PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING IN PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY

Definition

Public-policy advocacy is about the approach, strategies, and tactics employed by external interests to influence decisions of government, including the adoption, modification, or rejection of specific policy-policy options. It, too, often involves means of policy engagement by stakeholders. Lobbying, meaning direct representation to public officials in an attempt to influence a decision of government, is but one dimension albeit a central one of public-policy advocacy. A public policy advocate is usually concerned with how the idea or measure created by policy development specialists might be most effectively promoted, advanced, or sold to policy advisors and decision-makers in government. The sophisticated understanding of the policy and decision-making processes of government is an essential feature of any effective public policy advocacy effort.

The art and science of public policy advocacy

The science of public policy advocacy is rooted in an accurate and insightful understanding of the physical shape and dynamics of government; its organization, structure, processes, and standard operating procedures; its rules and regulations the world as it is, not as one might want it to be. An important part of knowledge about government and politics is understanding how and why it changes and the implications of such change. There are objective, verifiable facts about how any government or ministry operates. The science of public-policy advocacy is in knowing how the system really works for example, how procurement is conducted, how the legislative process works, the dynamics of cabinet government, or how budget consultations are undertaken. Knowing how the system works is an essential part of knowing how to work the system. And it is the working of the system that is more art than science. The art of effective advocacy is often rooted in a knowledge base. The art of creating effective briefing notes or other written material for use in lobbying is in large part a function of the experiences the drafter has had along with their exposure to persuasive narrative over the years. For most, it’s typically been a matter of learning by doing.

The specific content of an advocacy-training program falls into the following handful of categories.

1. How the System Works: This is perhaps the most important category. How the system works varies of course to both jurisdiction and issue area. It probably needs to involve more of a traditional “information dump” than other areas of instruction. Use of case studies and attention to emerging and current developments (for example, the rapidly expanding role of multi-stakeholder public engagement processes) plays an important role in training. This sort of content is also most likely in demand on an on-going basis as circumstances (and government, and policy and personalities) change.
2. Information-Gathering and Analytical Skills: It’s what you know not who you know. While its validity is at least debatable, there’s no doubt one’s ability to know what’s going on and what it means is a critical advocacy skill. They are among those attributes that are best learned by doing, but there are still systems to be learned and tricks of the trade to be mastered, all of which should be included in advocacy training. This includes the use of “strategic inquiry” processes in assessing an issue’s ambient political and public-policy environment and understanding how the Internet can be used to gather vital data and intelligence.
3. Communications Skills: There should be recognition that advocacy is or should be considered much more than lobbying. Communications training should cover the gamut of how to conduct and assess relevant research; develop effective narrative; prepare and get published persuasive op-ed pieces; craft the sort of briefing notes, policy memoranda, and other documentation for government that help to propel an issue; develop a media strategy and write excellent news releases; make best use of social media and other mobilization tools.
4. Management: There are sessions that should provide an emphasis on the strategic, management, and resource allocation dimensions of an organization’s advocacy activities. One can have the most scintillating advocacy strategy imaginable and still have the effort fizzle with poor execution. Management-related training should include everything from how to budget for an advocacy campaign and the human resource requirements to build an effective team, through knowing how to plan for and deal with government, advice on how to screen, retain, and manage external lobbyists and other hired-gun consultants.
5. Rules of the Game: No program in advocacy training can be without some focused content on the ever spreading body of laws, rules, regulations, disclosure requirements, codes of conduct, and restrictions on various types of advocacy. Lobbyists registration requirements and political finance rules are among the most prominent but also important are a jurisdiction’s Access to (or Freedom of ) Information regimes and its approach to conflict of interest, post-employment, and gifts and hospitality rules.
6. Strategic Sensibility and Judgment: An overall objective of all advocacy training should be to help participants to develop the knowledge, awareness, creativity, and skills to exercise superior judgment in the conduct of their advocacy.