Healthlink Worldwide

Overview

The Communication for Advocacy (CFA) project, was funded by The Department for International Development and local organisations.

Over three years it helped to develop the capacity of more than 300 Non-Government Organisations and community groups across Asia, enabling these organisations to influence policy and practice in the region.

From the start, the key partners - HAIN, CHEMS and SARPV (see partners page for more details) - shared a sense of ownership of the concept and process of the project. The first collaborations, held in Cambodia, the Philippines and Bangladesh in 2002, resulted in sixteen workshops for local NGOs and community organisations, which focused on the theory and practice of advocacy for community groups. The participants of the workshops subsequently became ‘core’ partners in the project.

The activities focused on;
• Improving south-south and south-north learning
• Networking
• Advocacy training
• Sharing good practice on advocacy
• Supporting the exchange of information

Building the network
The 'cascade training' approach of the workshops provided an excellent way to develop CFA contacts and links, and has resulted in CFA supporting a network of over 360 organisations across the region. The network includes many of the four key partners’ contacts, and the core partners’ contacts. Many of these contacts have been nurtured and supported through further workshops. For example, in 2004 ten community groups were trained by each of the core partners. Workshops took place in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Mongolia, The Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Workshops aimed to help participants to:

• develop an understanding of advocacy and communication
• reflect on related experience to develop and share skills
• be exposed to methods for effective information, education and communication (IEC) design
• develop strategies for working with the media
• develop an advocacy strategy tailored to their own organisation
• look at project management tools
• inform their own practice through sharing experience and learning from others
• develop regional and international networks and linkages
• use and develop participatory approaches and methodologies

In particular skills in the production and use of communications materials for advocacy purposes were valued. The workshops also provided an opportunity for the community organisations to contribute to the development of the Communicating for Advocacy manual.

Ideas and learning
Over the course of the final two years the key partners realised they have a wealth of experience between them and have used the project to share their ideas and learning with others.

In 2004 SARPV organised six CFA workshops with core partners from India, Bangladesh and Thailand. These have resulted in the partners improving the communication and profile of their advocacy work including photography exhibitions, media campaigns, improved print materials, and websites.

SARPV also organised the ‘Seeing in the Dark’ Exhibition, an installation simulating a light free environment. It engaged sighted visitors with challenges faced by the visually impaired. Key decision makers were targeted and invited to visit. The process was highly participatory and involved people with disabilities and visually impaired people in the planning, direction and management of the exhibition. The activity proved to be extremely successful and led to a total of four installations in both Bangladesh and India.

HAIN worked with five core partner organisations from the Philippines, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Workshops focused on reproductive and sexual health, advocacy for the Peoples Health Charter (Sri Lanka) and community-based advocacy work.

CHEMS worked with five partner organisations from Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. The partners organised workshops for local government organisations as well as NGOs. The workshops included a combination of lectures, role-playing, case-studies and group work to discuss the concept of advocacy and advice on how to engage communities. The results included the development of leaflets on HIV/AIDS, a radio spot, a newsletter based on the workshop and theatre performances by two of the core partners in six local areas.

Final year guidance
The final year focused on consolidating project learning to reinforce sustainability, as network partners take the work forward without external funding and technical input. In December 2004, a project review workshop and meeting was organised in Cambodia to give direction for the final year. The meeting provided an opportunity for the key partners to reflect on the project activities and develop monitoring and evaluation processes. In addition participants also had the opportunity to examine and plan how they would apply the techniques in their work.

Beyond Asia
CFA even travelled to Ethiopia where a workshop was held as part of another Healthlink Worldwide project - Enhancing HIV Communication in Africa. This initiated the expansion of the CFA network to Africa, with Asian partners sending messages of support to participants at the Ethiopia CFA workshop, and CFA workshop participants in Ethiopia sending a message to the Plenary meeting participants.

Final Plenary
The final plenary workshop, held in September 2005 strengthened the relationship between the key partner organisations and the core partners as well.

The plenary meeting reinforced these points:

• Advocacy is part of a long process not a solution in itself; expectations must be realistic.
• The starting point for meaningful advocacy work is to create space for dialogue where people can discuss their issues in a way that recognises the importance of context. Unifying issues can then be identified that come from marginalised and vulnerable people rather than being imposed.
• Advocacy is not just about generating information, but helping people gain the skills to use that information.
• Advocacy needs a strategic approached. information must be analysed before becoming the basis of dialogue and lobbying.
• Networking strengthens advocacy. It is vital to continue once the project ends

At the conclusion of the plenary meeting many of the partners reported that as a result of the project they were part of a "family" of like-minded organisations and that the family would continue to grow after the conclusion of the project.

'The training made us realise that everyone can benefit from a better understanding of advocacy and from appreciating the many different components of advocacy and its broad-reaching potential. Your contribution, whoever you are, is a critical part of the process. Advocacy is a long and arduous process, but no matter how long the night, the day is sure to come.' Caster Palaganas, HAIN Board President.