PUBLIC AFFAIRS (PA), GOVERNMENT RELATIONS (GR), AND PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR)

Public Affairs is an increasingly important part of every day business, but there is often a lack of understanding of what Public Affairs is and how effective Public Affairs provide value.

Definitions

Public Affairs: PA is an organisation’s efforts to monitor its environment including its relationships with external stakeholders and activities that contribute to policy development. It is an organisation’s analysis and interactions with the outside world to address policy impact.

Government Relations: GR is an organisation’s direct interactions with government officials.

Public Relations: PR covers a broad range of communication activities tailored to specific audiences and aim to form the general opinion about an organisation and its activities.

PA Activities

PA activities are intended to establish a good reputation, to build/maintain positive engagement with external stakeholders and to contribute to the process of regulatory and policy development

Examples of the daily work of a PA Professional

• Keeping up to date with policy developments
• Analysing the impact of draft legislation on stakeholders
• Participating in political debates
• Communicating stakeholders’ position to other key stakeholders and decision makers.

Role of a PA Professional

A PA professional specializes in developing communication strategies, provides insight into policy decision making processes and cooperates with a wide range of stakeholders to achieve common goal. A PA Professional has many roles:

• An Analyst evaluating the impact of policy changes on organisations
• A Communicator who exchanges messages with external stakeholders in a manner that is well understood by the receiver
• A Mediator or Facilitator helping two parties to understand each other and find common ground
• A Strategic Advisor knowing the best method on how to engage in policy discussions

Government Relations

Government Relations is a process of becoming acquainted with government officials, issues and processes in order to help them conduct their business and formulating and executing public policy in a successful manner.

GR Approach

Identify: Making an organisation better known in government circles regarding its interests and the value proposition put forward. This process does not necessarily involve any particular issue but it is an on-going effort to establish a recognized pipeline with government to assist in continually raising an organisation’s profile.

Inform: Opportunity for an organisation to directly involve policy makers both politically and administratively on the potential effects of their actions, particularly those they may not be aware of. It is about assisting government in managing risk around the implementation of public policy. It is about educating government of the impact of their actions can have on an organisation.

Persuade: Ability for an organisation to convince government to take certain actions. It is more about being an Advocate (not an Educator) on issues. All forms of advocacy should be pursued in a strategic, rationale and well supported manner and done so through the proper channels. At no point does persuasion ever include hostility or inappropriate communication. It is important that logic, alignment, facts and a cogent argument become the chosen tools to use.

Support: This can be as modest as appreciative recognition of partnerships or more formally pursuing coalitions. When done successfully formal and informal support from other stakeholders/partners adds tremendous weight in the eyes of government and ensures that the key issues enter the government’s radar. All advocacy positions should seek broader support, where possible.

Critical Success Factors for Government Relations

There is no more critical an element to success than understanding the issues that impact your business such as, a knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses, those of your competitors, the environment, and the operating context.   Building on establishing a more supportive evaluation and decision‐making process; outlined below are a series of success factors for government relations work:

• Be clear about priorities and communicate them consistently – The government should know what you stand for. 
• Reinforcing a strong reputation and brand toward government.
• Establish credibility by demonstrating value, being helpful and fostering good relations.
• Be transparent and honest about intentions and create predictability around issues.
• Always evaluate the current and changing legislative/political/ advocacy environment.
• Actively building relationships.
• Maximize all communication and networking channels.
• Appreciate that patience is a virtue…impatience can lead to negative outcomes.
• Be generous with the attribution of credit.
• Acknowledge the risk associated with advocacy approaches – the context, timing and delivery can impact effectiveness.
• Understanding the significance of saying nothing.
• Finding the right lens to evaluate issues ‐ medium to long‐term perspectives.
• Celebrate and promote success to drive awareness and build momentum
• Align with the government’s priorities, when possible.
• Be early on issues and help scope the discussion.
• Balance and prioritize organizational goals against available resources.