Advocacy 4.5: Making Advocacy Effective

Advocacy is a long-term process. It may take time to get results. Advocacy will be more effective if it is planned and carefully targeted, rather than ad-hoc (though good, unplanned opportunities should not be ignored!).

Making advocacy effective requires the following steps:

• Understand the issue.
• Specify clearly what change or improvement is desired.
• Prepare the argument and supporting materials.
• Work out who to target and how best to go about it.

IBAs are an excellent focus for advocacy, but they won’t do the job themselves. Advocacy depends on people, and personal contacts are usually very important. So is establishing a reputation for reliability, objectivity and constructiveness. National Liaison Committees or Forums can be a useful venue for advocacy, since they tend to bring together senior representatives of a range of institutions, with an agenda put together by the co-ordinating BirdLife Partner.