AALEP RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EFFECTIVE INFLUENCING OF GOVERNMENT DECISIONS

There are four core recommendations for effective influencing of government decisions.

1. The first is a recognition that there is no 'silver bullet' of public policy advocacy, no single approach that can guarantee success, but there are parctical tangible things that can be done to enhance one's prospects for success, in influencing decisions of government.

2. The second is that a central determinant in effective public-policy advocacy is the degree to which the leaders and staff involved have a sophisticated, up-to-date awareness and understanding of how governments develop policy and make decisions and what this means for the analytical and communication skills which need to exist in the concerned organizations. In short, there is a need for a focused effort on developing the advocacy capacity and skills of sector organizations as an important primary step.

3. Training is not enough. It should be complemented and supplemented by an increased availability of external, expert advice and assistance both to support sector advocacy efforts and to help impart the benefit of valuable experience, contacts, relevant knowledge, insight and know-how.

4. Notwithstanding the need for organizations to upgrade the capacities and skills of their people with respect to public policy and advocacy and quite apart from the value of having skilld and experienced advisors available to organizations, there is a critical need for some important systemic change (in many countries) particularly as it relates to government's approach to transparency in decision-making and the news media's role in explaining how government and politics really work.

AALEP recommends four initiatives, the first three of which should be given priority:

1. Help build organizations' understanding, capacity and 'street smarts' about government politics and public-policy advocacy. This involves the promotion of existing capacity building and advocacy training initiatives and the development, as necessary, of new means to help organizations become more capable and self-reliant in their advocacy activities.  Public-policy advocacy requires life-long learning. There are certain institutional verities that are both ubiquitous and don.’t change much over-time - basic political dynamics and public administration practices. But the reality is that there is much in any government that is ever-changing .– among them priorities, themes, narratives, personalities and decision-making processes. These require on-going monitoring, assessment and a consequent, constant recalibration of advocacy approaches and strategies. Thus, increasing and improving one.’s awareness and understanding of government decision-making is an on-going challenge, even with .– indeed, especially for .– those who do it for a full-time living.

2. Facilitate access by organizations to external, expert advice and assistance in public-policy advocacy. This involves the creation of a number of initiatives aimed at recruiting and training a range of resources (ranging from retired politicians, political staff and bureaucrats through to working professional public policy advocates in the private sector) who can advise and assist organizations in their advocacy along.

3. Promote, develop and disseminate knowledge and learning tools about public-policy advocacy. This involves a special effort to develop and distribute information and learning tools in public-policy advocacy. Beside AALEP, some universities and community colleges appear eager to develop and produce case studies and other resource materials as well as design and deliver both credit and non-credit courses in public-policy advocacy. In support of their efforts and to enable a more fulsome use of it by organizations, a number of initiatives should be explored such as the sponsorship of a conference or symposium on public-policy advocacy, thus prompting the launch of specific research n the subject; the establishment of a clearing-house approach to cataloguing and promoting material on public-policy advocacy; work on pedagogy- how to most effectively teach public-policy advocacy in both educational and professional development settings.

4. Confront key systemic barriers to citizen understanding, access and efffectiveness in democratic decision-making, namely pressing for greater government transparency in decision-making and prompting a new role for media reporting and analysis of public-policy advocacy, both should be be undertaken only when the first three recommendations above are realized. Quite apart from the challenges represented by the imperfect natutre of government and public administration and the relatively uneven ability of many organizations to influence decisions of government, there are two other features (in many countries) that comprise systemic barriers to citizen understanding, access and effectiveness in decision-making. They are the practices of governments when it comes to explaining their decisions to citizens; and the performance of the news media in its coverage of government and politics.