For CALP Webinar session

1. Advocacy across levels and forms of power
jgaventa@stfx.ca
www.coady.stfx.ca

2. The Citizenship Research Center:
Connecting Research and Action...
10 years
25 countries
60 researchers
150 case studies
450 outputs
www.drc-citizenship.org

3. Research Themes
Meanings Rights and Global Citizen
and Expressions Accountability Engagement
Science and Winning Policy Social Movements
Citizenship Change In the South
New Spaces for Mobilising for Citizenship in
Change Democracy Violent Settings

4. Citizen engagement makes a difference –
But not always….
meta-synthesis methods of a sample
of 100 case studies 20 countries.
Evidence points to positive
contribution to:
– More aware citizens
– More effective participation
– Responsive and accountable states
– Inclusive and cohesive societies
But there are risks of negative
outcomes in each these areas as well
http://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/Data/wbi/wbicms/files/drupal-acq
gaventa.pdf.

5. ‘Successful’ citizen engagement for national policy
change (www.ids.ac.uk/go/citizens)
Case Example Positive Gains
National Campaign for Six million hectares of land (half of
Land Reform – Philippines country’s farmland), redistributed to
3 million poor households
Treatment Action Public recognition and debate’
Campaign 60,000 people benefiting from
publicly supplied ARVs’
Right to Information National Right to Information Bill
Campaign – India passed in 2005, and in nine of 28
states – contributing to greater
public accountability
Campaign to reduce Put issue on national agenda;
Maternal Mortality – contributed to major budget shift;
Mexico changed ‘paradigm’ of delivery

6. ‘Successful’ Cases – (continued)
Case Example Positive Gains
Right to the City Campaign – Established national
Brazil framework for participation in
urban planning
Child Rights and social policies – New framework, resources and
Chile social policies for children,
leading to concrete
improvements in child poverty
Re/forming the Penal Code for New Turkish Penal Code with
Women’s Rights- Turkey 35 amendments for women’s
sexual rights
Campaign for Reform of the Reform of Islamic family law
Moudawana - Morocco affecting women’s rights

7. Key Factors of Success
The importance of democratic space
Diverse, nationally grounded coalitions –
not necessarily lead by INGOs
Alliances - Civil society organisations
rarely change policy by themselves
Contentiousness politics for contentious
issues

8. Measuring Sustainable Success
Tangible Intangible
National Change of policy/ New patterns of
legal system decision-making
and participation
Intermediate Better Greater
programme government
implementation accountability
and capability
Local Material Sense of
improvement in citizenship and
quality of life capabilities to
claim rights
The ‘deeper’ the CSO campaign, the more sustainable the gain.

9. Advocacy Across Levels?
Learning to make the Links
Globalisation creates The Global Campaign
new landscapes of on Education
authority - multi layered Local and national
and multi-polar. roots
The importance of linking Representative
across the local – governance
national –global Inclusive framing
continuum Respect for roles
Global rights claims are across levels
Long-term
occurring, but often
disconnected from local, resources for
creating new forms of sustainability
inclusion and exclusion

10. Thinking about power
- The Power Cube
LEVELS SPACES
Global
National
Claimed
Local Invited
Closed
Visible Hidden Invisible
Forms of POWER

11. Check out further research and opportunities
for study
Coady courses – including advocacy, social
accountability, communications and media, etc:
- - http://coady.stfx.ca/education.
DRC on Citizenship, Participation and
Accountability
– www.drc-citizenship.org
In Focus Policy Brief
– www.ids.ac.uk/go/citizens
Power analysis
– www.powercube.net.