On Campaigning

These tips have been drawn from the Advocacy Institute, Advocacy Resource Handbook, 2004 and the writers own experience.

Here are some general tips for civil society organisations conducting campaigns in support of the Millennium Development Goals.

• Focus on a single compelling message.
• Work out a clear action plan and make sure you get publicity through media and outreach to the public. Work out the phases and the budget and raise the money or donations you need as early as possible.
• Ensure that the campaign has a local component as well as a global one. The campaign should adopt a bottom-up approach, linking grassroots experiences to national, regional and global initiatives.
• Adopt an alliance-based approach, linking up with other organisations, making use of existing forums and harnessing existing capacity to advance the campaign.
• Ask a lot. If you do not ask anything you will not get anything. Too often people are afraid the answer will be no and therefore don’t ask. So make it a point to ask. It is easy for someone to say no once. After the tenth or twentieth time it becomes harder to say no. Ask often. (UNDP, Blue Book)
• Leadership is key to any campaign. There are many different forms of leadership that each have a different role.

Some of the more common forms of leadership are:

• Role models and mentors
• Visionaries who think in the long term
• Strategists who identify the part of the vision that is attainable
• Historians who keep a movement’s memory alive and collect stories
• Resource mobilisers who cut through bureaucracy and institutional inertia
• High profile people who provide credibility and authority
• Educators who use information and experiences to educate people
• Organisers who assemble others to raise the stakes and make the powerful uneasy
• Inside negotiators who know the system and use that knowledge to apply pressure on the powerful
• Generalists who bring many years of experience to the effort.
  
• Timing is key in any campaign. This includes the timing of actions, when you approach decision-makers and when you hold your media events.
• The best campaigns are those that have a personal / human face. People like to identify with other people and their stories. Wherever possible, identify people whose stories other people can relate to, and weave these stories into every aspect of your campaign.
• Being honourable is key to both your own and your campaign’s credibility. This includes never lying, always being polite even when you are tackling controversial issues, never breaking a promise and keeping off the record comments confidential.
• A key to success is knowing your opponents’ arguments and being able to counter these when lobbying decision-makers.
• Balance the reasonable and the demanding. Particular messages are appropriate at particular times. At times you need a strong message. It might anger some people, but it places the issue on the agenda. At other times you need a more moderate message. The challenge is to balance the different messages, based on the context, and to make sure that the two work together and not against each other. For example, a strong message may be needed to get people’s attention, opening opportunities for a more subtle messenger to start negotiations. This can be effective only if the two messengers understand their respective roles and work in support of each other.
• If you are trying to secure far-reaching change you need to address a large number of people. People-centred strategies and tactics that mobilise people become essential in such campaigns.
• Always report back to the community.
• Make use of flagship days like international days for the elimination of poverty or human rights.
• Evaluate every campaign and project regularly and learn from your mistakes.