World Blind Union Office

1929 Bayview Avenue

Toronto, ON M4G 3E8

Telephone: 1-416-486-9698
Fax: 1-416-486-8107
E-mail: info@wbuoffice.org
www.worldblindunion.org

WBU External Resource Paper

Advocacy and Campaigning

Author: WBU Advocacy Coordinator

Replaces: 2003 Resource Paper
Date Reviewed: 2015
Approval: WBU Officers – May 2015

1. Purpose

The purpose of this resource paper is to promote a common

understanding of the meaning and value of advocacy and campaigning
for WBU members and to enable them to adopt effective strategies
and approaches for their advocacy efforts. The rationale for updating
this paper includes: 1) advances in methodologies and strategies
related to advocacy and campaigning; 2) adoption of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(UNCRPD), which includes a wide range of new opportunities for
advocacy; 3) increasing importance and effectiveness of self-advocacy
efforts; and 4) the need to update the previous resource paper
(initially developed in 2003).

Advocacy and campaigning have become increasingly important in

combatting discrimination and in working to improve the lives of
persons who are blind or partially sighted. Legislative and policy
initiatives at the international and national levels are vital components
of effective advocacy. In addition the adoption of the UNCRPD has
created many new opportunities to advance the full inclusion of
persons with disabilities in general and of persons who are blind or
partially sighted in particular. The UNCRPD has created an
unprecedented opportunity for blind and partially sighted individuals to
advocate on their own behalf and to negotiate with multiple
stakeholders toward improving the quality of their lives. 

2. Introduction

Advocacy is a carefully considered, planned process to influence multiple

stakeholders in order to achieve specified outcomes. Within the
development context, it may include representing the needs and interests
of disadvantaged and marginalized groups before those who have the
power to make or influence change. Specific organizations and groups
have specific definitions of advocacy that promote their particular
interests. Regardless of the methods an organization employs, it is
important to be aware of the diversity of advocacy strategies that can be
used effectively. Each has its merits, but each is also dependent on its
context, that is, the nature and type of the organization advocating for
change.

An advocacy campaign is a planned project over a given period of time to

achieve specific advocacy goals. Therefore, campaigning can be seen as
the process of advancing advocacy. Campaigning does not necessarily
mean engaging with the public; the nature and type of the engagement
is a strategic decision. Some campaigning may use an ‘insider’ approach,
engaging solely with decision makers and their immediate advisors. The
process of engaging with the public to generate and/or mobilize support
for an advocacy campaign may be called ‘public campaigning’ as
contrasted with the one-on-one approach of engaging directly with
decision makers.

Advocacy is a Latin term made up of two words “Ad” and “Voca” which
means “amplify” and “Voice” thus advocacy is the process of amplifying the
voices of the voiceless.  “Advocacy” is often defined by agencies and
individuals as a “Systematic and serious process of amplifying the voices of
the voiceless”. It focuses on resisting unequal and unjust power relations in
a just manner. It is a value driven political process and knowledge based
activism”.  This perspective is incorporated into this resource paper as part
of the description of the strategies associated with advocacy and
campaigning.
3. WBU Principles with respect to Advocacy

 We adopt the “Social and human rights model of disability and

strive toward ending attitudinal, institutional and environmental
barriers”.
 We are committed to promoting the dignity of the individual and
accepting “Disability as part of human diversity” and to practicing
the principle of “Nothing about us without us”.
 * We are fully convinced that Poverty is both a cause and
consequence of disability, and strive to have a clear bias in favor
of the most marginalized and excluded persons, such as Women
and Girls, children, the elderly, and the poorest of the poor and
we are committed to promoting specific initiatives to attain
equity and justice.
 We believe in the talents and potential of people with disabilities
and in their ability to be involved actively in making decisions
regarding all services, programs and supports affecting their
lives. 
 The WBU and its member organizations will advocate with
relevant stakeholders at the national, regional and global levels
to secure the full and equal human rights and fundamental
freedoms of persons who are blind or partially sighted.
 While the WBU is committed to collaborating with other
organizations of people with disabilities and others on
overarching disability issues, only the World Blind Union and its
member organizations have the knowledge and expertise to
advocate on behalf of the rights of blind and partially sighted
persons.
 We believe our advocacy and campaigning approaches must
reflect the national and cultural diversity of our members.

4. Advocacy Campaign Planning Framework

Effective advocacy is critical to the success of national and

international efforts to realize the objectives of the WBU and its
members.  Only by securing the support of key actors, whether they
are local health providers, national governments, or development
partners, can we hope to bring about the changes we seek. 

Advocacy is not a specialist art. All of us have the potential to become

powerful advocates. But good advocacy requires clarity of purpose,
thorough preparation, imagination, follow-through on plans and the
occasional spot of luck!

