is informed by primary data from the naonal context thinking on an
has an advantage; however, in a culture that is unused to producing issue may be
or using policy research, you may have to sell the idea of the research value-heavy
itself as a worthwhile contribuon to more effecve decision-making, in and evidence-
addion to the new evidence it generates. These realies oen result in light.
narraves that are value-heavy and evidence-light and may connue to
be strongly defended as the main experts have presented and defended
these stories for a considerable me.

• Shaping your proposals to fit with how the issue is framed ensures

your ideas are perceived as relevant.
The way problems are framed is a parcularly important aspect of current
thinking which impacts greatly on how you frame your own contribuon
to the debate. For example, a discussion on the lack of delivery of social
services to a minority populaon in the minority language can be framed
92 | Making Research Evidence Matter

by various actors as an issue of human rights, public service delivery,

or even naonal security, if some actors view the minority as a threat.
Mapping and understanding the various lines, arguments, and evidence
in the problem framing and broader thinking about the topic is essenal
for the development of an advocacy campaign that is immediately seen
as relevant and targeted. If you fail to address the issue without at least
reference to how it is framed, your contribuon can and will be readily
perceived as out of touch and irrelevant, no maer how strong your
research and evidence may be. One of the cases analyzed is a very good
illustraon of how reframing the policy narrave can be a powerful
strategy in moving the process.

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

Reframing the problem, thereby changing the policy narrave, made a big difference in the
Mitrovica case. Unl the European Stability Iniave’s research, Mitrovica was discussed as
a security and policing issue and the process was stuck around this sensive and policized
discussion. No one was considering the economic future or sustainability of the town and the
European Stability Iniave’s reframing of the problem away from a security issue of naonal
and internaonal significance to the simple queson of how the town would survive aer the
crisis brought a change in the focus of the narrave which was immediately engaging for all
sides and also brought all the local actors on board. This reframing also provided the basis of a
fruiul and construcve debate between the two sides that previously did not move from very
entrenched posions.

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Map out the current thinking or policy narrative for your advocacy plan:
 How do the various stakeholders define the problem?
 How do key players frame the discussion? For example, as an issue of human rights, public
service delivery, or naonal security?
 What language do key players use in discussing the issue? What are key terms or concepts
that are commonly used in the discussion?
 What soluons do different actors talk about?
 Which soluons do different actors consider feasible or acceptable?
 How have actors arrived at the current thinking on the issue? What from the past has
informed this thinking?
 How will you frame your contribuon to fit in with or change the nature of the discussion?
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 93

4.7 MAP THE CURRENT POSITIONS

OF KEY STAKEHOLDERS
In contrast to the broad shared thinking or narrave on an issue, this is an
aempt to map the specific opinions and posions of the various actors
involved. This mapping will also help you see where your own posion might fit
in and how you may need to focus your messages to shi key players’ posions.
In some issues, there may be broad consensus for change, but there is rarely a
consensus on how to make this change. In any policy change, there are winners
and losers and different actors will defend the interests of certain constuencies
in a policy debate, for example, war veterans, unions, teachers, private sector,
or pensioners. In addion, there are usually ideological differences between the
actors involved who seek to promote certain values, for example, naonalism,
liberalism, proteconism, freedom of speech, or open society. In open systems, Be aware of the
this leads to a healthy compeon of ideas that is the foundaon of the interests and
democrac system. In summary, mapping the actors’ posions is crical to values different
planning an advocacy campaign with an aim to move the debate.52 actors are
defending and
The feasibility of your advocacy objecve is also influenced by the level of promoting.
consensus or conflict around an issue as this is oen a predictor of how easily
the process will move.53 Through the transion process, there has been a
remarkably consensual liberal democracy and neo-liberal market-oriented
reform agenda; in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe, whether
by choice or under pressure from internaonal organizaons, these reforms
have gone ahead without a huge amount of dissent.54 This is especially true
where new technologies or approaches are introduced and policymakers are
more ready to admit that they do not understand these areas and hence look
for advice.55 Our cases on a Paents’ Bill of Rights in Macedonia and One Stop
Shops in Kazakhstan are good examples of this type of consensual change. Gauge the level
of consensus or
When conflict between actors does exist, you need to know the various conflict on the
posions being taken and understand why these groups are holding onto these target issue.
posions. By trying to understand the incenves of the actors, you can work
out how firmly entrenched they are in these posions and also if there is a
chance to move them. You can also see where your argument would fit in the
current debate and who might benefit from using it. On this basis, you need
to consider whether it is in your interest to take that side, and more generally
how to manage the strategic risk of entering the debate on either side (see
secon 6.5). Mapping helps you to see who are your natural allies in the debate
and also may lead to reconsidering how you might present your argument.
This is parcularly relevant for organizaons or networks that want to remain
independent in such discussions.
94 | Making Research Evidence Matter

The Mitrovica case is a good example of how to target entrenched posions.

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

Prior to the European Stability Iniave’s research and advocacy effort, the Serbian side
demanded a separate municipality in the north of Mitrovica to protect them and their interests
from what would be a large Albanian majority in a municipality comprising the whole town. At
that me the Serbs were protected in the northern area by UN peacekeepers. There was lile
movement between the north and the Albanian-dominated southern area; many Albanian
properes in the north were already sold and seled by Serbs.
On the Albanian side, they saw the demand for a separate administrave unit as an aempt
to annex territory by Serbs wanng to keep a direct link to Belgrade even aer the planned
independence of Kosovo (UNSCR 1244). The loss of property was also an issue on both sides.
When the European Stability Iniave’s research convinced both sides that the town had no
economic future beyond the crisis unless the two sides worked together, a new discussion
began. Their proposal was to give the Serbs a separate municipality so that their interests
would be well represented and that they would stay in the town, along with the hospital and
university on the north side. However, it was proposed in return they must agree to freedom of
movement between the north and south, the full return of property to Albanians in the north,
and joint economic planning for the town. This allowed both sides to see the need from a local
perspecve of trying to find a soluon to their problem that provided for a sustainable and
equitable future. The proposal was agreed.

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Map the current positions of stakeholders for your advocacy plan:
 Is there broad consensus among the main players on this issue or is there conflict between
various pares?
 What interests are various actors defending?
 What values are various actors promong?
 Which players will more easily be convinced by your argument?
 How easily will the debate move or be seled?
 How entrenched are actors in their current posion?
 How movable is their posion and to what extent does their posion need to move in order
for you to move the process?
 Given the level of consensus or conflict you’ve idenfied, how achievable do you think your
advocacy objecve is?
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—WAY INTO THE PROCESS | 95

NOTES
1 Binkerhoff and Crosby 2002, Carden 2009, Court and 27 Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997.
Young 2003, Global Development Network 2003. 28 Carden 2004.
2 Kingdon 1984. 29 Available online: hp://evrodijalog.eu/site/.
3 Court and Young 2003, Internaonal Development 30 Fisher 2003.
Research Centre 2004, Ryan and Garret 2005.
31 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2004, Ryan
4 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2004. and Garre 2005, Glover 2005, Porter and Prysor-Jones
5 Court and Young 2003. 2007.
6 Lindquist 2001. 32 Kingdon 1984, Suon 1999.
7 Crewe and Young 2002, Lindquist 2001. 33 Glover 2005, Internaonal Development Research
8 Péteri 2005. Centre 2004, Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997.

9 Crewe and Young 2003. 34 Global Development Network 2003.

10 Carden 2005, 2009, Court and Young 2003. 35 Global Development Network 2003, Kingdon 1984,
Lindquist 2001.
11 Carden 2005, 2009.
36 Lindquist 2001, Glover 2005.
12 Carden 2009, Internaonal Development Research
Centre 2004. 37 Carden 2005.

13 Carden 2005, 2009. 38 Ibid.

14 Carden 2009, Court and Young 2003. 39 Ibid.

15 Jones et al. 2009. 40 Carden 2005, Global Development Network 2003.

16 Court and Young 2003. 41 Peters 2008.

17 Carden 2009, Stone and Maxwell 2005. 42 Carden 2005, Kingdon 1984.

18 Carden 2009, Jones et al. 2009. 43 Carden 2005.

19 Kazakhstan was rated by the Freedom House 2010 44 Kingdon 1984, Suon 1999.
“Countries in Transion” index as a “Consolidated 45 Ryan and Garret 2005.
Authoritarian Regime.” Available online: hp:// 46 Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997.
www.freedomhouse.org/images/File/nit/2010/
47 Glover 2005.
NIT2010Kazakhstanfinalfinal.pdf.
48 Available online: hp://www.crisigroup.org/.
20 Brinkerhoff and Crosby 2002, Court and Young 2003,
Glover 2005, Internaonal Development Research 49 Glover 2005.
Centre 2004. 50 Global Development Network 2003, Porter and
21 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2004. Prysor-Jones 1997, Roe 1991, Suon 1999.
22 Carden 2005. 51 Global Development Network 2003, Glover 2005.
23 Brinkerhoff and Crosby 2002, Court and Young 2003. 52 Glover 2005.
24 Kingdon 1984. 53 Court and Young 2003.
25 Lindquist 2001. 54 Global Development Network 2003.
26 Global Development Network 2003, Internaonal 55 Carden 2009.
Development Research Centre 2004, Kingdon 1984,
McGann and Weaver 2000.
 | 97

ADVOCACY PLANNING
FRAMEWORK (APF)
—YOUR MESSENGER

Having decided on your way into the process and idenfied your target
audience(s), the planning now turns to who should take on the role of the “face”
of the advocacy campaign. In advocacy, the messenger is oen as important as
the message and the choice of the right face or messenger can seriously impact
your chances of achieving influence. This circle of the APF denotes a clear
departure from a one-way perspecve of the messenger simply “delivering” the
message. Here, the messenger has to commit to an oen lengthy and complex
process of engaging, persuading, and negoang with target audiences through
many waves of communicaon towards the ulmate goal of having them adopt
your proposals and act upon them. Hence, the decision about who will take In advocacy,
on the different challenges and roles of messenger should not be taken lightly. the messenger
is often as
Although “messenger” or “face” may imply an individual, given the responsibility important as
involved in the messenger role, it is not necessarily one person who will be the the message.
spokesperson for all waves of the advocacy campaign. In fact, a more common
scenario is that a team from the lead organizaon or coalion is involved, with
different people playing different messenger roles based on the best match of
needs with capacity, skills, and resources.

Hence, the core queson is whether it should be your organizaon or another

that leads in the spokesperson role. Do you have the resources, credibility,
reputaon, visibility, and support to be taken seriously by the key players? Do
the target audiences know and trust you? Are they willing to listen to you?
You should also ask whether you have what it takes in terms of the range of
communicaon and interpersonal skills required to successfully take on the
98 | Making Research Evidence Matter

role of messenger. If not, you will need to find a messenger from outside,
either to lead the enre advocacy process or play a specific role. Beyond the
consideraons of messenger, building a base of support is absolutely necessary:
The messenger as one commentator put it, “You must find friends somewhere in the process.”1
can be an The legimacy that comes with the support from others and a lead advocate
individual, an or organizaon with a solid reputaon are key factors in ge ng doors to open
organization, or throughout the advocacy process.2
a coalition.
Taking on this perspecve and building on the insights developed in planning
the “way into the process” circle, you need to consider the following issues in
making plans for this element of your advocacy planning:

• Who should be the face of the campaign? Do you have what it takes to
be the messenger or should you chose someone else?
• What other support do you need for your campaign to be taken
seriously?

FIGURE 9.
The messenger (APF)

Core strategic focus

for your campaign

WAY INTO THE

PROCESS
THE MESSENGER
Enough credibility, Current obstacles
presence, experience, for change
+
and resources to be taken
The leverage you
seriously?
can bring and use
The face of the =
campaign—you or Feasible advocacy
someone else? objective
MESSAGE AND
Other support needed to ACTIVITIES
enhance legitimacy?
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSENGER | 99

5.1 THE FACE OF THE CAMPAIGN

When we say the “face” of the campaign, this refers to the spokesperson that
becomes recognized by all players as the one who is leading (at least) the public
side of the advocacy campaign. Although it oen happens that a parcular
advocacy iniave is closely linked with an individual, the messenger does not
necessarily refer to an individual. Instead, it is commonly an organizaon or a
coalion that takes the lead with a team of people who actually engage in the
defined range of advocacy acvies.

With this in mind, the task of choosing the face(s) of the campaign involves a
frank and thorough assessment of your organizaon on two levels:

• Reputaon and standing in the policy network

• Possession of range of skills needed for messenger role Do a frank
evaluation to
In general, it is nearly impossible to find an individual who possesses the full assess if you
range of research, analysis, communicaon, and social skills needed for all are the “right”
stages of policy research and advocacy communicaon. Hence, in a more basic messenger.
way, you also need to consider whether your organizaon has the right mix of
people with the right mix of credenals, skills, and style to lead the campaign,
and how you can possibly divide advocacy communicaon acvies across
their roles to match your organizaon’s messaging capacity. For example, if
there is a media dimension to your advocacy campaign, then the person(s) with
these skills could be designated to handle this communicaon. Finally, this self-
evaluaon will not only help you idenfy your strengths, and thereby the parts
or funcons of messenger roles you are “right” to play, but also reveal your
needs and capacity and resource gaps, indicang the roles to be filled by other
messenger(s).

5.1.1 Assess Your Reputation

The first level of assessment involves evaluang the standing, presence, and
legimacy of your organizaon as a player in your target decision-making
process, and is centered around answering the following queson:
Do you have the established track record, visibility, and reputaon as
a provider of quality analysis and advice in this policy area to open
doors and be taken seriously?

A number of factors should be considered in answering this queson, focused

on evaluang to what extent you have built a good reputaon in the policy
network through previous and ongoing engagement in the target policy debate.
The recognized characteriscs of a strong messenger are a combinaon of the
following credenals:
100 | Making Research Evidence Matter

• Known as an opinion leader, an expert or innovator whose opinion is

valued in this area.
• Has an established track record as a reputable provider of research,
analysis, advice, and commentary in the target policy area.
• Known to represent an important constuency in these debates.
• Known to have strong connecons and visibility in the network.
• Has access to key players on the policy issue in focus.
• Has the trust of decision makers and/or opinion leaders in this policy area.
• Is seen as an honest broker and not overtly polical.
• Has the trust of, sensivity for, and connecon to affected stakeholders.
• Has approval and support from opinion leaders, stakeholders, and/or
even decision makers for your findings and/or recommendaons.
• Known as an individual or organizaon that has the capacity and
willingness to engage in the advocacy process and can make it happen.3

Taking this range of factors into account, this is a queson of evaluang yourself
in the context of the broader policy network by looking back at your policy
experience and considering if the key decision makers and opinion leaders in
the process already know who you are and see you as a player of merit in the
debate. Of course, they do not have to agree with you or like your point of view,
but they do have to see you as someone who can potenally change the course
of events in the debate and decision-making process, that is, they will have to
respond or engage with you in the process and they cannot afford to ignore
what you say. It may not be necessary for you to ck all the boxes and possess
all the factors, but idenfying those that are crucial for the parcular advocacy
The messenger campaign and how you weigh up against them is valuable informaon. It goes
is usually well without saying that gaining the trust of decision makers and stakeholders as
established a reputable provider does not happen overnight, but rather is the result of
in the policy long-term engagement with these actors in this area and careful culvaon of
network, but relaonships.4
in rare cases,
a fresh face While the above consideraons of past experience, reputaon, and connecons
may be more are vital in considering who should be the face of the campaign, there is one
suitable. instance when a newcomer may make a more suitable messenger: when you
bring an innovave soluon to a policy debate that is at a stalemate around a
seemingly intractable problem. Under those circumstances, the new face with
the new soluon will oen be welcomed as a breath of fresh air for an old
problem.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSENGER | 101

5.1.2 Assess Your Communication and Social Skills

Advocacy at its most basic is about interacng with people; therefore, culvang
relaonships with key target audiences is a crucial dimension to advocacy
communicaon. In addion to, and overlapping with a strong presence and
reputaon in the policy network outlined above, the face or spokesperson for
the campaign should have a range of broader skills and style, including
• strong social/interpersonal skills,
• impressive oral and wrien communicaon skills,
• effecve negoaon, mediaon, and diplomacy skills, and
• good networking and leadership skills.

