THE CHALLENGE IN POLICY INFLUENCING

Even if the position taken by public policy advocates is based on excellent research, as it often is, the equally-necessary work of translating this research into relevant, constructive and realistic policy options is not often done – in part because governments themselves are hardly ever entirely open about the parameters of decision making, even if they know themselves. Everyone, to some extent, is fumbling in the dark.

But rather than engage with this complexity, difficult as it may be, public policy advocates all too frequently revert to simply underlining a series of demands, stripping out subtlety in favour of bold, primary colour statements. The language used often slips into the imperative. The problem of translating insight into action is not simple. For all the emphasis on evidence-based policy-making, decisions are not taken in a purely rational way. Of course, the job of officials and ministers is to take the difficult decisions, to reconcile the irreconcilable. It is what they are paid for. But organisations seeking to influence the result need themselves to acknowledge the dilemmas that policy-makers face; resources, political and financial, are finite, politicians and officials need to balance a wide variety of risks, and often – perhaps always – progress on one front carries costs elsewhere.

Successful advocacy needs low-key, detailed and long-term engagement, demanding in-depth knowledge of personalities and structures, compromise and strategic timing. It needs to start from a point of understanding the policy process, and the political realities that face decision-makers at all levels. Governments, for their part, could certainly afford to be more open in acknowledging their constraints, or lack of capacity. But unless advocates meet them in the middle, conversation degenerates to mutual incomprehension. And simply shouting louder does no more than burn credibility and alienate those that advocacy is intended to influence.