This section aims to explain the key elements of the advocacy and
campaigning process.  Of course, not all elements will necessarily
apply to all advocacy challenges. But we hope that it will be a helpful
aid to the design, and successful implementation, of your particular
advocacy strategy. Planning is very important to increase the rate of
success in the process of advocacy and campaigning. Here are some
important components of the planning framework:

 Advocacy can be broadly classified into five categories:

 Legislative, executive, media and judiciary advocacy
 Self-advocacy
 Policy and program advocacy
 People centric advocacy
 Advocacy for and by people

4.1 Identifying problems

The first phase is to know exactly what it is that we want to change.

It is not enough to just have a general direction – we need clear,
focused and precise objectives. We need to agree on what we want
to change first before thinking about developing strategies and
action plans.

4.2 Prioritizing the problems depending upon the urgency and

availability of resources

There may be a number of problems we want to address, but resource

constraints (financial, human and time) will limit our ability to address
all the problems we face. Therefore we need to prioritize the issues we
will address, depending on their urgency, relative importance and on
the availability of resources.

4.3 Framing the issue within a human rights context

Once the problems have been prioritized, each should be framed as

an issue to be addressed. The difference between a problem and an
 issue can be understood in this way:  A problem may be framed in a
simple manner while the issue represents the magnitude of the
problem and articulates the violation of human rights of an
individual or a group. For example, the lack of textbooks in braille is
a problem but the issue is that a student’s right to education is
impeded which is a violation of the student’s human rights.

4.4 Setting the long term objective

After each issue has been framed, we need to articulate the long
term objective, which is the advocacy and campaigning goal or what
we want to achieve.

4.5 Setting short term objectives or immediate remedies

The long-term goal or objective can be further broken down into short-
term objectives or solutions that need to be achieved in order to
progress towards the achievement of the long-term objective.

4.6 Stakeholders analysis

A Stakeholder analysis is important to determine: who should be the

target of our advocacy and campaigning efforts; who might be our
supporters and partners in our advocacy efforts; who are likely to
oppose our efforts; and to determine who are likely to be “fence-
sitters”.

4.7 Designing strategies

Once objectives are clear, one can then move to the second phase –
identifying the strategy that is most likely to succeed. The temptation
is to rush to designing campaigning activities; this should only be done
once the strategy is determined.  For example: What advocacy and
campaigning tactics will we use? Which audiences will we target? What
messages will we use to bind our campaign together? We may need a
separate but compatible strategy for different objectives and target
decision makers.

Here are some examples of activities that can be undertaken as part of

the strategy:
 Enacting or amending the legal and policy framework
 Capacity building, sensitization and training of stakeholders of
strategic relevance
 Building alliances with other networks and groups and federations,
both of people with and without disabilities
 Campaigning techniques including: letter writing campaigns,
signature petitions, email campaigns, use of social media, mass
media outreach, SMS campaigns, etc.
 Filing petitions in the court of law
 Demonstrations, rallies and protests

4.8 Preparing the action plan

With clear strategies, we are now in a position to develop action plans

– the third phase. Here we want to devise the most effective ways of
engaging our target audiences. While influencing strategies should
stay constant until we achieve our objectives (unless our monitoring
reveals that they are just not working, in which case a new strategy
may be called for), action plans should be continuously updated in
light of how our audiences are reacting and other changes or factors in
the campaigning environment.

4.9 Devising a monitoring mechanism

Throughout the implementation of our action plans we should monitor

and evaluate progress. As a result of this monitoring and evaluation,
the action plans can be adjusted and the strategy revised as
appropriate until the objectives are achieved.

Then one can look again at what we want to change and start the
Advocacy & Campaigning Cycle all over again!

4.10 Follow up

To ensure that the process runs smoothly, efficiently and effectively,

there needs to be a clear process of management and coordination.
Each of the first three phases in the Planning cycle can be broken
down into steps that will provide a pathway to help navigate the
choices that need to be made in planning an effective campaign.  And
although a sequence is implied, there may be some movement
backwards and forwards as new information and analysis prompt a re-
think of earlier steps.

5. Some Examples of Advocacy Undertaken by the World Blind

Union in recent years

Advocacy and campaigning are dependent on situations and issues

that arise from time to time. We have listed below some examples of
advocacy campaigns that the WBU has engaged in as a reference for
our members:

 Reflecting the perspectives of persons who are blind and partially

sighted in documents related to policy and practice – particularly
with respect to UN agencies, treaty bodies and other relevant
international or regional bodies;
 Encouraging members to advocate with national governments and
other relevant stakeholders in a number of areas, for example: the
promotion of eye health and prevention of avoidable blindness; the
provision of rehabilitation services including assistive devices and
technology; the enhancing of access to education, employment,
community participation, recreation, arts and cultural life, etc.;
 Engaging the media to provide adequate space and to raise
awareness of the issues and concerns of persons who are blind and
partially sighted;
 Advocating for the Signing, ratification and implementation of the
UNCRPD;
 Advocating for the Signing, ratification and implementation of the
Marrakesh treaty;
 Advocating for the inclusion of disability in the Post 2015
development agenda.