However, researchers oen do not possess the wide range of skills needed to
do this kind of work.5 A common response by some praconers is to assign the
messenger role to the person in an organizaon responsible for communicaons
or public relaons.6 In fact, oen the whole advocacy process is somehow The messenger
seen as the communicaons person’s job. This assumpon is a major fallacy, needs strong
given the mulfaceted role that the messenger plays and broad spectrum of communication
knowledge, skills, and reputaon required. Advocacy is a team effort, which, of and
course, will include the communicaons person, but they are rarely able to see interpersonal
through a policy change without a team behind them. skills together
with a good
In all our cases the organizaons weighed the issue of messenger choice reputation
carefully, and in two cases they decided to take on the role of messengers in the policy
themselves: both organizaons are well-established and well-known players in network.
their contexts on the issue in queson, and therefore had the legimacy to do
this. They also had the internal advocacy experience, capacity, and skills in their
team to plan and conduct the range of advocacy acvies.

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

In the Mitrovica case, the European Stability Iniave acted as the sole messenger; in fact,
their whole team put a huge amount of effort into managing and facilitang the discussion.
They are a well-established think tank with a solid reputaon internaonally for strong policy
research and advocacy in the Balkans. Through this earlier work, they had developed a strong
presence and network in the internaonal community (that has commissioned and funded
much of their research), and among naonal governments and civil society in the region. They
also stressed the strength of having a team working on this advocacy effort and how important
it was to divide the roles according to the audiences and languages. One member of the team
speaks Serbian and he was the main contact person on the Serbian side, while another speaks
Albanian and she was the face of the campaign on that side of the effort. They also had a lot of
interacon with the media (local and internaonal), internaonal organizaons, the diplomac
corps and opinion leaders in the region. With such a large number of audiences to manage, a
team of messengers was key.
102 | Making Research Evidence Matter

MONGOLIA
In this instance, the Open Society Forum is a long-established NGO and is seen as an
independent, apolical player in Mongolia: this means that it has friends and connecons in
many polical and NGO circles. Therefore, they had lile problem deciding to be the local face
of this campaign. However, they have lile experience or capacity in the legal or economic
details of such mining contracts. It was at this point they decided to engage their internaonal
partner, Revenue Watch, to give them the legimacy they needed. In fact, even the mining
consorum admied to them that they were the only local player to provide a detailed analysis
and response to the dra agreement. This obviously carried a lot of weight with local NGOs
and parliamentarians.

Two further lessons can be drawn from the cases:

• Divide messenger roles strategically among team members based on

their capacies and the specific requirements of the campaign.
In addion to having the legimacy and broad skill set outlined in this
secon, the European Stability Iniave team was also in a posion to
act as the face of the campaign as their individual team members had
the specific skills and characteriscs needed for this parcular advocacy
effort. In this sensive issue, communicang in local languages with
target audiences in different countries was paramount to being listened
to and trusted. Hence, it is worth considering that when dealing with an
issue of a sensive nature, factors such as language, ethnicity, locaon, or
affiliaon may be especially important when deciding on a spokesperson
for your campaign. However, an organizaon acng as sole messenger
in such circumstances does entail significant commitment of resources,
especially in terms of me and manpower.

• You may need to draw on addional partners to play the messenger

role for specific purposes.
The Open Society Forum is well established in the Mongolian policy net-
work on this issue and possesses advocacy and communicaon capacity
and experience, and so they could have been the sole face of the advo-
cacy campaign. However, they realized where their weaknesses were
in terms of legal and economic analycal experse of mining contracts
and, as a result, strategically drew on an external partner, Revenue
Watch, to fill this experse gap. Thus, teaming up the local face with
an internaonal partner for key advocacy acvies, such as an editorial
opinion placed in the naonal newspapers, served to strengthen and
reinforce the case, making it more difficult for the government to ignore
their message of the need to stop the signing of the mining contract.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSENGER | 103

5.2 CHOOSE SOMEONE ELSE

AS MESSENGER?
Your assessment may lead you to the conclusion that your organizaon will not
act as the spokesperson for the enre campaign, or only for specific roles or
communicaon acvies. In considering who might be the right spokesperson
to lead the effort, this may be very obvious from the start if you already have a
supporter or member of your coalion who has the strong reputaon, network,
experience, and willingness to take on this role. In fact, you may not have to
look at all; potenal messengers may come to you and offer or even suggest
that they front the campaign. For example, many internaonal organizaons
that commission policy research also have established transnaonal networks
of NGOs, academics, civil servants, and opinion leaders, and part of the
commission might be to feed the results into and through these networks Choose the
where the spokespeople or messengers are plenful.7 messenger(s)
strategically
However, it is important to sound a note of cauon: just because an individual and not just
or organizaon expresses willingness to take on the messenger role does not because they
automacally mean they are indeed the “right” messenger. This decision entails are your friend
more than selecng your friend or ally or idenfying the most vocal or well- or ally.
known person or organizaon in the network: as outlined above, the messenger
needs to be well-connected, trusted, and influenal in making policy change
happen as well as possessing the required communicaon and interpersonal
skills. Therefore, you should conduct a similar assessment of the credenals and
skills that you conducted for your own organizaon to ensure you are choosing
a messenger with the right profile.

5.2.1 Identify Policy Brokers or Champions

A popular discussion in the literature recently has centered on the role of people
who are referred to as policy entrepreneurs, brokers, or champions.8 Such indi-
viduals are said to be “people who are willing to invest their resources in pushing
their pet proposals or problems, are responsible not only for prompng impor-
tant people to pay aenon, but also for coupling both problems and soluons
to polics.”9 Their advocacy role can entail a number of things: from taking the
ideas forward, translang and spreading them, to networking and going all the
way in selling the ideas to decision makers.10 They serve as key messengers in
clinching the deal to make proposals generated from policy research influenal.

When looking for such champions, you are usually seeking high-level individuals
who are easily able to reach decision makers, opinion leaders, and managers. A
good example of high-level individuals playing the role of champion comes from
a Canadian-supported research project in the developing world where a small
group of MPs brought the ideas from the research to parliamentary debate.11
Such individuals or groups are said to act in an entrepreneurial manner in that
they recognize a piece of analysis that advances their own values and agenda
and use the resources at their disposal to move the process. Through this
iniave, their reputaon is also further enhanced.
104 | Making Research Evidence Matter

When it comes to brokers or messengers, you are commonly looking for

A policy broker someone who already has the access and reputaon in that they are well-
is a person established and have a strong network to draw on, and depending on the role
willing and you would like the messenger to play, they commonly need to have some or
able to take on all of the communicaon and interpersonal skills outlined above. The further
the advocacy qualies you are looking for in a policy broker are
messenger role.
• knowledge and interest in the substance of your policy issue and
• a willingness to commit me to the role they are being asked to play.

In addion to skills, commitment, and reputaon, the person also has to be the
right fit for your campaign, coalion, or organizaon. They will be the person
who is represenng your posion to decision makers and opinion leaders, so
you must try to make sure that they are both willing and able to deliver the
intended message and also represent your posion in the manner that you
wish. You must also try to ensure that their own interests do not dominate the
goals of the advocacy effort. Working closely with the broker throughout their
engagement is crucial: this is not a one-off process of handing your work over
to them and disengaging from the advocacy communicaon process. Finally,
you should also consider the strategic risks of having this person represent
the campaign or your organizaon: in some instances, the short-term gain for
A potential the campaign may not outweigh the potenal longer-term damage to your
policy broker reputaon of being associated with the “wrong” person.
needs to be
the right fit for Hence, the queson of choice of you or someone else such as a policy broker as
your campaign. messenger is not usually an either-or scenario. Nevertheless, these reflecons
give a strong guide as to the kinds of people or organizaons that can act on
your behalf, whether in specific roles or as the sole face of your campaigns.
Choosing a messenger will always bring some sort of compromise, but you need
to keep all of these consideraons in mind before moving ahead in deciding
who to engage as the face of your advocacy and for what role.

Two of our cases used a broker as the messenger for strategic reasons; the
Kazakh case due to legimacy reasons, and the Macedonian case to enable
access because this advisor was close to the minister.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSENGER | 105

KAZAKHSTAN
In this case, the researcher had an established reputaon in the Civil Service Agency as a
manager of internaonal capacity building in the Civil Service Agency. For the rather closed
system in Kazakhstan, the fact that the advice was coming from a government insider was
important. Nevertheless, she was not well-known in the Ministry of Jusce in this area, so when
she approached them to work together on One Stop Shops she found out that the Ministry had
checked out her background with the Civil Service Agency.
But the internaonal dimension of the researchers experience was also very important in
making the advocacy happen. The fact that she was a PhD student at Edinburgh University and
also a policy fellow on an Open Society Foundaons fellowship program12 was key in building
her credibility and the credibility of the research in this area of new technology for the target
audiences. As she put it in the interview, “they really liked talking to the internaonal part of me.”
Nevertheless, being a relavely young individual researcher without extensive experience
in this field, she also realized that she did not have the connecons to the decision makers.
Hence, she found a broker: there was one advisor to the minister who was the opinion leader
in the area of One Stop Shops and she targeted him in her advocacy efforts. The advisor was
convinced and presented the ideas and evidence to the minister as his own, and the minister
then took them on board.

MACEDONIA
Studiorum had worked over the years to build a good reputaon in the area of public health in
Macedonia. They had previously worked on projects with the Ministry of Health and had also
joined an internaonal public health network that draed the EU Charter of Paents’ Rights.
These were strong starng points in this advocacy effort.
But, as in the Kazakh case, it was the idenficaon and targeng of an advisor in the Ministry
of Health that was key to making this advocacy effort work. In fact, this advisor was a colleague
and friend of the researcher from Studiorum and was considering new healthcare reform ideas
to present to a newly appointed minister. He then played the role of broker in this case by
presenng the ideas from the research as his own to the minister and succeeded in ge ng the
researcher on the working group to dra the legislaon in the ministry.
It is also worth nong that the researcher would have been reluctant to present the research
in the tradional manner, that is, at a conference to ministers and other experts, as she
doubted her ability to handle the pressure of such an event. The advisor in the role of broker,
communicator, and then networker really was pivotal in making the advocacy happen.
106 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Two important lessons can be drawn from these cases:

• It is advantageous to find policy brokers within or closely connected to

the government sector.
Policy brokers are oen NGO people or consultants outside the govern-
ment circle, but the two cases above highlight that such champions can
also be found in government, oen in an advisory role. In the Kazakh
case, the researcher successfully and strategically idenfied the right
broker, a ministerial advisor who was the opinion leader in One Stop
Shops, and therefore she knew he would be recepve to the research
and proposals she was pu ng forward on this issue and bring them
directly into the right decision-making circle. In such a closed system, the
researcher also realized that her proposals would only be acceptable if
she found a supporter and champion within government. In the Mace-
donian case, the new advisor was acvely seeking fresh ideas to bring
to his minister, again demonstrang how willingness and openness are
indispensable as factors in selecng the right person to act as broker. Due
to the researcher’s long-standing professional and personal relaonship
with the advisor, the process of winning over the advisor as supporter
for her proposals was relavely easy. This insider and direct pathway to
power facilitates a straighorward advocacy communicaon process
that can occur in a relavely short period of me.

• Brokers are generally not knights in shining armor coming to save the
day, but play a vital role in a specific stage of the campaign.
Both examples illustrate that brokers tend to play more specific roles of
making a specific connecon or selling an idea to a parcular audience
rather than taking over and becoming the face of a whole campaign.
The Macedonian example is a good illustraon of different messengers
used for different waves of an advocacy campaign, that is, the role of the
broker was to complete the soening up process of selling the idea of a
Paents’ Bill of Rights to the minister. Once the minister commied to the
idea, Studiorum, as the organizaon that conducted the research, took
over as messenger and was engaged on the working group to negoate
the details and see through the implementaon of the legislaon. This
example also leads to the queson of whether individuals with such a
broad skill set really exist13 to act as messenger or broker for all facets of
a campaign.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSENGER | 107

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the face of your campaign:
 Will your organizaon be the face of your campaign?
 Do you have the reputaon and visibility in the decision-making circle to be considered a
credible voice and taken seriously on your issue?
 Do you have the range of social and communicaon skills required for effecve
communicaon and negoaon of policy proposals?
 Or should someone else take the lead in the campaign? Should this be an individual or an
organizaon or a coalion?
 Can you idenfy suitable candidates with the right profile to act as the face of your
campaign?
 Should you divide roles and have others represent the campaign in certain capacies? For
example, for different waves of communicaon? For different target audiences?
 Can you idenfy a policy champion/broker in the network (from NGO or government
sector) who can play a key messenger role?
 Are there other specific criteria related to your context or issue relevant for the selecon of
the messenger? For example, ethnicity or language?

5.3 MOBILIZE OTHER SUPPORT

Beyond your own team of messengers or brokers, having the broader support of
others, whether in a formal coalion or a more informal network of supporters,
is also a major factor in effecve advocacy.14 Being able to show that influenal
individuals, organizaons, associaons of stakeholders, or even advisors and
other policymakers are on your side is pivotal to building the legimacy of
the posion you are pu ng forward. In fact, experience shows that the most
successful networks supporng policy advocacy iniaves normally include The support of
a wide range of actors, including researchers, decision makers, NGOs, and a wide range
affected stakeholders.15 You really do need friends in the process, but this does of stakeholders
not just mean teaming up with those already close to you: it’s about building will make your
strategic alliances. case more
compelling
Building such purposeful networks means engaging all actors as early as for decision
possible and keeping them on board through the process, which also means makers.
that coordinaon and communicaon are crical.16 In fact, building this support
is oen the first step in many advocacy campaigns, as the approval and support
of a broad consensus of people can make the difference between a decision
maker listening to and engaging with your ideas or just ignoring them. Hence,
building on your analysis of people, networks, and power in the “way into the
108 | Making Research Evidence Matter

process” circle of the APF, you should strategically consider who you need
and can get as supporters and how to build broader support in the network.
It is worth repeang that personal and informal relaonships are oen very
Building a important in this kind of work.
network is
not just about You should also think beyond just the level of support that coalion partners
numbers; it’s can bring, but also the resources and capacies that you don’t have and could
about building use in your advocacy effort. For example: analycal capacity, funding, previous
strategic advocacy experience, access to other networks, constuencies, research, data,
alliances. media, and internaonal organizaons or policymakers. As already menoned,
targeng your selecon of other support on the basis of idenfied resource or
capacity gaps and on the basis of the skills and experience that complement
yours is more focused and prudent than just aligning yourself with friends in
the network.

Building and drawing on support networks was a fundamental part of the

advocacy success in all our cases studied and two examples follow below.

MACEDONIA
Two examples from this case:
1. For a number of years before the campaign, Studiorum was a member of an internaonal
NGO network that had draed the EU Charter of Paents’ Rights. This was a strong starng
point for the government to recognize them as the “go to” organizaon in this area.
2. During the parliamentary stage of the debate on the Paents’ Bill of Rights, the government
considered passing the bill without discussing the fiscal implicaons of some of the rights
contained in the legislaon, such as the right to a second medical opinion. So Studiorum
and other NGOs, through a parliamentary MP group, were able to pressure the government
to allow me for a public debate and input on the necessary financial commitments to
make the principles in the bill a reality.

MONGOLIA
In this instance, as a long-established independent NGO in Mongolia, the Open Society
Forum has friends in many polical and NGO circles. They actually received a first copy of the
dra contract from MPs with whom they have a long-established working relaonship. The
ministerial working group that began the negoaons had kept it secret in their discussions
prior to the parliamentary round.
Having very good connecons with the NGO community, the Open Society Forum only needed
to act as facilitator and bring partners together at a media event. Once they presented their
negave analysis of the dra agreement, a broad NGO coalion immediately reacted. In fact,
large street demonstraons and lobbying of Parliament occurred almost immediately.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSENGER | 109

A further point arises from the Mongolian case about support from others for
advocacy campaigns:

• Building support networks is usually a long-term project and not just

ed to one advocacy campaign.
In many advocacy plans, coalion building is listed as the first stage of
the project. However, even if you have a new idea to put to potenal
partners, you will not cold call them; you will go to the people you
know and they can then put you in contact with others who might be
interested. In addion, if you focus and work in one policy area for
any length of me in a country or region, you will become part of the Having
network of people and organizaons that are also involved in that issue. established
So, of course, it is best to have these networks established and be able support
to leverage them at short noce. networks
allows for quick
Policy windows don’t always open in a predictable manner or with advance responses when
noce; hence, being in a posion to respond quickly when an opportunity arises an opportunity
can make a significant difference to your chances of achieving influence. The or crisis arises.
Mongolian case is a good illustraon of immediately mobilizing already-exisng
support, showing the benefits of invesng me in networking on an ongoing
basis as a priority, and not just ed to one single advocacy campaign. The long-
term investment in building a network and maintaining their independent
reputaon also allowed the Open Society Forum access to the dra mining
contract, which was pivotal in providing an opportunity to respond before it
was too late.

