Coalition holds capacity development session on advocacy
Last Wednesday, June 16, the Global Youth Coalition launched its sixth Capacity Development Session called Introduction to Advocacy. The session helped provide members with a common understanding of advocacy so that it could help them advocate for safe mobility policy initiatives in their countries and communities.
The interactive session was led by YOURS – Youth for Road Safety executive director, Floor Lieshout. The session began with a digital ice breaker where Coalition members got the chance to connect and interact before getting into the discussion.
Beginning with the definition of advocacy, participants were asked about their general ideas on what advocacy means as well as the key elements they thought were needed for a successful advocacy plan. In the session, advocacy was defined as “a combination of social actions designed to gain political commitment, policy support, social acceptance, and systems support for a particular goal or programme”.
The differences between advocating for political will, social support and mobilization, and empowerment and communication were clarified and were practiced through interactive activities where the participants clustered activities according to their relevant fields.
Talking about what an objective is and what it should achieve, Floor emphasized that advocacy should always lead to something you can hold or see. He also encouraged the participants to hold decision-makers accountable for their promises and commitments.
“Follow the money. If you are pushing for infrastructure change or for speed limits, then that should be reflected in the budget or priorities. Always look for evidence that the words that politicians commit to will actually follow through”
The session then moved on to the key elements of creating a strategic advocacy. Seven out of ten elements were discussed for this session; background and research, advocacy goal, SMART objectives, power mapping, identifying partners, campaign strategies, and getting the message across. The discussion was paired with a case study so that it was easier to understand.
To give more context on advocacy, the superstar lecturer for the session, Rajni Gandhi – the founder and general secretary of TRAX, a road safety NGO in New Delhi, India – gave her experiences and shared tips on how to create strategic advocacy plans.
Rajni talked about how TRAX advocated for helmet laws in India, emphasizing the steps, challenges, and important takeaways from the experience.
“We have to really work on our objectives and goals after some time. Are we missing something? Are we not going on the wrong path? This is something important for us at every stage”
