What are formal political processes?

The role of citizens in a democracy is very different from their role in other forms of government. In a democracy, citizens vote for their leaders and representatives, the government is there for the people and must act for the people and citizens pay taxes and have a right to know how their money is being spent, as well as a right and duty to have a say in the way government works. If people don’t participate, the government can make decisions without hearing popular opinions or needs, and soon they stop being transparent and accountable. In other words, a democracy requires both a strong and active government and a strong and active civil society.

Some of the typical campaign areas where this tool would be useful are:

• Setting joint benchmarks
• Impacting on planning
• Accessing and influencing the budget
• Monitoring government performance
• Lobbying for service delivery in a particular area
• Influencing country reports such as MDG progress reports.

Critical success factors

Starting out
Before you can participate in and use the existing political processes you need to:

• Understand how your political structures work and where citizens can input
• Understand how policies, laws and decisions are made, and when it is appropriate to target political representatives and officials
• Understand the roles and responsibilities of different tiers of government
• Know who is who
• Know your rights
• Know the issue you want to campaign around.

What officials want to know

The following are useful for officials:

• Specialist briefings in concise lay language
• Evidence of how measures affect your clients
• Evidence of the reactions of different groups
• Technical endorsements
• Advance warning of campaigns.

What political representatives want to know

The following are useful for politicians:

• Short focused information
• Evidence of how it affects their voters
• Evidence of breadth of support
• High profile endorsements
• What they can do for you.

Actions

There are many ways that you can participate and use the formal political processes, namely

• Vote in elections
• Lobby decision makers (see Lobbying and advocacy)
• Influence policies and laws through the established channels for citizen input
• Hold national / provincial / local government accountable through committees and forums established for citizen input
• Refer complaints to watchdog bodies such as Human Rights Commissions, Public Protectors, Ombudspeople (see Using the Law)
• Use the law and courts to hold government to its commitments, challenge policies or violations of rights (See Using the Law).

Obstacles and challenges

• Using formal political systems works best in countries that have a strong, open and transparent democracy. It is unlikely to be a useful tool in repressive countries or countries that are democratic in name only.
• Often formal processes can create the illusion that you are being heard and distract you from other campaigning actions.
  Formal processes can take time.
• Your voice might be just one of many voices and you may be marginalised in the formal process.
• You need to be clear on your information and facts to be credible in the formal processes.

Benefits

• You don’t need to fight for the right to be heard as CSOs if the formal political system recognises you and provides opportunities for input.
• If used correctly, formal processes provide an opportunity to work in partnership with those representatives who support your issue.

Budget policy used to further gender issues Examples of gender budget regulations below demonstrate pioneering work and the importance of participatory processes and high level government commitment. In 1994 the Philippines government adopted a gender and development budget policy that requires every government agency to allocate at least 5% of its budget to gender and development. The national commission on the role of Filipino women spearheaded the initiative with the women’s movement. Although compliance was initially limited, the policy provided a tool and a yardstick to measure political will and actions. The success of the tool was, however, dependent on CSOs using the tool and the political space that had been created.In France, the Budget Act of 2000 requires the government to present allocations earmarked for gender equality. This required reforming the state statistical apparatus to enable disaggregation of data on the status of women and their contributions to the economy. The law enabled women’s groups to use the information to strengthen their campaigns.

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