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the support of others you need for your advocacy campaign:
 What type and level of support from others do you need to achieve your objecves?
 Can you draw on your already exisng network for the campaign or do you need to recruit
new members?
 Who are the key people you need to get behind your posion? Are they already part of
your network or can other supporters help to convince them?
 Who are the easier people to convince? And the more difficult?
 Who will come on board only aer you have secured support of others on your team?
 Are there people you can target to fill skill and resource gaps in your campaign?
110 | Making Research Evidence Matter

NOTES
1 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2003. 9 Kingdon 1984.
2 Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997, Court and Young 2003, 10 Gladwell 2000, Stone and Maxwell 2005.
Nutley, Walter, and Davies 2002, Struyk and Haddaway 11 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2004.
2011.
12 Available online: hp://lgi.osi.hu/documents.php?m_
3 Brinkerhoff and Crosby 2002, Court and Young 2002, id=127.
2003, Glover 2005; Nutley, Walter, and Davies 2002,
13 Weiss 1978 (cited in Glover 2005).
Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997.
14 Court and Young 2005, Ryan and Garre 2005.
4 Ryan and Garret 2005.
15 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2003.
5 Brinkerhoff and Crosby 2002, Nutley, Walter, and Davies
2002, Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997. 16 Carden 2004, Court and Young 2005, Internaonal
Development Research Centre 2003, 2004.
6 Struyk 2006.
7 Weyrauch and Selvood 2007.
8 Gladwell 2000, Glover 2005, Kingdon 1984, Nutley,
Walter, and Davies 2002, Overseas Development
Instute 2009, Stone and Maxwell 2005, Suon 1999.
 | 111

ADVOCACY PLANNING
FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR
MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES

Having found a way into the process and idenfied the key audiences you need
to target in your advocacy efforts and made at least an inial decision on your
messenger(s), we now come to making plans for the communicaon of what
you want to say: in other words, your “message” and your set of advocacy
acvies and communicaon tools. Following an in-depth process of research
and analysis, researchers oen find it difficult to know where to start in retelling
the story and extracng the essence of what they have found. They oen try
to tell the whole story and are caught up in small details or methodological The message
challenges that are very interesng to them but are oen confusing to any is not focused
nonresearcher. on what you
want to report,
In planning your advocacy messages, the focus should not be on what you want but on how to
to say about the research, but on how to draw on the research to get your engage your
target audiences to understand, engage, and be convinced of your findings target audience.
and proposals. As a first hurdle, you simply want to avoid being ignored or
misunderstood. Too oen good ideas do not even merit a response because no
communicaon planning is done. As we oen remind trainees, we are trying to
change public policy, not fill library shelves, and although it is oen less valued,
focusing on the communicaon aspect of a policy project me and me again
proves to be just as important as doing a thorough analysis.
112 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Once you have an idea of how to focus your message, you then have to decide
Advocacy how you are going to deliver the message so that it is engaging and convincing.
activities must Maybe even more importantly, you also have to design for enough interacon
provide enough with the target audiences to allow them to engage, understand, negoate, and
opportunity ulmately take ownership of your ideas. That is, you need to design a targeted
for target set of advocacy acvies and communicaon tools. Drawing on the mapping
audiences to and planning you completed in the “way into the process” circle, you will
engage, discuss, have idenfied an opportunity or meline to start or connue your advocacy
and ultimately campaign and a specific audience(s) that you are targeng. Now, in designing
take ownership your messages and acvies, you are planning to take advantage of the chosen
of your ideas. opportunity and steer the policy debate in the direcon that serves your
objecves. The overlapping nature of the planning is represented in Figure 10.

FIGURE 10.
Message and activities (APF)

Core strategic focus

for your campaign
WAY INTO THE
PROCESS

THE
MESSENGER
Current obstacles
for change
+
MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES The leverage you
can bring and use
In-depth audience profile =
Shaping messages for audiences Feasible advocacy
Selecting advocacy activities and objective
communication tools
Assessing the strategic risk of
your campaign
Planning for challenges and
responses

Informed by your planning in the other APF elements and taking the third circle,
you need to go through the following five steps in making plans for construcng
your message, deciding on advocacy acvies, and managing the advocacy
communicaon process:

• Developing an in-depth audience profile

• Shaping the message for the audience
• Selecng advocacy acvies and communicaon tools
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 113

• Assessing the strategic risk of the campaign

• Planning for challenges and responses

In order to focus the planning in this circle, you need to understand your staged
objecves in moving the audience from understanding to ownership and this
secon begins by outlining our advocacy communicaon model that will guide
you through the planning for the five steps in this circle.

6.1 TARGETING OWNERSHIP AND

ACTION THROUGH DIALOGUE
—AN ADVOCACY
COMMUNICATION MODEL
The connotaon of the word “message” is quite unidireconal, in that it is
something you send to someone else and then wait for his or her reply. If we
take the literal meaning of the word for advocacy planning, you might see your
primary job as the preparaon of this first message, aer which you wait for
the reply. This approach is nicely summed up as: “Research it, write it, and they
will find it.”1

However, experience has shown that effecve advocacy is a two-way process of

mediaon and negoaon that normally takes considerable me and effort.2 In
adopng this approach, you immediately move away from ideas of advocacy as Develop your
“presenng your findings” or one-way transfer, but rather see the development message and
of your message as a process of planning to start a dialogue.3 Of course, you activities to
cannot predict all the responses to your inial message nor be sure how the start a dialogue,
process will move, but with an in-depth knowledge of the players and the not just one-
playing field, you can make a prey good esmate of how it is likely to go. Also, way delivery.
seeing your advocacy campaign as the start of a dialogue will mean that you
are immediately considering responses and also see the need to stay involved
in steering the developing discussion. This further reinforces the centrality of
designing your messages, communicaon acvies, and tools with a strong
focus on engaging and persuading specific target audiences.

Of course, staying in the dialogue is not enough; you must have a clear purpose Ownership
for your involvement in these discussions and a clear intent to influence the is the target
decision-making process in a certain direcon. We stress again that the advocacy of advocacy
challenge is a process of leading and steering opinion leaders and decision communication:
makers to make your words, ideas, evidence, and proposals their own and act once target
on them. This process naturally includes and oen starts with presenng your audiences
ideas, but the heart of the communicaon process is more about mediaon and present your
negoaon, and ulmately transferring ownership of your ideas. ideas as their
own, they are
Ownership is the end result of a successful advocacy process and in planning ready to act
your messages, range of advocacy acvies, and communicaon tools, you upon them.
need a set of inial targets to get there. We have developed the policy advocacy
114 | Making Research Evidence Matter

communicaon model in Figure 11 to illustrate the challenges or stages prior to

the goal of audience ownership and subsequent acon. Starng at the boom
box and moving up, these are the stages that any audience needs to move
through to finally take ownership of policy proposals. Hence, it is crucial that
you keep this movement and these stages in mind throughout the design of
your messages, acvies, and communicaon tools, so that they are designed
purposefully to facilitate this movement. It is important to stress that the staged
targets in the model are how you want your audiences to respond to your
messages and acvies.

FIGURE 11.
Advocacy communication model: Targeting ownership and action through
dialogue

Audiences act on the

proposals

Audiences make the ideas

their own

Are convinced

Are interested and engage

Audiences recognize and

understand your ideas,
evidence, and proposals

Construcng effecve messages is an arul balance of aenon grabbing,

incenves, and threats, appealing to the audience’s concerns and values,
supported by just the right evidence to bring the intended target audience over
to your side. As the mulple stages of the communicaon model imply, you also
usually need to be willing to invest me, effort, and resources; be persistent in
reacng to the responses you elicit; and manage and steer the process with
your acvies and communicaon tools to reach the goal of target audience
ownership and acon.4 With this advocacy communicaon model in mind,
we outline the five main steps in mapping and planning for the message and
acvies circle of the APF.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 115

6.2 DEVELOP AN IN-DEPTH

AUDIENCE PROFILE
If advocacy is a dialogue with the goal of convincing a parcular target audience
to adopt your proposed ideas as their own, then having an in-depth knowledge
or profile of these audiences is a key starng point.5 This insight is a core guide to
how you focus your messages and choose suitable acvies and communicaon
tools, as well as informing you on what to avoid.

In looking for the right way into the process in the first APF circle, you mapped
the players and the playing field in the target process, including current thinking
and posions, and the levels of consensus and conflict in the debate. Building
on that analysis, this mapping and planning now involves going much deeper
to try to beer understand your parcular target audiences and get behind the
reasons or incenve structures that have led to their current posions. Such an
analysis of the incenve structures that guides their opinions and posions is an
extremely useful starng point in thinking about how you can design messages Go beyond
and proposals that will easily resonate with them. You also need to try to go current
beyond statements of simple interests and values to the more emoonal or positions
“personal” elements of their hopes and fears around the issue. and interests
of target
Some may say that this is just stakeholder analysis, true to an extent. However, audiences to
in our experience, the tools of stakeholder analysis tend to stay at the level understand
outlined in the “way into the process” circle of the APF. The depth of analysis their incentives,
we propose in this step is a much more qualitave elaboraon of trying to hopes, and
understand the history and evoluon that has lead to the current posions of fears.
your idenfied target audience. Having conducted in-depth research or analysis
in a target policy issue, you more than likely already have this knowledge.
Nevertheless, it is not normally the type of in-depth insight that is put down in
a policy paper or report. So, it is useful at this point to elaborate these audience
profiles more fully with your advocacy team to serve as a guide to making more
informed and beer decisions on messages, acvies, and tools targeted at
your specific audiences.
116 | Making Research Evidence Matter

One of our cases illustrates how the researchers elaborated such an in-depth
audience profile:

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

In the Mitrovica case, the researchers developed a very in-depth profile of the minority Serbian
populaon on the north side of town and what lead to their entrenched posions at the
beginning of the advocacy effort. The incenve structure and the hopes, fears, and memories
of the local populaon were at the center of their advocacy effort:
INCENTIVE STRUCTURE
In the years preceding and following NATO intervenon in Kosovo (UNSCR 1244) in 1999, many
Serbs had le the region and moved to the territory of undisputed Serbia. By 2002, northern
Mitrovica was the only remaining urban populaon of Serbs in Kosovo (UNSCR 1244) that had a
hospital and a university, that is, a populaon of professional and urban elites. The government
in Belgrade was, of course, interested in keeping this populaon in the town and was paying a
subsidy to public workers who stayed there. Their salaries, including this subsidy, were two to
three mes more than what public servants such as doctors or teachers were being paid in the
rest of Serbia. Also, the size of the public sector was greater on the Serbian side of town than it
was when the whole town had been administered as a single undivided unit. The subsidy from
Belgrade was also supplemented by a subsidy from Prisna, which also wanted to be seen as
supporng minority populaons.
Furthermore, the town had one industry, the Trepcsa mine, during state socialism. The mine
was run down in the 1990s and destroyed in the 1999 conflict but in order to save the economic
foundaons of the town, the UN through the United Naons Interim Administraon Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK) was paying former workers a spend. Basically, the Serbian populaon of
Mitrovica was living off subsidies: the European Stability Iniave research found out that
only 14 percent of the income of the Serbian populaon was coming from private business.
Moreover, the European Stability Iniave found out that many of the beer-paid professionals
in Mitrovica were hedging their bets and buying flats in Belgrade if the whole thing fell apart.
Recognizing the strong monetary element of the incenve structure in the dispute, the
European Stability Iniave started with the striking and very basic economic facts summed up
in the phrase that the town was “living off the crisis” and would be the “biggest slum in Kosovo
if it went away,” so “what are we fighng for?” It is unsurprising that a message focused on the
lack of a sustainable future was something that resonated with both sides.
HOPES, FEARS, AND MEMORIES
To tap into this side of the story for both communies in Mitrovica, the European Stability
Iniave made a documentary film called Chronicle of a Death Foretold.6 In it they tried to bring
people back to the memories of the town during socialist mes and contrast them with the
ethnically divided town. The film reminded the viewers of how Mitrovica was a very integrated
town under the old system: it was the town in Yugoslavia in which the highest percentage of
Serbs spoke Albanian. They worked side by side in the Trepcsa mine and had a famous football
team made up of players from both ethnicies. To make this relevant to the present day, they
talked to two former teammates, one Serbian and one Albanian, who remained friends but
could not visit each other because of the conflict. They contrasted this with the impressions of
children and other adults in the divided town. By focusing on the history of Mitrovica and the
damage to the social fabric of the town due to conflict, the European Stability Iniave sought
to steer the emoons surrounding the debate away from the strong and fearful naonalist
narraves that lead the conflict towards a more hopeful local narrave.
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ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Develop an in-depth profile of your target audiences:
 What is the current posion of different key stakeholders on the policy issue? And how
strongly entrenched are they in their current posion?
 What is their incenve or interest in holding these posions? Try to elaborate the story
behind these posions: what is the history behind their posion and how has it evolved to
the present day?
 Is there some element of personal or emoonal aachment to the posion they hold? How
do they discuss their hopes and fears in this regard?

6.3 SHAPE THE MESSAGE FOR

YOUR AUDIENCE
In presenng policy research to any audience, there is a tendency for those
from a research or academic background to place too much emphasis on the
research process itself and the details of the experiment. Audiences interested
in public policy problems tend to be of mixed backgrounds, and normally have
limited interest in or capacity to absorb the details of your research; what
really interests them is the implicaons of your findings for the current policy
challenges and discussion. The message derived from your research project
should be an argument about the current policy challenge and potenal
soluons based on the outcomes and findings of the research.7

Having developed an in-depth profile of your target audiences, you now come
to thinking about how you can shape your advocacy message to appeal to your
target audiences.8 Returning to the policy advocacy communicaon model for
a moment, in this step you are planning to ensure you have the best chance of
achieving the first three stages, that is, to get audiences to understand, engage
with, and at least begin to be convinced by your arguments. The takeaway
message should
Following a long process of research and analysis, you will have generated be consistent
a large amount of evidence, stories, cases, reflecons, and findings. When through all
beginning to think about communicang what you have found in the research, communication
you have to choose what to emphasize over all the other things you found, tools.
that is, what is going to be the “takeaway message” of the research. This is
the intended message you want your target audiences to receive consistently
through all communicaon tools in longer and shorter formats.

Unsurprisingly, your advocacy objecves will guide the choice of what to em-
phasize in this takeaway message. Knowing the target audiences, the incen-
ve structures, and the hopes and fears that inform their current posions,
118 | Making Research Evidence Matter

you want to build an argument to get these audiences to begin quesoning

or building on their current thinking and come on board with your ideas and
arguments. You are aiming to convince them to think in a different way, an im-
portant stepping stone to their ownership of a new convenonal wisdom on the
policy issue as, ulmately, they will provide you with the leverage you need to
move the process in the desired direcon.

The message The process of choosing what to emphasize in your advocacy message is captured
will only be in the idea that you only should plan to present the “p of the iceberg” from all
the “tip of the data and evidence you generated through your research. Remembering that
the iceberg” your message is the beginning of a dialogue on the topic, you will undoubtedly
from all your get to present the rest of the “iceberg” since the audiences involved in such
research discussions are naturally skepcal and will need much more detail and have
findings. many quesons beyond the content communicated in your inial advocacy
messages in order to shi their posion.

In praccal terms, shaping messages for specific audiences refers to the devel-
opment of messages that connect and engage your chosen target audiences.
Messages Based on your research findings, this involves developing an argument which
should contain clearly illustrates “how seen from their perspecve, it makes sense to change.”9
a balance The argument will logically seek to compare and contrast current interpreta-
of carrots ons of the evidence with your own. It is also oen said that we must provide
(incentives) and a balance of carrots (or incenves: how they can benefit from the proposed
sticks (threats). change) and scks (or threats: what will happen without this change) in at-
tempng to move audiences out of their current posions. The Macedonian
case illustrates one approach to connect the message to target audiences.

MACEDONIA
The main messages from Studiorum to the Ministry of Health on the Paents’ Bill of Rights
issue are a good illustraon of how, seen from the ministry’s perspecve, they needed to make
this change:
• You already need to do this as part of the EU accession process.
• We’ve already done the homework you would need to do, that is, completed the
research of internaonal and regional best pracce and conducted an opinion
survey of Macedonian cizens.
• We are offering you the experse on a partnership basis to complete this in a
way that is not the normal “cut and paste” approach, but an approach that is
sensive to the Macedonian situaon and fulfills EU requirements.
It has a good balance of incenves and threats and offers the ministry both the credibility of the
internaonal research and local polling.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 119

When we discuss the process of choosing what to emphasize in training work-

shops, parcipants oen queson the ethics of “manipulang” or “spinning”
the message to appeal to target audiences. The response to this queson is
that obviously if you want to preserve your name as a reputable provider of
research, the messages you produce should not go outside of the boundaries of
a truthful representaon of what was found in the research. Also, if you were to
decide to untruthfully represent the findings just to appeal to a parcular target
audience, you will undoubtedly be found out in the quesoning and discussion
that will follow in any advocacy process. Some literature is crical of this pro-
cess of the simplificaon or reducon of policy messages, as they say it removes
the complexity of policy challenges.10 What these commentators seem to forget
is that these messages represent only the beginning of a long discussion focus-
ing exactly on that complexity before any influence on policy decisions normally
happens.

In shaping messages that connect to the thinking of target audiences, these

mulple overlapping dimensions need to be considered:
• Make sure your message is policy-relevant.
• Make sure your message presents praccal and usable soluons.
• Communicate simply to make your messages accessible.
• Make your messages memorable and portable.

6.3.1 Make Sure Your Message Is

Policy-relevant
There is a basic need to make a clear link between the focus of your message
and the currently discussed policy problem and the current policy approach
of the government, that is, to make the message policy-relevant. In fact,
relevance can go beyond these two elements to where you may also need to
address other issues such as the decision-making process, current thinking and
posions, stakeholders, ming, resources, or capacity to really show how the
research is properly situated in the current policy challenge and landscape.11
This challenge is summed up very nicely in the following quote:
“New knowledge is thus poured into a mould of prior understandings,
which may not correspond to the researcher’s concepons of a
study.”12

The first line emphasizes the need to connect the research and findings to what
is already known and to use the advocacy communicaon model to help target
audiences to recognize, understand, and engage with your ideas and proposals.
The second line points out that oen research starts with assumpons or
quesons very different from those being asked in the current discussion of
an issue. It is the job of the advocate to find a way to make strong connecons
across the research and policy narrave boundaries. The Macedonian case
analyzed illustrates the need to cross this boundary:
120 | Making Research Evidence Matter

MACEDONIA
The Macedonian case shows a common challenge for researchers in bridging from the framing
or agenda of an internaonal organizaon to a naonal context. The introducon of a paents’
bill of rights was indirectly set as an accession precondion and on this basis, the researcher
did a study on the state of paents’ rights in the Western Balkans, with a special focus on her
own country, Macedonia.
At the beginning of the campaign there was a strong need to frame and relate the proposal or
approach in the current health legislaon, that is, that most of the issues covered in a paents’
bill of rights were already covered under different pieces of legislaon, but this current proposal
brought these issues together from the rights perspecve of the end user. There was also a
need to show that this added some rights or privileges for paents and to deliver on these
would cost extra money. In addion, the advocate had to allay the fears of the medical sociees
represenng doctors that this bill did not hugely change the relaonship between doctor and
paent with regard to negligence and insurance claims, but rather that it actually provides
addional legal protecon for doctors, as the healthcare instuon in which they are providing
healthcare services is put in the forefront of responsibility for negligence and insurance claims.
Hence, the job of reframing and building relevance was a significant task at the beginning of
this advocacy campaign.

6.3.2 Make Sure Your Message Presents

Practical and Usable Solutions
In applied research the second issue for establishing a solid foundaon for your
advocacy messages is the need to present praccal, feasible, and aconable
proposals or soluons: the recommendaons must be obviously usable for
target policymakers13 or “must have operaonal relevance.”14

We have encountered too many instances of policy research that is immediately

dismissed by target audiences saying, “that’s very interesng but I don’t know
what to do with it.” As menoned earlier, academics focus on describing society
and its challenges and this is what they do well: they idenfy what needs to
change, but tend to make vague suggesons about how this change should
happen. In these instances, they have failed to overcome the famous “So what?”
hurdle. Another common failure in this regard comes from NGOs when they
present policy proposals that basically represent their “wish-list” of what they
would like to see changed based solely on the values they are commied to.

In both cases, the proposals oen do not take enough account of the constraints
of actually making a policy or polical decision happen, not to menon the
budgetary and capacity challenges of delivering on these proposals. Policymakers
have reported in trainings that they can very easily judge a policy proposal by
first looking at the recommendaons and seeing if they reflect knowledge of
the daily business of government in the target area.15 Unfortunately, they rarely
read further if these challenges and realies have not been taken into account.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 121

So, if your policy recommendaons are not firmly grounded in the challenges
and constraints of the real world, then the foundaon for your messages is very
shaky. The Kazakh case is an example of clearly tying policy proposals with the
constraints and failures the researcher idenfied in implemenng the One Stop
Shop model in her country.

KAZAKHSTAN
In designing for an improvement of the One Stop Shop model in Kazakhstan, the researcher
first knew that the Ministry of Jusce (the agency responsible for implemenng One Stop
Shops) had not conducted any in-depth evaluaon of their actual performance—very much
needed aer broad public and media cricism of the model. Knowing this fact meant that the
research immediately fed into an administrave and decision-making gap.
The research found that One Stop Shops were being used more as post offices, not service
centers, that is, they were helping cizens to fill in forms that would then be delivered to the
relevant agency, rather than processing some of them on site and delivering services, as they
should do. Also, as government agencies covered in the One Stop Shop were also connuing
to offer direct contact to cizens, the other finding was that One Stop Shops were used as an
alternave point of contact with cizens rather than as the one stop or single point of contact.
For the researcher, one of the main reasons that these government agencies connued to
offer services direct to the public was the wish on the part of civil servants to keep their access
to sources of corrupt payments; it was also obvious that there was lile understanding of
the whole concept of One Stop Shops. This is why the researcher chose to outline these
challenges in the recommendaons and message and then put forward a proposal focusing
on a more suitable One Stop Shop model and a broad capacity development program with a
long-term view.

6.3.3 Communicate Simply to Make Your

Messages Accessible
The added value of policy research is to feed expert analysis and insight into
the policymaking process. However, when researchers come to communicate
their findings, they oen forget that not all audiences share their experse. In
fact, both experts and policymakers come from a wide mix of backgrounds and
experse. As a prominent policy scholar states:
“It’s ok to think like an economist but don’t write like one. Emphasise “It’s ok to
the decision at hand, the underlying problem, and the opons to think like an
solve it. Minimise methodology, jargon and equaons.”16 economist, but
don’t write like
A direct, nontechnical language and style is unbelievably important: researchers one.”
who make their messages accessible to nonexpert audiences have a much
beer chance of having influence.17
122 | Making Research Evidence Matter

As well as simplifying the language and concepts for broader audiences,

Keep your keep your message simple at first18 in order to overcome the first advocacy
message simple communicaon hurdles in ge ng audiences to recognize, understand, and
at first; the engage with your ideas. If you provide target audiences with a simpler way to
detail and get into your ideas, they will undoubtedly ask you a lot more quesons at that
complexity will point and the complexity will then emerge. As already menoned, the process
come later. of presenng the “p of the iceberg” also allows access to the important
findings before the complexity follows. For many audiences to be convinced of
your posion, they undoubtedly need this complexity, but there are the lower
hurdles of understanding and engaging to overcome before you get there and
you should be aware of this in your message design. The following example
illustrates such an approach:

MONGOLIA
This is a very good example of how to make a potenally very complicated analysis accessible
to the public. Once the Open Society Forum got a copy of the dra mining agreement they
turned it over for analysis by two experts from Revenue Watch. One expert did a legal analysis
of the agreement comparing it to best pracce with such extracve industry contracts from the
government side. The other expert did an analysis of the numbers being used to support this
agreement and also a number of scenario predicons on potenal returns from this contract
in terms of government revenue. Both analyses were extremely technical and complicated, but
they both showed that very basic quesons had not been adequately asked or answered in the
negoaon. The Open Society Forum released an opinion piece in the daily press that began
with these unanswered quesons.
The Op-ed was tled: “The Ivanhoe Mining Contract: Seven Quesons.”19 It opened by stang,
“Here are some quesons the [parliament] should ask,” and then presented quesons such as
the following:
• “Is it fair, does Mongolia get value?”
• “Is this agreement workable and enforceable?”
Under each of the quesons, the Open Society Forum showed clearly that these very basic
issues had not been adequately addressed or clarified in the negoaons to date. This most
definitely fed into the fears of the public: the fear that Mongolia would not get its fair share
of this massive copper mine and also the fear that unanswered quesons give too much room
for discreon and corrupon. Following the publicaon of this op-ed and the presentaon to
NGOs, there were large street protests about the agreement that the parliament could not
ignore.

In developing such simple (but not necessarily simplified!) messages, experience

has also shown the need to tell stories so that advocates can “contextualise
the theorecal” and also the evidence you have found.20 The development of
“analycal stories” to easily illustrate something technical or complicated will
also help your messages be more memorable and portable, as we develop next.
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6.3.4 Make Your Messages Memorable and

Portable
You not only want to allow audiences access to your messages, you want them
to engage with your ideas, and maybe even more importantly, remember them
and be able to retell the messages to others once they have been exposed to
them. So, your messages need to be memorable and portable.

When it comes to making your messages memorable, this entails trying to find
things that catch the aenon of your target audiences, thereby ge ng them
to engage further and ask quesons about your ideas. There are a number of
well-recognized techniques intended to serve these purposes, but a dominant
theme through these techniques is to emphasize what you found that was
surprising, unexpected, new, interesng, or different from current thinking on
the policy issue. The reason to try and make your messages memorable is so
that audiences will remember them and tell them to others in their circle. You
not only have to make them memorable for the individual, they also have to
be easily retellable or what we call “portable.” This idea of easily portable or
spreadable messages fits into Gladwell’s (2000) viral concept of how good ideas
spread: first from the source, but then from those who have been “infected” to Your messages
those they interact with, and so on. not only need to
be memorable,
Advocates use many techniques for this purpose and we now look in more but also
detail at five that are commonly used to make messages more memorable and portable.
portable:

• Scky tles that are memorable

• Striking facts that are unexpected and draw aenon
• Analycal stories to humanize your analysis
• Giving the target audience the language to use
• Pictures and graphical/visual presentaon of data

Taking the techniques one by one:

• Scky tles that are memorable

By “scky” we simply mean very memorable.21 You are trying to come
up with tles that immediately resonate with the target audiences,
and hence are easily memorable and portable. Scky tles can also
begin the process of communicang your overall message or at least
piquing the interest of the target audience to further engage with your
advocacy proposals. A good example is the tle of the European Stability
Iniave’s paper on the business vibrancy of the Central Anatolian
region of Turkey: “Islamic Calvinists.” The purpose of the paper was
to try to undermine a reducve and ill-informed narrave in Western
Europe about Turkey within discussions on its potenal membership of
the EU. The tle itself is such a strange collocaon of words that virtually
anybody who reads or hears about the paper remembers the tle. In
fact, it was not something that was invented by the European Stability
124 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Iniave, but what people from the region call themselves, that is, they
are Muslims, but with a Protestant work-ethic.

• Striking facts that are unexpected and draw aenon

A strong theme in making advocacy messages memorable is to focus on
things that you found which were unexpected or striking.22 This refers
to how you select and highlight the facts, quantave or qualitave,
that you found in your research and which are of such significance or
are so surprising that decision makers cannot ignore them. For example,
in a recent study in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a policy fellow found that
the rate of nonimplementaon of constuonal court decisions was 9
percent; this is in direct contrast to the publicly released figure of just
3 percent.23 This is a figure and fact that policymakers and cizens alike
could not ignore.

• Analycal stories to humanize your analysis

The next technique essenal to making complicated or technical
findings more accessible, memorable, and portable is to build the
message around the story of the people involved or affected by the
public policy in queson and support it with your analysis or evidence.24
Remember that policy is made by people and for people, and stories
around people affected by a parcular policy can be a good reminder
of this for decision makers. Humanizing data is, therefore, an important
technique for researchers to develop in their advocacy efforts. A good
example of this approach is the European Stability Iniave paper
menoned above, entled “Islamic Calvinists.” The paper centered on
the story of the development of the largest furniture business in the
Central Anatolian region and the government and private sector players
involved. It did not center on the data on the development of the
region, but on the very memorable story of the development of this
very successful business—of course, supported by the data.

Our case from Kosovo (UNSCR 1244) has further lessons on this aspect of
analycal stories.

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

The European Stability Iniave researcher talked in the interview about trying always to talk
in parables, that is, stories that teach the audiences a lesson about the lived experience of the
policy problem or soluons.
They also had what they called the “Ahsaari test.” Mar Ahsaari, UN special envoy at the
Kosovo (UNSCR 1244) status process negoaons, was tasked with developing a plan aimed at
resolving the talks on the independence of Kosovo (UNSCR 1244). The Ahsaari test was simply
a test of how portable a message was when framed in analycal story mode, that is, whether
Ahsaari went on to tell the story of the European Stability Iniave research to others.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 125

• Give the target audience the language to use

Oen it is not enough to come up with stories or striking facts, you also
need your target audiences to start using new language or adopng
your language or metaphors. Again, you need to focus on the kind of
language that might appeal to the target audiences and also consider
a language that is memorable and portable. This technique can be
especially useful and important if the issue is new for policymakers, and
when you are trying to reframe the discussion and/or introduce a new
dimension to the debate.

Two of our cases illustrate examples of this transfer of language:

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

When the European Stability Iniave presented its inial assessment of the economic future
of Mitrovica to Serbian and Albanian leaders and showed that the town was living off the
subsidies from the crisis and had no economic future once the crisis was over, they summed up
the situaon with the phrase, “the light is flickering and about to go out.”
When the prime minister of Kosovo (UNSCR 1244) held a press conference to announce his
general support for the European Stability Iniave plan for Mitrovica, he used exactly this
phrase.

MACEDONIA
The Studiorum researcher reported on work in the area of “paent safety,” an area in which
she had been working with the Ministry of Health for some me. She menoned that in her
presentaons to the medical community some medical professionals did not really have a
clear understanding of what paent safety meant. For the first few presentaons she did not
explain the concept in detail but connued to use the phrase over and over with some specific
examples unl the term started to be more widely used in the medical community. It was at
this point that medical professionals really started to get interested in what was behind the
concept and how they could use it or benefit from its incorporaon into the system. This is
another interesng starng point in what we have called the “soening up” process.

• Pictures and graphical/visual presentaon of data to emphasize the

key data
As we read or hear presentaons, we never grow out of our childish habit
of looking at the pictures. They are the things that grab our aenon
and we remember and talk about them. Presenng the key findings of
research as a graph or in another visual form draws the aenon of the
reader to that parcular piece of data and also means that the reader
does not have to search the text to find it.25 Unsurprisingly, striking facts,
if they are quantave, are oen presented graphically. For example, in
126 | Making Research Evidence Matter

a recent paper from a policy fellowship program26 on the performance

of courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina,27 the fellows found that the court
system was the most expensive and slowest in Europe! The fellows
presented the data to support this claim in Figure 12.

FIGURE 12.
Graphical presentation of key data—“More money does bring better
performance”

Case backlog (in 000) Budgets (in mil KM)

650 200
180
600 160
140
550 120
Operating budgets
100
500 80
60
Unresolved cases
450 40
20
400 0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

The figure essenally shows that while budgets increased significantly

over a five-year period, this had no impact on the case backlog that, in
fact, connued to increase. This one graph forms a prey devastang
picture and completely undermines the standard efficiency argument
that the case backlog would come down if more money was made
available.
Pictures of the people or places studied in the research obviously
humanize the policy discussion, especially if you accompany them with
the stories of the person or place shown in the picture, thereby making
them memorable. While a picture or graph may be worth a thousand
words, you should definitely accompany them with some explanaon/
story to ensure you get the intended point across and reinforce your
message. Try not to fall at the “but it’s obvious” hurdle by assuming that
what is obvious to you is also obvious to your audience.
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ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Reflect on the messages that you are planning to emphasize for each
target audience:

APPEALING TO THE AUDIENCE

 Why do you think that your message is engaging and convincing for this target audience?
 To what extent and how have you addressed their current posions, thinking, or values in
the message?
 Do you have a balance of incenves and/or threats in the message?

CONSIDERING POLICY RELEVANCE AND PRACTICAL

IMPLEMENTATION
 Is your message directly addressing the thinking, issues, and challenges that are currently
being discussed by your target stakeholder group?
 Have you really taken into account the realies (especially challenges and constraints)
when developing your policy proposal and recommendaons?
 Will your main target audiences (especially government officials) consider your
recommendaons as praccally implementable or obviously usable?

MAKING THE MESSAGE ACCESSIBLE

 Have you used concepts and language that the audience can easily recognize and
understand?
 Do you need to reduce the complexity of any part of your message for certain audiences?
 Have you supported the message with evidence and cases that also are recognizable and
credible for this audience?

MAKING THE MESSAGE MEMORABLE AND PORTABLE

 Can you support your message with a striking or surprising fact or insight?
 Can you support your message with an analycal story, that is, a story of a person or case
that illustrates the issue and potenal soluons in an accessible way?
 Can you present your striking fact or analycal story in a graphical or pictorial way?
 If presenng your message in a wrien format or developing a policy presentaon, is the
tle scky/memorable?
128 | Making Research Evidence Matter

6.4 SELECT ADVOCACY

ACTIVITIES AND
COMMUNICATION TOOLS
Having developed your messages, you need to plan how to praccally achieve
your advocacy objecves in order to mediate and negoate the discussion to the
Plan for
point where your target audiences own the research ideas and are ready to act
multiple
on them. This will be achieved through the purposeful development of a range
activities over
of advocacy acvies and a set of communicaon tools. For policy researchers,
time to move
this is normally a combinaon of releasing papers or arcles and opportunies
your target
to present and discuss them with stakeholders, potenal coalion partners,
audiences to
and decision makers through, for example, individual briefings and lobbying,
the point of
organizing meengs and conferences, making presentaons, and media events.
ownership,
ready to act
For the sake of clarity, we divide the discussion and take on the selecon
upon your
of advocacy acvies first and then consider the choice of supporng commu-
ideas.
nicaon tools.

6.4.1 Choose the Advocacy Activities That Fit

the Role, Process, and Objectives
At this stage in the planning process, a number of factors will guide your choice
of advocacy acvies. The usual role of any advocacy organizaon will provide
the broader limits of possible choices of acvies. For example, think tanks
should not really be planning demonstraons, but of course they can choose
to go into a coalion with an acvist organizaon willing to do so, if they feel
such public acon or pressure is required. When it comes to advocang for the
results of policy research or expert analysis, the natural networks of actors who
usually engage in this type of discussion tend to be on the inside track, and that
is where policy advocacy usually starts, with acvies such as presentaons
and briefings with experts and decision makers. If advocates feel that they are
not ge ng a posive response to the proposals on the inside track, they may
then go to the media to put on some pressure. Of course, this can differ from
context to context: a recent trainee from Bulgaria claimed that if an issue is not
Researcher in the media, then policians feel that the issue is de facto not on the agenda
advocates often and are uninterested in advocacy efforts. In such a context, some type of media
try presenting presence would be required as an opening advocacy acvity.
their ideas on
the inside track, As this example illustrates, the specifics of the “way into the process” idenfied
before moving in the first circle of the APF will further guide you in the planning, that is, the
to the outside. target audiences and their current posions, the me available to try to change
their posion, and how far you think their posions can be changed or, in other
words, what you think is a feasible objecve. Furthermore, you obviously need
to plan these acvies in relaon to ge ng the ming right—for example,
you might already have an idea when a policy window will open and possibly
also close. In sum, you are looking for what will work to convince your target
audiences in the me and openings available to have the best chance of
achieving your target advocacy objecve.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 129

Experience has clearly shown that the more parcipatory and collaborave the
advocacy process, the more effecve it will be.28 This is hardly a surprise when we Design a set
consider that the goal is to provide enough opportunies for target audiences of activities
to understand, engage, ask quesons, process and digest, be convinced, further to shift target
clarify, take input from others, bargain with players and stakeholders, and then audiences’
own and act on your ideas. The management and steering of this negoaon positions
and dialogue is at the heart of this acvity selecon step of the planning process. during the
available time
Table 3 details the combinaon of advocacy acvies that were used in each of window.
the cases presented here.
 TABLE 3.
Advocacy activities conducted in four cases

CASE 1: CASE 2: CASE 3: CASE 4:

KAZAKHSTAN29 KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244) MACEDONIA MONGOLIA
Publication and • Policy study30 • Policy study31 • Policy study32 • Policy report33
release of documents,
• Policy briefs • Policy brief • Opinion-editorial arcles in
webpages, other
• Documentary video • Policy-oriented journal newspapers
formats
• Webpage arcle • Webpage
• Picture stories on • Webpage • Answers to working group
stakeholders quesons

ADVOCACY ACTIVITIES
130 | Making Research Evidence Matter

Interaction with target • Lobbying with ministry • Organizing three • Lobbying with ministry • Lobbying with
audiences advisors conferences in Wilton advisors and other officials parliamentarians
• Meengs with One Stop Park, Brussels, • Conference presentaons • Presentaon to working
Shop managers and and Vienna groups
• Parcipaon in working
employees • Briefings and lobbying with groups in the execuve and • Organizing press
decision-makers, opinion parliaments conference and
leaders, polical pares, presentaon to NGOs
• Presentaon to the medical
and media
community • Offering Revenue Watch
• Conference presentaons experts as advisors to
government
Previous activities that Training with officials on One Background research on the Joining the Acve Cizenship • TV programs on mining in
set up the advocacy Stop Shop model Trepcsa mine34 Network (ACN) and other Mongolia
effort internaonal networks • Providing trainings to
government officials on
negoang extracon
contracts
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 131

A number of lessons also can be drawn from these cases:

• Mulple acvies and persistence over a significant period are usually

needed to allow for the interacon necessary to reach your goals.
In planning your advocacy campaign, you need to combine the release
of papers or publicaons with the mulple opportunies to discuss
and push for the ideas in them. You also need to stay involved in the
discussion and be persistent in order to reach your advocacy objecves.35
All four cases show the commitment of an individual or a full team over
a cycle of two to four years. This may not entail full-me commitment
over this period, but it certainly involves significant me and resources.
Another reason to stay involved over a longer period is to make sure
that the reporng of your research stays true to its original message:
research can be co-opted and distorted for polical ends.36

• A significant driver of advocacy acvity choice will be the obstacles

you need to overcome.
In addion to providing enough interacon to reach your goals, specifi-
caon of the obstacles you need to overcome will drive the planning and Capacity
selecon of acvies. For example, if the current government in power building to
opposes your value framework, it may be an idea to engage the media fill identified
and opposion figures to build pressure. Alternavely, you may choose gaps can be
to be more quiet about it and focus instead on building the support of an important
experts and opinion leaders with the aim to soen them up to your advocacy
ideas for the me when the government changes. The Kazakh case pro- activity.
vides a good example of how an obstacle may drive the acvity choice.

KAZAKHSTAN

In advocacy processes in the region, one of the major obstacles is oen that important
target audiences have lile knowledge or capacity in the issue you want to address. This is a
regular occurrence in areas of new technology and this was the case with One Stop Shops in
Kazakhstan. To address this gap a capacity-building approach that offered trainings and study
tours was used to soen up target audiences to the ideas and best pracce in One Stop Shops.
Such long-term capacity-building approaches to advocacy are, in fact, quite common.37

Ulmately, the purposeful planning of your acvies in line with your

advocacy objecves and yet balanced with overcoming obstacles will
ensure that the range of acvies and tools you select have the best
chance of achieving the specific targets in your advocacy campaign.
132 | Making Research Evidence Matter

• Inially plan acvies for the short to medium term or first wave of
advocacy, and then make further plans in response to the developing
debate.
When it comes to discussion and negoaon, it is difficult to predict
how exactly the process or dialogue will develop and unfold. You are
trying to plan for the opening or first wave of the advocacy campaign,
that is, for the short to medium term, and then you will see what kind
of response you get. At this point, you need to return to the APF or
the decisions you made through the planning process and be ready and
willing to adapt to the situaon as it unfolds. In any case, you must be
willing to stay involved if you are looking for influence.

• Advocacy should start as early as possible, even during the research

process.
Few researchers realize that effecve advocacy begins before the
research ends; experience has shown that involving policymakers
as early as possible in the research process can increase the chance
of policy influence or research being used.38 Ge ng feedback from
the earliest stages of defining the research quesons through to data
analysis and dra recommendaons can be extremely useful for the
research process, especially in keeping research and analysis praccal
“Case testing” and relevant. In addion, it also has an advocacy-oriented dimension
your initial of bringing the decision maker into the research ideas, building the
findings on polical legimacy of the project, and ulmately building ownership.
decision makers
can help build In this vein, we oen emphasize to policy researchers that the advocacy
ownership of opportunies presented when conducng research interviews with decision
ideas. makers and other key stakeholders should not be overlooked in building
awareness of the research in the broader stakeholder group. It is beneficial to
tell them when and how the research will be available and even ask them if it
is possible to get a follow-up interview or meeng or just feedback by email,
thereby engaging them throughout the process rather than just as a follow-up
to the research conducted.

Through these measures, you are starng a dialogue and beginning to think
about fostering their ownership of your ideas. As one trainee from an Estonian
think tank commented: your policy recommendaons should not come as a
surprise to the target audience. Her approach is not just to inform decision
makers of finished policy advice, but to use the research and analysis process to
engage them and negoate feasible and implementable recommendaons that
are developed jointly with the researcher. One of the cases illustrates a further
useful approach to the early engagement of policymakers:
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 133

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

Once the European Stability Iniave had completed the research process, they prepared a
PowerPoint presentaon of their inial analysis of the evidence collected and the implicaons
they drew from it. At this point in the process, they went to decision makers, briefed them on
the inial findings, and asked quesons such as, “Are we right?” “Is there something that we
have missed?”

This kind of “case tesng” approach communicates openness to decision

makers and the importance of stakeholder input, which means that researchers
end up not only ge ng very useful feedback but also, in fact, already beginning
the advocacy discussion. Indeed, experience has shown that communicaon of
research results prior to publicaon allows for early uptake and usage of the
findings.39

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the most suitable set of activities for your advocacy
campaign:
 What do you think you can achieve in the first or next wave of the advocacy process?
 What are the biggest obstacles that you need to overcome? And whom do you need to
focus on to overcome these obstacles?
 How much informaon sharing, dialogue, or negoaon is needed to win these audiences
over?
 What combinaon of acvies will you need to engage in to achieve your aim?
 Are the acvies you’ve planned consistent with the broader advocacy role of your
organizaon?
 From a longer-term perspecve, how long do you expect to be engaged in this advocacy
campaign?

6.4.2 Choose Communication Tools to

Support Advocacy Activities
Having chosen your target audiences, messages, and set of advocacy acvies,
you next need to choose the set of advocacy communicaon tools you will
use to deliver these messages and support the chosen acvies. This issue
is oen referred to as selecng “formats” and “packaging” of messages by
134 | Making Research Evidence Matter

commentators in the literature. However, as you are no doubt aware if you have
Choose developed such tools, producing effecve advocacy tools involves a lot more in
communication comparison to a simple process like packaging a parcel!
tools that
support your As with all aspects of the message and acvies development process, your
activities target audiences will guide the choice of communicaon tools. You need to
and suit your select types of communicaon tools that are
audiences.
• recognizable,
• commonly used,
• designed to give the level and type informaon that suits the capacity
and expectaons of target audiences, and
• easily accessible to target audiences.40

If you do choose the right tools for your audiences, you will have a beer
chance of engaging them and also of building the credibility of your messages
and advocacy campaign.41 It is important to avoid the classic mistake of sending
your 120-page technical policy paper to the nonexpert decision maker, who not
only does not have me to read it, but actually does not have the capacity to
engage with the evidence or arguments. Such an approach will usually mean
that the decision maker will probably not read the report and those sending it
are highly unlikely to get a response, apart from the negave impression they
have made.
Don’t send
long technical In choosing communicaon tools, you need to consider three main types of
papers to audiences:
decision makers
who won’t and • Experts—those who have a deep technical knowledge and background
can’t read them. in the target policy area. These are commonly advisors, bureaucrats,
and people from internaonal organizaons, research instutes, think
tanks, and universies. In order to convince this audience, they need
to see the full argument, including literature, evidence, proposals,
predicons, and research (methodology and analysis). Having said
that, it is also important to note that such groups are sll much more
heterogeneous in background and experience than those from a single
academic discipline and this needs to be considered in making your
communicaon accessible.
• Informed nonexperts—praconers who work in the target policy area
and are users rather than producers of policy research. They are oen
decision makers, journalists, NGO employees, or civil servants. These
people can normally be convinced by seeing the significant outcomes of
research and do not need all the in-depth academic and research detail.
If possible, these people will consult experts to confirm if their reading of
a policy proposal is correct. This is usually a much more heterogeneous
group than the expert group in terms of educaonal background and
experience.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 135

• The general public—unless they have a stake in the issue or it is a maer

of broad public concern, the general public are not normally interested
in policy research. Of course, if a policy proposal will divide them into
winners or losers or feeds into their hopes and fears, they can easily
be made interested. Such an advocacy effort would have to target the
specific relevant sector of the general public to get them to buy into
the ideas. What is needed in this case is the simplest and clearest
presentaon of the evidence in such an argument.

Exploring these three types of audiences or publics, Table 4 presents an over-

view of the common types of communicaon tools used to deliver advocacy
messages.

TABLE 4.
Types of advocacy communication tools targeting specific audiences

TARGET AUDIENCES
TYPE OF COMMUNICATION TOOL

Experts Informed non-experts The general public

Written • Policy studies • Policy briefs, memos, • Op-ed arcles in
• Research papers and fact sheets. newspapers
• Working papers • Newsleers • Leers to newspapers
• Policy reports • Policy reports • Ads, banners, posters,
t-shirts, sckers
• Policy-oriented
journal arcles

Oral • Conference presentaons • Radio and TV programs

• Less formal presentaons at one-to-one meengs • Public meengs and
or lobbying hearings
• Presentaons to working groups and public hearings • Speeches to the public

Audio visual • Documentary videos

• Advocacy-based adversing

Information & • Dedicated advocacy • E-mail campaigns

Communication websites • Dedicated advocacy websites or pages
Technology
• Social Networking sites: Facebook, Twier
• SMS/text campaigns

COMMUNICATION
ION
OLS
TOOLS
ACH
EACH
NCE
AUDIENCE
IS EXPOSED TO
136 | Making Research Evidence Matter

A number of lessons can be drawn from this table:

• Communicaon tools somemes have more than one audience.

In some cases, communicaon tools primarily engage or target one
group, for example, long technical papers for experts. However, there
are many communicaon tools that overlap for different audience
groups as, for example, with most of the advocacy based on informaon
and communicaon technology. Oral presentaons for experts and
informed nonexperts are also together, as conferences and meengs
in which such presentaons are made normally include a mix of these
two audiences. In the design of such shared or overlapping tools, this
normally means an aempt to bridge between both audiences in what
you include and how you explain things, but with a definite tendency to
make sure to not exclude the group with less experse.
• It is important not to confuse exposure to communicaon tools with
targeng.
In Table 4, the columns include the common types of communicaon
tools used to target each group, that is, the primary means to engage
and convince them of the advocacy messages. In contrast, the arrows
on the top of the table are there to indicate which communicaon tools
each audience is exposed to. The tools included only under informed
nonexperts and the public does not mean that experts do not read or
see them; it is just that they are not primarily targeng expert audi-
ences and would not include nearly enough detail to convince such an
audience. The arrows above the table face in one direcon, as this is
not normally true in the other direcon. For example, the public will
not normally have easy access to policy studies or briefs, nor would they
read them if they did. The lesson for the advocate is that if you want
to engage parcular audiences, you must develop communicaon tools
that target and fully engage them in the debate. For example, it is not
usually enough to outline your posion only in an opinion editorial ar-
cle if you need to get experts to buy into your proposals.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 137

Table 5 details the specific combinaon of communicaon tools developed for

each of our cases.

TABLE 5.
Advocacy communication tools used in cases
COMMUNICATION TOOLS

CASE 1: CASE 2: CASE 3: CASE 4:

KAZAKHSTAN KOSOVO MACEDONIA MONGOLIA
(UNSCR 1244)
Written • Policy study • Policy studies • Policy study • Policy report
• Policy briefs • Policy brief • Opinion-
• Policy-oriented editorial arcles
journal arcle in newspapers

Oral • Conference • Conference • Presentaons • Press

presentaons presentaons to working conference
• Less formal • Less formal groups and • Presentaon to
presentaons presentaons the medical working groups
at one-to-one at one-to-one community
meengs or meengs,
lobbying briefings, or
lobbying

Audio visual • Documentary • TV programs

video
Information & • Dedicated • Dedicated • Dedicated
Communication advocacy advocacy advocacy
Technology webpage webpage webpage
• E-mail
newsleer
• Picture stories

The comparison of cases leads to two further lessons:

• Developing communicaon tools for broader audiences requires more

effort and resources.
The table shows that mulple tools were used and needed in each case,
but as the cases moved towards including broader public audiences,
more tools were needed. For example, the Kosovar (UNSCR 1244) and
Mongolian cases required more communicaon tools as they had a
broader public dimension. Managing these types of campaigns can take
a lot more me and effort as you have mulple levels of the discussion
or dialogue to engage in. Also, it oen becomes more expensive as more
manpower, communicaon tools, publicaons, and so on are required.
For example, in the Kosovar (UNSCR 1244) case, the European Stability
Iniave made a very professional documentary on the situaon in the
town and this cost them approximately EUR 20,000.
138 | Making Research Evidence Matter

• Different communicaon tools may be needed through the different

stages of the advocacy process.
The European Stability Iniave case, which played out over a four-year
period and in which they wrote mulple policy briefs as the discussion
developed is a good illustraon of the type of commitment and
persistence that is needed through each wave of the advocacy process.
The ability to respond in this manner also illustrates the advantage of
having the “iceberg” of research evidence available behind the “p”
that was presented in inial stages of the debate. To a certain extent,
the same is true for the Mongolian case.

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Consider the most suitable communication types and tools for the
message of your advocacy campaign:
 What do you think you can achieve in the first or next wave of the advocacy process?
 What types of audiences will you engage with through these acvies? Expert, informed
nonexperts, and/or the general public?
 What types of communicaon tools do you need to support the advocacy acvies you
planned in the last stage?
 Are the communicaon tools suitable and accessible for each type of target audience?
 Do you have adequate resources (such as manpower, money) to develop and use the full
range of communicaon tools you have in mind?

6.5 ASSESS THE STRATEGIC RISK

OF THE CAMPAIGN
At this closing stage, you should have a solid idea of your way into the process,
messenger, main target audiences, messages, acvies, and communicaon
tools you will use. You have looked to open, connue, feed into, or steer a
discussion, and thought about how to develop it in the short to medium term,
but one thing that you sll need to consider is how parcular audiences will
respond to your advocacy campaign. A crucial first step in thinking of potenal
responses is to consider the strategic risks of your planned campaign.

All advocacy intervenons have some type of strategic risk: there are risks that
opponents might react very negavely to your evidence and proposals, which
could then have an adverse effect on the future reputaon and sustainability
of the organizaon or could even be a threat to your safety or freedom under
more authoritarian regimes. For example, if you are a think tank dependent
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 139

for most of your work on commissions from a government or internaonal

organizaon, they may not appreciate it if you publicly cricize them. This Consider the
should not necessarily deter you from publishing crical posions, but you longer-term
need to think of the potenal consequences of doing so, and consider whether risks of going
the risk is worth it. Of course, if you are playing the role of whistle-blower or public with the
watchdog in your advocacy efforts and are planning to hold actors accountable positions you
for their acons, the future of your organizaon depends on such strong, clear, are putting
evidence-based disclosure and there is no queson in this case. However, for forward.
most other organizaons, considering these risks is a very important step in
the advocacy planning process, and the assessment in this step should be a
culminaon of weighing up the factors that emerge throughout your mapping
and planning in all elements of the Advocacy Planning Framework.

The Mongolian case gives an illustraon of the risks that might be considered.

MONGOLIA
The Open Society Forum is a long-established NGO in Mongolia with an independent reputaon.
They have a strong NGO and governmental network. Being publicly crical of the dra contract
agreed by a ministerial working group and the mining consorum could potenally have been
damaging to their relaonship with the government. However, in this case, having been a
constant commentator on transparency, especially on the mining sector, and knowing that the
stakes for the country were so high in terms of the potenal monetary return or loss on the
agreement, it was an easy decision to go ahead and cricize the agreement. In fact, if they
hadn’t, their reputaon in the NGO network may have been tarnished.

In addion to cricism, there are also potenal risks of producing posions or

evidence that seem to support people, organizaons, or polical posions that
you really do not wish to be associated with. Considering policy decision making
as a “world of highly contested and contestable evidence,”42 you need to be very
If you want
clear in drawing the lines between research and policy proposals and crucially
remain an
those who support or oppose them. In the highly policized environments
independent
of the region, there is always a danger that your research or analysis can be
player, stick
adopted or co-opted by other players with whom who you do not wish to be
to the issues
affiliated. If you wish to remain an independent player, you will need to go back
and divide this
and connue to make clear where the line is between proposals and polical
from political
support. Unwanted and unwarranted polical affiliaons are difficult to change
support or
aer the fact and can damage the reputaon of a researcher as an independent
opposition.
provider of research.

In terms of praccal planning, you should reflect on the potenal strategic risks
of your planned advocacy campaign and consider the potenal consequences
and affiliaons that may emerge. This may lead you to reconsider anything from
the overall advocacy objecve to the ming, the support needed, evidence or
message focus.
140 | Making Research Evidence Matter

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Reflect on the extent of risk your planned advocacy campaign poses to
you, your organization, and/or your partners:
 Is there any risk that the posions you are pung forward might damage the long-term
reputaon or relaonships that your instuon values?
 Could some parts of your advocacy messages be skewed or used for polical gain by some
actors?
 Are these risks worth taking or do you need to adjust some parts of the message or choice
of acvies and tools?
 On a broader level, consider if the risks idenfied mean you should adjust the advocacy
objecve, ming of your campaign, choice of coalion partners, or messenger?

6.6 PLAN FOR CHALLENGES AND

RESPONSES
In addion to the issue of strategic risk, you should also predict the challenges
and responses you will get from partners and opponents on your proposals and
ideas when honing or finally shaping your acvies and messages.

In designing an advocacy message based on research and analysis, there are

basic challenges that you need to be ready to address from the start. There is
a tendency at the beginning of advocacy discussions based on research to try
to quickly undermine or delegimize the project and quickly consign it to the
dustbin. These challenges usually come from quesons about the credibility,
relevance,43 and ulity44 of the research,45 so you will need to design your
messages and communicaon tools to have a shelf life beyond what is vividly
Predicting referred to as the “policy primordial soup.”46 Therefore, the aim is to get your
responses audiences past the queson of whether it is worth engaging with your research
prepares you project.
to defend your
position in the As such, there are a number of consideraons based on the potenal responses
debate. of target audiences that may push you to sharpen, shape, focus, support, or
polish your messages and campaign plan. Taking both points of challenges and
potenal responses, this secon focuses on the following:

• Defend the credibility of research, analysis, and evidence

• Take into account irraonal responses
• Get ready to manage the predicted responses
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 141

6.6.1 Defend the Credibility of the Research

With more academic or expert audiences, the focus of the first challenge is oen
on the relevance, objecvity and comprehensiveness of the research methods
employed and evidence generated.47 This credibility challenge goes beyond the
person or provider of the research and addresses whether this parcular piece
of research presents a “rigorous and substanated analysis,”48 and whether the
results derived from it are reliable and valid.

Research needs to be seen as high quality, that is, both accurate and objecve
with methods appropriate to the target queson and context.49 For example,
one of the more usual challenges is related to transfer issues: policy research is
usually done by focusing in an in-depth manner on parcular cases of a policy
problem, such as in a few municipalies or towns or schools. However, it oen
seeks to make recommendaons at levels beyond the focus of the parcular cases
studied, oen on naonal-level policy. The queson or challenge then arises as
to how researchers can make this jump from findings developed at the local level
to naonal-level policy. You should carefully consider how representave are the
cases for your argument. Are they cases of best pracce (that all can learn from),
an average case (in terms of, for example, demographics or capacity, which
then says something about all other cases), or a worst-case scenario (where an Consider in
improvement in any direcon would probably help all other cases)? advance how
your research
Another common challenge is the nature of the evidence collected. The first im- and evidence
portant task is to present evidence that is relevant to the policy problem being could be
discussed, for example, long-term quantave analysis of recognized indicators challenged.
for macroeconomic policy. The second is the simple argumentave challenge,
that is, whether you have the right type or amount of evidence included or
generated to support the claims you are making.50

Arguably, a focus on these issues should have been built into the research design
stage of the project, rather than only emerging at the later advocacy planning
stage. Nevertheless, even if this has been done, it is a different thing to design
your research in the safe confines of your own team than to have to defend it in
public. Hence, the focus of this planning phase is to develop sound, understand-
able arguments in preparaon for these challenges, so that the research and
your messages survive these first hurdles. This preparaon should not lead in
construcng your messages, but some elements certainly can support or frame
it. More importantly, it must be available to draw upon by advocates when this
type of challenge arises.

6.6.2 Take into Account Emotional Responses

The points so far have addressed what might be called raonal responses to pol-
icy discussions, but of course, it is also equally important to consider the more
emoonal and personal responses. We cannot overstate two points here: the
importance of informal and personal relaonships in making advocacy happen,
and the importance of taking account of how your audiences will respond to
your proposals based on what you know of their personalies and affiliaons.51
142 | Making Research Evidence Matter

At a recent small policy conference, the discussion was dominated by the

People and personal animosity between two of the lead aendees, one the head of a think
their emotions tank who regularly takes the government to court when they do not deliver on
matter in freedom of informaon requests in the required me, the other the head of the
managing government agency with the responsibility to deliver on such requests. This was
responses to a discussion where raonal input or evidence seemed not to maer at all and
messages. personal challenges ruled, even though the session opened with a presentaon
of new research on the area. In this case, the official took the connual flow
of strategic ligaon and public cricism as a personal threat, rather than as
the basis to improve on the delivery of the policy. This is not to say that such
whistle-blowing taccs do not work, but they certainly do not make a strong
basis for collaborave interacon and this is something that advocates will have
to deal with even aer a court decision delivers a victory.

Predicng with any certainty the level of emoonal response is difficult, but
in order not to add fuel to the personal response fire, the European Stability
Avoid making Iniave researchers have a simple rule of thumb: “Don’t ever make ad
personal hominem aacks.” Simply put, avoid aacking the people involved or their
attacks on personal style or approach: this will undoubtedly bring the kind of negave
any potential response and detrimental effects on discussions that policy researchers are not
audiences. normally interested in provoking. However, this is easier said than done in an
environment where few people are able to differenate a professional challenge
from a personal aack. The advice we give then is to avoid unintenonally
making things worse by adding personal aacks into the argument.

6.6.3 Get Ready to Manage Predicted

Responses
Finally, it is not enough to just make predicons about how certain actors will
respond; you also need to prepare and potenally adjust your messages and/or
be ready to take on the challenges you ancipate. As researchers and analysts,
you have the advantage of having the iceberg of evidence available to you to
draw on in making these plans.

The European Stability Iniave case is a good illustraon of how one advocate
used their evidence and produced a separate communicaon tool to head off
a response and challenge they predicted. The example also shows that much
effort is entailed in managing this aspect of your advocacy work.
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 143

KOSOVO (UNSCR 1244)

Following their first conference with all the players involved, the European Stability Iniave
managed to get the Albanian side to agree to the establishment of a separate Serb municipality
in the north of Mitrovica. This came from the European Stability Iniave presenng their
research evidence that the town of Mitrovica was living off the crisis and the town would die
without its subsidies and spends. The establishment of the separate municipality came with
the condions that there would be freedom of movement between the northern and southern
parts, full return of property, and joint economic planning for the whole town.
However, the European Stability Iniave feared that the government in Belgrade would not
like this compromise soluon and would push the local Serbian leaders to stay firm to their
original plan which would completely separate the town and that this local municipality would
stay true to Belgrade as its capital and not recognize the independent Kosovo (UNSCR 1244)
they feared was coming. In order to support the decision of the local leaders and respond to this
potenal threat from Belgrade, the European Stability Iniave produced a policy brief entled
“Mitrovica: People or Territory?”52 in which these fears were detailed and the advantages of
the agreed local soluon were emphasized.

In addion to making a predicon about peoples’ responses, it is advisable

to case test messages with people from outside the research team and
organizaons involved before going public with your messages. Obviously, it
would be useful to case test your messages with the same profile of audiences
you are targeng, that is, experts, informed nonexperts, or the general public,
to see whether or not you are ge ng the responses you predict. Distancing
yourself from the research can be a difficult process, so ge ng feedback in a
controlled way is easier to handle when the stakes are low; this feedback should
really contribute to sharpening and adapng your messages.
144 | Making Research Evidence Matter

ADVOCACY PLANNING CHECKLIST

Reflect on the plans you have made for your advocacy messages,
communication tools, and supporting activities, and consider the
potential responses by the target audiences:
 What responses do you ancipate geng to your ideas and proposals from the target
audiences?
 What will be the likely challenges from an expert audience on the methods that you have
employed or the evidence that you have gathered? For example, in terms of the claims you
make based on the cases studied or sample size or data available?
 Is there any way you can tone down or reshape elements of your message so that a
challenge is seen as professional or on the issue, rather than personal?
 How are you going to address the challenges that you predict will come from these target
audiences?
 ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK (APF)—YOUR MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES | 145

NOTES
1 McGann 2007a. 27 Becirovic, Demirovic, and Sabeta 2010.
2 Global Development Network 2003. 28 Carden 2004, Court and Young 2003, Davies 2004,
3 Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997. Internaonal Research Development Centre 2004, Porter
and Prysor-Jones 1997, Ryan and Garret 2005, Stone and
4 Court and Young 2003.
Maxwell 2005, Struyk and Haddaway 2011.
5 Internaonal Development Research Centre 2004.
29 See secon 3.1 for an overview of the four case studies.
6 Mitrovica: Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
30 Janenova 2008.
Available online: hp://www.esiweb.org/index.
php?lang=en&id=48. 31 Materials from this case: European Stability Iniave
2004a, 2004b, 2006. GalleryStories: hp://www.
7 Young and Quinn 2002, 2005.
esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=281&story_ID=9.
8 Binkerhoff and Crosby 2002, Canadian Instute for Documentary: hp://www.esiweb.org/index.
Health Informaon 2004. php?lang=en&id=48.
9 Interview with the European Stability Iniave 32 Papers from this case: Milevska 2006, 2007.
researcher—Case 2—Kosovo (UNSCR 1244).
33 Papers from this case: Open Society Forum 2007a,
10 Jones et al. 2009. 2007b.
11 Court and Young 2003, Davies 2004, Global 34 Palairet 2003.
Development Network 2003, Nutley, Walter, and Davies
35 Carden 2004, Court and Young 2003, Weiss cited in
2002.
Internaonal Development Research Centre 2005b.
12 Huberman 1987 cited in Nutley, Walter, and Davies
36 Internaonal Research Development Centre 2004.
2002.
37 Carden 2004.
13 Court and Young 2003, Davies 2004, Global
Development Network 2003, Glover 2005, Kingdon 38 Carden 2004, Court and Young 2003, Internaonal
1984, Nutley, Walter, and Davies 2002, Porter and Research Development Centre 2004, Porter and
Prysor-Jones 1997, Ryan and Garret 2005, Young and Prysor-Jones 1997.
Quinn 2005. 39 Court and Young 2003, Ryan and Garret 2005.
14 Court and Young 2003. 40 Carden 2004, Global Development Network 2003,
15 Stryuk 2000. Nutley, Walter, and Davies 2002.

16 Verdier 1984. 41 Court and Young 2003.

17 Davies 2005, Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997. 42 Harper cited in Crewe and Young 2002.

18 Carin cited in Internaonal Development Research 43 See Secon 6.3.1.

Centre 2004. 44 See Secon 6.3.2.
19 Open Society Forum 2007b. 45 Court and Young 2003, Global Development Network
20 Canadian Instute for Health Informaon 2004, Court 2003, Kingdon 1984, McGann and Weaver 2000, Nutley,
and Young 2003, Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997, Verdier Walter, and Davies 2002.
1984 cited in Glover 2005. 46 Kingdon 1984.
21 Gladwell 2000, Jones 2009. 47 Canadian Instute for Health Informaon 2004,
22 Verdier cited in Glover 2005. Court and Young 2003, Crewe and Young 2003,
Global Development Network 2003, Nutley, Walter, and
23 Available online: hp://www.soros.org.ba/index.
Davies 2002.
php?opon=com_content&view=arcle&id=66&Itemid=
73&lang=ba. 48 Crewe and Young 2003.

24 Canadian Instute for Health Informaon 2004, 49 Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997.
Court and Young 2003, Porter and Prysor-Jones 1997, 50 Crewe and Young 2002, Nutley, Walter, and Davies 2002.
Verdier 1984 cited in Glover 2005. 51 Global Development Network 2003, Weston 2007.
25 Emerson 2008, Open Society Foundaons 2011. 52 European Stability Iniave 2004b.
26 Available online: hp://www.soros.org.ba/index.
php?opon=com_content&view=arcle&id=66&Itemid=
73&lang=ba.
 | 147

USING THE
ADVOCACY PLANNING
FRAMEWORK TOOL

This chapter turns to a more praccal level by merging the essenal foundaons and elements of
advocacy planning from Chapters 3–6 into one comprehensive tool, designed to be user-friendly. The
APF tool outlined in the first secon of this chapter compiles the core planning quesons from the
checklists found throughout this guide into one easily accessible resource, which is designed to facilitate
the process of advocacy planning with your team in a systemac manner. The second secon of the
chapter then offers praccal guidelines and advice on how to use the tool effecvely and efficiently in
the process of planning an advocacy campaign with your team.

7.1 THE APF TOOL

The APF tool is framed around the four elements of the Advocacy Planning Framework:
• core strategic focus of your campaign
• way into the process
• the messenger
• message and acvies

The tool for each APF element consists of two columns: the le contains the key quesons to be answered
in your advocacy planning process for that element; the column on the right provides explanaons
and illustraons to give you deeper understanding of the focus of the quesons, thereby aiding your
thinking and planning. The quesons are intended to be clear and straighorward and the explanaons
as illustrave as possible in line with our intenon to develop an advocacy-planning tool that can stand
on its own and be used by praconers with relave ease. Hence, we hope there is very lile learning
needed to understand and use the tool.
148 | Making Research Evidence Matter

PLANNING YOUR ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN WITH APF

CORE STRATEGIC FOCUS OF YOUR CAMPAIGN

Try not to get stuck on these questions the first time you discuss them
or think them over. The detailed mapping process that follows will help
you to go much deeper into answering these questions. But keep them in
mind and come back to them throughout the process.

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTR
1. MAP THE CURRENT OBSTACLES /CHALLENGES

• What’s stopping the policymaking process Understanding the obstacles to the change you
from moving in the direcon you wish? are proposing or trying to prevent will inform
all aspects of the campaign from se ng a
• What obstacles or challenges exist to having feasible objecve to developing your messages,
your proposals accepted and acted upon? acvies and communicaon tools. Obstacles
in the process can be varied and include strong
opponents, value conflicts, lack of support, or
the lack of access to the policymaking process.

Overall, try to idenfy what combinaon of

these various elements is blocking the process
and see if there is a core pping point that
would change this.
NOTES

2. ASSESS YOUR LEVERAGE

• What can you bring to the policymaking The key is to idenfy what you have got to
process to address idenfied obstacles and catalyze the change you want. This could be
create the momentum to push the process in one piece or a combinaon of new evidence,
the direcon you want? analysis, or research data; a new problem
definion; or soluons/policy opons; support
• What combinaon of new striking insights or from opinion leaders, stakeholders, or experts;
evidence, supporters, and opportunies can credibility; money; votes; and/or an open policy
you use to move the process? window or opportunity in the decision-making
process.
NOTES
 USING THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK TOOL | 149

3. SET A FEASIBLE ADVOCACY OBJECTIVE

• What is a feasible objecve for your Se ng feasible objecves will give you a
advocacy iniave that you think is realisc realisc chance of making or prevenng change.
to achieve? Examples of objecves are
• to stop or start a parcular policy iniave by
• Given the leverage you’ve got and obstacles the government,
outlined, how far can you realiscally expect
• to have your recommendaons accepted by
to move the process?
the government,
• to change the nature of a public debate
around a certain issue,
• to get an issue on the agenda of the
government.

Try to avoid just wring down a wish list;

being realisc will show you that influence is
possible. Also remember that the objecve is
not the policy outcome you want (for example,
decentralized educaon funding) but the
process change you are targeng (for example,
ge ng this opon on the agenda of the
ministerial working group).
NOTES
150 | Making Research Evidence Matter

DETAILED MAPPING AND PLANNING

WAY INTO THE PROCESS
Map the various dimensions of the target decision-making process listed
below to try to find the most suitable and effective way of bringing your
advocacy messages and campaign into that process.

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTR
1. GAUGE THE LEVEL OF DEMAND
• Is your issue already on the government It is generally easier to influence policy if there
agenda? If not, is there another group of is already some level of demand for your
people talking about it or advocang for it? ideas and proposals. The best case is if the
government has chosen to act on the problem
• Does interest and momentum already exist you are also focusing on. If not, see if there are
around the issue or do you have to create it? other researchers, NGOs, government agencies,
or stakeholders discussing it. It is beer to feed
into an ongoing discussion than to have to
create one.
NOTES

2. MAP THE ACTORS, NETWORKS, AND POWER CENTERS

• Who are the main stakeholders in the target Understanding who the key players are and how
policy issue? they are connected is pivotal. You are looking
for the real decision makers and the circles
• Who are the key decision makers and opinion of people around them, that is, the centers
leaders you need to influence? of influence or power in the network. Map
out the sectors and their connecons, such
• Where does the real power lie? Who actually as government agencies, NGOs, media, and
makes the decision? And who influences that academics. Informal or personal connecons
person(s)? can be just as important as the more formal.

• How are key actors connected in the

network?
NOTES

3. UNDERSTAND THE DECISION-MAKING PRACTICE

• How are decisions really made in pracce for Decisions are oen made through a process
your policy issue? of formal and informal fora. There can be
public discussions, hearings, and consultancy,
• Where does decision making really happen? ministerial and parliamentary working groups
Does influence exist in formal or informal and debates, but maybe the real deal is struck in
processes? one informal meeng. Knowing where and how
real influence happens is essenal.
NOTES
 USING THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK TOOL | 151

4. GET THE TIMING RIGHT

• When is the best me to make your move in Being ready and ge ng your proposals and
launching your advocacy campaign? analysis into the decision-making process at the
right me is vital to having influence. Looking
• Can you idenfy an opening/window of at the people and decision-making pracce,
opportunity to take advantage of? How long you should try to predict the best opportunity
will this opportunity last? or window to make your move. Policy
windows oen open around elecons, with
• Will you be ready with your research and new administraons or leadership, when new
analysis to take advantage of the idenfied soluons emerge or around focusing events, for
opening? example, a financial crisis.
NOTES

5. UNDERSTAND CURRENT THINKING IN THE NETWORK

• How do key stakeholders think about and To make your proposals and analysis relevant
discuss your issue and the potenal soluons to stakeholders, you have to be able to
(policy narrave)? connect and contrast your thinking to their
ongoing debates on the issue. Before you can
• How do main stakeholders see or frame the do that, you have to understand how they
policy issue? discuss, define, and support their current
understandings of the policy problem and
potenal soluons. Their framing of the
problem is very important. For example, in the
delivery of social services in minority languages,
do they talk about it as an issue of efficiency,
human rights, or a threat to naonal security.
NOTES

6. MAP THE CURRENT POSITIONS OF KEY STAKEHOLDERS

• What is the current posion of the key actors This entails a detailed mapping of where
on your issue? different actors stand on the issue in the debate
and understanding the reasons they do, that
• To what extent is there broad consensus or is, the interests and values informing their
conflict among key players on the issue? posion. Remember that even if people are on
the same side of the debate, they may be there
for very different reasons. This insight will help
you really get to an understanding of the nature
of the challenge you face in trying to shi key
stakeholders’ posions. Actors in conflictual
policy debates tend to be harder to move.
NOTES

Before moving on to the next secon on the messenger, go back to the core strategic focus quesons
and reconsider your notes in light of your discussion in compleng your detailed planning on the “way
into the process.”
152 | Making Research Evidence Matter

DETAILED MAPPING AND PLANNING

THE MESSENGER
Finding the face for the campaign and assessing the support from others
needed. In advocacy, the messenger is often as important (if not more)
than the message.

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTR
1. CHOOSE THE FACE OF YOUR CAMPAIGN
• Will you or your organizaon be the face Having the right person or organizaon that
or spokesperson for your campaign? Do is credible is key to opening doors, ge ng the
you have the right balance of reputaon, right meengs, and being taken seriously. The
credibility, visibility, support, and skills to play messenger does not have to be one person—it
this role? can be an organizaon or coalion.

• Or should someone else take the lead in the Oen you need the support or approval of a
campaign? Or maybe you just need someone high visibility individual to make a campaign
else to play a specific role at a parcular me happen. For example, close advisors to ministers
in the campaign? or MPs or prominent NGO figures oen take on
this role.

These people could lead the campaign or

play a more specific role, such as providing a
bridge to a parcular objecve or ge ng past
an idenfied obstacle. These people are oen
referred to as policy brokers or champions.
NOTES

2. MOBILIZE OTHER SUPPORT

• What type and level of support from others You have to find friends in the process, and
do you need to achieve your objecves? hence you need to get the support of others
Who are the key people to try to get on your to strengthen your credibility and posion.
side? These people can range across the sectors from
government to NGOs, stakeholders, and media.
You may also need praccal support like money,
resources, or capacity, so try to match support
to the needs and gaps idenfied, and not just
because they are your friends or allies.
NOTES

Before moving on to the next secon on the message, go back to the core strategic focus quesons
and reconsider your notes in light of your discussion in compleng your detailed planning on the
“messenger.”
 USING THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK TOOL | 153

DETAILED MAPPING AND PLANNING

MESSAGE AND ACTIVITIES
Deciding on the focus for your advocacy message(s) and the set of activi-
ties and tools you will use to deliver them in order to engage and per-
suade the most important target audiences.

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

KEY QUESTIONS EXPLANATIONS AND ILLUSTR
1. DEVELOP AN IN-DEPTH AUDIENCE PROFILE
• Who are the specific audiences you are In the “way into the process,” you idenfied
targeng in the first or next wave of your the main stakeholders. Now you must choose
advocacy campaign? the specific people or groups you will engage in
your campaign. These audiences may include
• How far do the chosen audiences have to pivotal decision makers and opinion leaders or,
move to get on board with your ideas and maybe inially, others whose support you need
proposals? as a stepping-stone before you directly engage
decision makers.
• What interests are they protecng in their
current posion? Is there also some type of You next need to be clear about the current
emoonal or personal aachment they have posions of the target audience(s) and the
to their posion? distance they would need to move to agree with
your proposals. Reflect on the feasibility of your
objecve at this point.

You should try to get behind the posions

held by your chosen target audiences. Oen
there is a monetary element to the protecon
of a certain posion and/or there may also
be a historical, naonal, regional, or ethnic
aachment to it. This will help you to really
focus and sharpen your messages.
NOTES
154 | Making Research Evidence Matter

2. SHAPE THE MESSAGE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE

• What message(s) will you send to your Start from the target audience perspecve and
chosen audience(s) to get them to queson think how you can engage and convince them,
their own posion and engage with your that is, how, seen from their perspecve, does
proposals? it make sense to adopt your thinking. Use their
language and support the message with striking
• Is the message accessible and relevant to the or unexpected findings.
current discussion and focusing on praccal
soluons? Audiences will oen write off suggesons
and proposals that are unfeasible or do not
• How will you present the message so that obviously feed into the debate they are having
it is memorable and portable, that is, that on the policy issue. Making the message difficult
audiences can easily retell it to others? to comprehend is also a barrier.

Thinking of what audiences will easily

remember and be able to retell from your
messages is important. Planning tles, stories,
and graphics that sck is important.
NOTES

3. SELECT ADVOCACY ACTIVITIES AND COMMUNICATION TOOLS

• What are you trying to achieve in the next Think about breaking down your objecve into
wave of your campaign? short- to medium-term steps or waves. Maybe
as a starng point, for example, you want to
• What combinaon of acvies will you engage key opinion leaders to build support.
need to provide enough engagement and This is a step towards your overall objecve.
interacon with your target audiences to
reach your goal? Reaching your goal may only require publicaon
and a meeng, but oen a combinaon of
• What combinaon of communicaon tools publicaons, ICTs, conference presentaons,
do you need to develop to support your meengs, lobbying, and media are needed.
chosen acvies? Through the set of acvies, you are also
building a foundaon to the next step of your
campaign.

Make sure you choose the right tools to

reach the right audiences, that is, for experts,
informed nonexperts, or the public. Based on
the acvies you choose and the audiences, you
will need some combinaon of communicaon
tools such as policy papers, presentaons,
videos, internet pages, or media arcles.
NOTES
 USING THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK TOOL | 155

4. ASSESS THE STRATEGIC RISK OF THE CAMPAIGN

• What is the strategic risk for you or your Advocacy means taking a stance and oen
organizaon in proceeding with your involves being publicly crical of powerful
advocacy campaign? people. You should think through the risks to
you and your organizaon in conducng your
campaign. These risks can involve sustainability
quesons and, in some instances, even personal
safety issues.
NOTES

5. PLAN FOR CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES

• Are you ready to defend the credibility of the The first response to research-based advocacy is
research? oen a challenge on the basis of methods used,
sample size, case selecon, type of evidence,
• How can you prepare to defend the ideas and so on. In essence, you need to be able to
and proposals you’re pu ng forward? defend the claims you make based on the data
collected and evidence generated. Also prepare
to defend the relevance and praccal ulity of
the research.

Think of the first four or five audiences you

will present to: how are they likely to respond
to your message? Think about case tesng
the content and focus of your message before
going public. In any case, you can expect to
be challenged on your proposals and it’s only
natural that some people won’t like them.
NOTES

One last me, go back to the core strategic focus quesons and reconsider your notes in light of your
discussion in compleng your detailed planning on the “message and acvies.”
156 | Making Research Evidence Matter

7.2 ADVICE ON THE PROCESS OF

USING THE APF TOOL
The advice contained in this secon is based on two assumpons: ge ng the
most out of planning using the APF tool is a complex process which comprises
layers of strategic and detailed mapping and planning; this planning process is
not usually completed in isolaon by one person. Hence, this secon provides
more praccal advice on the process of effecvely using the APF in a team and
is structured along the three envisaged stages in the process:

• Preparing to use the tool

• Working your way through the complete tool
• Steps that come aer compleon of the planning using the APF tool.
• To support the effecve long-term use of the tool by your organizaon,
the final part of the secon contains a checklist for review aer using
the APF tool, so that you and your team can adapt and use the tool
beer in the future.

7.2.1 Preparing to Use the APF Tool

We offer two points of advice to set up the process of using the APF tool: one on
making sure the whole team understands the APF tool before starng, and the
second on the role of a facilitator in the team planning process.

Set up the • Make sure all involved understand the tool, core concepts, and the
process of using process you will be going through.
the APF tool
It is me well spent to introduce the team to the APF tool, its overall
before starting.
architecture, and the focus and funcon of the four elements, as well as
making sure all members of the team have the same understanding of
the term “policy advocacy.” When using the APF, it will really help if at
least one person on the team has read this manual in advance: while the
APF quesons are straighorward and can be used independently, the
concepts behind them and perspecves put forward are not as easily
understandable and will need to be discussed. This may be especially
important if your team is comprised of a group of stakeholders on the
issue in queson coming from different perspecves and backgrounds.
Finally, it is helpful to negoate and harmonize expectaons of your
staged planning process in working through the APF tool.

• One person should play the role of facilitator, especially if working in a

larger group.
It is prudent to designate one member of the team as facilitator, as this
person will play an important role in keeping the planning focused and
navigang the team through the different elements, as well as ensuring
you get the most out of planning sessions. The many dimensions to the
 USING THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK TOOL | 157

APF tool and its iterave nature means you have to structure the process
well in order to get the most out of it. Unsurprisingly, to do this job Having at least
well, it is best that the facilitator has a deep understanding of the APF. one person who
The facilitator will also play an important role in collang informaon knows the APF
and summing up the results of the planning. Thus, having a facilitator inside-out is
can really make a difference in terms of quality of the outcome and essential.
efficiency of the mapping and planning process itself.

7.2.2 Working Through the APF Tool

When it comes to doing the actual planning work, we offer the following six
points of advice on different aspects of managing the process and team:

• There is a recommended sequence to using the APF tool and iteraon

is essenal to its effecve use.
To get the most out of the APF planning process, we propose the
following “sequence” of working through the elements in four steps:
Step 1 is an inial consideraon of the core strategic focus quesons.
Step 2 is detailed mapping and planning for the “way into the process”
circle followed by a revisit to the “core strategic focus” quesons in light
of new insights gained.
Step 3 is a move into detailed mapping and planning for “the messenger”
circle, followed by a revisit to the “core strategic focus” quesons in light
of new insights gained.
Step 4 is detailed mapping and planning for the “message and acvies”
circle, followed by a final revisit and consolidaon of decisions regarding
the “core strategic focus” quesons.

The four steps are represented in Figure 13.

158 | Making Research Evidence Matter

FIGURE 13.
Steps in using the APF tool

CORE STRATEGIC
FOCUS FOR YOUR
CAMPAIGN

2 4

3
WAY INTO THE MESSAGE AND
PROCESS ACTIVITIES

THE
MESSENGER

As you can see, the proposed sequence includes mulple consideraons

of the core strategic focus quesons throughout the planning process.
The main purpose of this is to ensure, as you deepen your understanding
of the opportunies and challenges through each stage of the planning
process, that you connue to reflect on, adapt, and nuance your
advocacy objecve to make it more feasible and realisc. The process
opens with an inial focus on this core strategic focus but it is important
not to get stuck on these quesons at the start, as there will be mulple
opportunies to return to them throughout the planning process.
One of the basic tenets of this manual is that in advocacy, context is
everything: hence, it is by design that we’ve put the “way into the
process” at the top of the APF and it is the next element of the APF tool
to tackle. Earlier in Chapter 4, we discussed that this circle is the most
important circle of the APF and the element where the most extensive
mapping is conducted. The quesons contained in this element of the
tool are designed to ensure you move beyond considering your advocacy
efforts solely from your own (research and interests) perspecve, but
The APF tool rather are firmly grounded in the realies of the policymaking context
helps you to you seek to influence. Aer this first stage, then go back to the strategic
make in-depth quesons for a second me.
plans through
We then move onto “the messenger” and “message and acvies”
multiple
circles with a revisit to the core strategic focus quesons aer each one.
iterations.
Although we have represented it in a linear fashion above, the reality of
the process should entail a much more looping and iterave experience.
 USING THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK TOOL | 159

What this means in pracce is that the decisions made in each circle
are relevant for and impact on decisions made for the other elements,
which ensures you design a coherent and comprehensive advocacy
strategy.

• Involve the team members who will play different roles in conducng
the advocacy campaign.
Deciding who to involve in the process of working through the APF
tool is crucial. Our overall advice is that the main people internal and
(where possible) external to your organizaon should be involved in the
planning process. To ensure that everyone is on the same wavelength,
those in the team playing different advocacy roles should be included
where possible, for example, the messenger(s), researchers, key coali-
on partners, other partners such as donors, as well as key staff of
the organizaon itself. Only including people from your organizaon is
liming, and it is even more liming to include only those who conducted
the research. The experience of those engaged in advocacy planning
shows that the process benefits greatly from the input of a range of
perspecves in bringing fresh insights, depth of analysis, and moving
the thinking outside the organizaon and research box and into the real
policy context. In terms of numbers, between three and nine people is
the common size of teams engaged in the APF planning process, with
three being the minimum number to really negoate and ensure no one
person dominates.
As menoned in Chapter 5, responsibility for advocacy planning (and
even conducng advocacy acvies) is oen placed solely on the
communicaons/public relaons person in an organizaon. We hope Advocacy
you can see from this guide what a major fallacy that assumpon is: planning is a
advocacy is a team effort that will, of course, include the communicaons team effort and
person, but they are rarely in a posion to achieve policy change on their not the sole
own. In fact, there is a strong argument that in the planning process, the responsibility of
communicaons person should play a very interesng role1 that may at the communica-
first seem counterintuive from an internal organizaonal perspecve. tions/public
Rather than working to assist other team members in developing relations
advocacy messages and acvies, the communicaons person should person.
defend the interests, posions, and needs of target audiences who will
oppose your ideas. We feel this is sage advice in ensuring planning is
focused not only on presenng or defending the research, but rather
is immediately grounded in targeng a specific policy change from a
stakeholder perspecve.
A final very important reason for involving all advocacy team members in
the planning process is to build a shared understanding and ownership
among all team members of the content, focus, main argument, and
main findings contained in the “takeaway messages.” A commonly used
method of doing this is to incorporate into the planning process draing
and redraing of messages through the development of advocacy
communicaon tools, such as policy briefs. Members of the advocacy
160 | Making Research Evidence Matter

team do not need to have insight into all research details (researchers
The planning can be referred to for this), but they do need to be clear on the purpose
process gets the and core of the message before the first wave of the advocacy campaign
whole team on begins. This consistency and clarity will help avoid potenal damage to
message. the campaign and your organizaon’s reputaon if different members
of the team and messengers are saying different things and sending
conflicng messages to target audiences.

• If possible, work together to complete all elements of the APF tool

with the whole team.
It may seem intuive to divide up the task of planning and mapping
among team members by the APF elements for the sake of efficiency.
However, given the interrelated and iterave nature of elements of the
APF, the best-case scenario is for the whole team to complete the enre
planning process contained in the tool. In that way, you are maximizing
the opportunies for deepening the analysis and ensuring that decisions
made in one circle of the APF feed into other elements. Factoring in
how me-consuming and potenally unwieldy the process can be if
many people are involved, we propose the following pragmac process
and division: all members of the team complete inial mapping of the
core strategic focus quesons and “way into the process” circle as a
group. Thereaer, the mapping and planning for “the messenger” and
“message and acvies” may be divided out among groups if necessary.

• The APF tool can be used in combinaon with other advocacy planning
tools.
There are many other useful tools which combine well with the APF
planning process; these commonly seek to get advocates to look at the
planning process from one dimension of the obstacles that they face, for
example, stakeholder analysis, influence analysis, force field analysis.2
These are all useful approaches to looking deeper into the advocacy
challenge and situang it; however, what is oen missing is how to take
the results of these analyses and put them back into broader strategic
planning. Therefore, these tools can easily be used to complement
and feed into the APF planning process; for example, any stakeholder
analysis process would inform many parts of the mapping in the “way
into the process” circle.

• Consolidate the mapping to ensure you get the outcome you need
from each element of the APF tool.
The mapping and planning process is an iterave process of building
on layers of insight in order to make more nuanced decisions as you
move through your planning process. It is the combined and cohesive
decisions and details from each element of the APF that together will
comprise your advocacy plan. Hence, a crucial aspect of using the APF
tool is pulling together the analysis and mapping to give you the detailed
decisions you have reached in each element.
 USING THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK TOOL | 161

To facilitate this process of consolidang decisions made for each

element, we recommend pu ng things down on paper and recording
the decisions made for each element as you go along, that is, use a range
of materials and tools such as flip charts, post-its, matrices, and visuals. Record the
Remembering that decisions from one element feed into another, decisions made
this will be a work in progress and decisions made will change and be at each stage.
refined as you go through the process of adding layers and nuance. This
thoroughness also ensures you ancipate and consider factors before
they surprise (or even wrong-foot) you during actual implementaon of
your advocacy campaign.

• Give adequate me to working through all elements of the APF.

It is a common and understandable queson to ask how much me
you should give to working through the APF tool, but there is no easy
answer. Looking at the qualitave nature and scope of the quesons in
the tool, it should not come as a surprise that compleng this mapping Time spent in
process will take significant me and effort and you should be thorough the planning
in working through all its elements. However, me spent on the upfront process will
planning stage can help avoid a lot of easily avoidable problems and save time in the
pialls once you are in the implementaon stage, ulmately requiring implementation.
even more me! The main advice is to be comprehensive and thorough
in working through all elements in a systemac manner and reflect aer
the planning process whether the me allocated was realisc. Giving
me and aenon to all aspects and revising the three core strategic
focus quesons aer compleng the mapping for each circle is crucial
to effecve planning and may help you see crucial openings, challenges,
factors, and dimensions you might otherwise miss.

7.2.3 What Comes Next After Completing the

APF Tool?
The decisions you have made in working through the APF tool will point you in
one of two direcons as a next step: move forward or step back. Taking each
in turn:

• Move forward to elaborate a detailed acon plan, if you can complete

the APF process.
If you have been able to complete all levels of planning in the APF tool
and come up with firm plans for your first or next wave of advocacy,
this indicates that you are in a posion to move forward towards APF gives
operaonalizing your advocacy strategy. The word “framework” from you a focused
the APF is important in indicang the stage of development of your strategy, but
advocacy strategy and what you sll have to do before starng your not a detailed
advocacy campaign. You have a framework and the basis of your overall action plan.
strategy and you have chosen your way into the process, messengers
and support, target audiences, messages, and set of acvies and
communicaon tools. What you are missing is an acon plan detailing
162 | Making Research Evidence Matter

who will do what and when, how everything will be prepared and paid
for, and how and when you will evaluate your achievements as you go
through the process. Many resources exist on developing such detailed
acon plans for policy advocacy.3

• Step back into the research, analysis, or planning process if the APF
After
process highlights key gaps or needs.
completing the
APF, decide Going through the planning process using the APF tool can also idenfy
whether to gaps in mulple areas, that is, data gaps, incomplete analysis, resource
develop an or capacity gaps, need for more insight into policymaking pracces
action plan and players involved, or need for more consultaon with partners to
or do more negoate roles in the implementaon of the advocacy campaign.
planning and Hence, the APF helps to tell you what you don’t know as well as what
analysis. you do know! As a result, you may decide to try to fill these idenfied
gaps before moving on to an acon plan.

The final two pieces of advice are centered on reflecon and review.

• Revisit your original advocacy strategy aer each wave of your

advocacy campaign.
Given that you are iniang and steering a process of ongoing dialogue
and negoaon, it is only natural that you will need to review your
strategy and plan as you implement the strategy to see where and
how adaptaons or tweaking are needed to keep your advocacy efforts
on track. Aer the first wave of engaging in advocacy, communicang
messages and engaging key audiences through targeted acvies and
Reflect on and receiving their response, you will learn many new things, such as,
update your for example, more about the policymaking process from the actual
strategy after experience of discussing and arguing your ideas and proposals with
each wave of key players as well as the level of comprehensibility of the messages
advocacy. you’ve developed so far. Revising how you made your decisions and
their effecveness as you implement your advocacy may provide useful
insights for the next wave of your campaign. Your advocacy strategy is
not fixed in stone and the APF is not just designed for advance planning
and decision making, but also for the crucial dimensions of revising
and adapng.

• Reflect on your use of the APF tool.

To help in future advocacy planning work, we recommend taking me to
reflect on your experience using the APF tool. The following checklist is
designed to evaluate different aspects of your experience to determine
what worked well and what could be improved to make the planning
process more effecve and efficient next me round.
 USING THE ADVOCACY PLANNING FRAMEWORK TOOL | 163

APF REFLECTION CHECKLIST

Think about the APF planning process you just completed:
 Was the APF tool useful in your advocacy planning process? In what way?
 Did using the APF yield the results in terms of decisions and detail in forming an effecve
basis for your advocacy strategy?
 Was the ming right for doing the mapping and planning process? Was it too early or
too late?
 Which aspects of planning using the APF tool were most challenging and which were most
producve?
 What would you do differently next me (in terms of set up, people involved, using the
tool, me allocated, facilitaon)?
164 | Making Research Evidence Matter

NOTES

1 Struyk 2006.
2 These and many other tools are listed in Start and
Hovland 2004.
3 For example, Amnesty Internaonal 1997, Internaonal
HIV/AIDS Alliance 2002, Sprechmann and Pelton 2001,
USAID 2002.
 REFERENCES | 165

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OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS

The Open Society Foundaons work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are
accountable to their cizens. Working with local communies in more than 70 countries, the Open
Society Foundaons support jusce and human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public
health and educaon.
www.soros.org

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR POLICY ADVOCACY

The Internaonal Centre for Policy Advocacy (ICPA) aims to strengthen the role of evidence-informed
decision making primarily in democracies in transion by supporng producers and users of policy
research to effecvely plan and communicate their advocacy proposals.

The range of capacity development support offered by the network of ICPA specialists recognises that
communicaon designed to achieve policy influence is demanding, and requires significant skill and
commitment. ICPA also responds to the fact that researchers and advocates we work with need different
types of support throughout the stages of researching, planning and implemenng evidence-driven
policy advocacy iniaves. The ICPA team provides a combinaon of skill-focused training modules,
hands-on process consultancy with individuals and organisaons in their research and advocacy work,
and sets of widely available praccal resources and tools for independent use. ICPA conducts applied
research into regional advocacy pracces and decision making processes and shares insights from case
studies and capacity development iniaves through its Meta Brief series.
www.policyadvocacy.org
“MAKING RESEARCH EVIDENCE MATTER: A GUIDE TO POLICY ADVOCACY IN TRANSITION
COUNTRIES” is a praccal resource for those interested in designing and conducng effecve
evidence-informed advocacy campaigns in environments where the demand for applied research
is low and policy discussions are oen centered around taking sides rather than finding the best
soluons. This policy advocacy guide is a sister publicaon to the well-received manual “Wring
Effecve Public Policy Papers” (2002) by the same authors, and addresses the broader issue of
how to effecvely use the research and policy papers produced to have the best chance of influ-
encing a target decision-making process.
Collecng the insights from extensive case research and literature on effecve approaches to
policy advocacy in transion and developing countries, this in-depth guide presents and explains
the nuts and bolts of the process of designing policy advocacy campaigns to achieve policy results.
The guide also draws out lessons from real world cases of successful policy advocacy campaigns
from the region. The authors offer a praccal and comprehensive tool, the Advocacy Planning
Framework to support this planning process. The tool has been developed and sharpened over
a five-year period with the input of trainees and praconers in policy advocacy workshops con-
ducted by the Internaonal Centre for Policy Advocacy training team.
This guide primarily targets producers and users of policy research evidence from government
advisers to think tank professionals to NGO advocates interested in using evidence more in their
advocacy campaigns. It is a good starng place for the novice advocate as well as for more sea-
soned advocates to reflect on experiences and pracces to date. Readers don’t need a degree in
public policy to start using this guide; the authors have aempted to make it as accessible and
user friendly as possible, as the challenge of feeding evidence and policy proposals into decision
making processes is far too important to be exclusive.

Tesmonials for “Making Research Evidence Maer: A Guide to Policy Advocacy in

Transion Countries”:
“The shared experse and comparave framework of the Internaonal Centre for Policy Advocacy
means that it is perfectly placed to offer insight into the policy process generally and sharpen the
impact of policy papers in parcular. I’m convinced that this book is set to become an essenal part
of the advocates’ toolkit.”
Professor Andrew Russell, Chair of Polics, University of Manchester, UK

“This book fills a major gap in policy development training and educaon in many parts of the world.
Building on the success of their previous book on wring policy papers, Young and Quinn here address
the next essenal step — advocang for soluons and opons that can improve public policies and
consequently make a posive difference to both governance and the quality of life for cizens.”
Dr. Leslie A. Pal, Chancellor’s Professor Public Policy and Administraon,
Carleton University, Oawa, Canada

Tesmonials for “Wring Effecve Public Policy Papers” (2002) from training parcipants:
“It has to be sent to every ministry and policy-oriented instuon.”
“Extremely good. I already recommended and shared it with a few colleagues and friends.”
“It’s a comprehensive guidebook that can serve as a roadmap for policy writers.”

ISBN 978-963-9719-29-3

9 789639 719293