Programs: Advocacy

 

ADF’s Increased Citizen Participation (ICP) project in Angola was designed to strengthen civic participation in political life through the development of community-based citizens’ organizations that learned how to advocate for change. Significant achievements achieved by ADF under the ICP project include the following: 1) over a hundred Angolan CSOs (primarily community-based organizations) gained an understanding of the principles and techniques of advocacy and developed skills in planning campaigns; 2) twenty-one advocacy campaigns were conducted by CSOs to influence a wide range of public policies; 3) eight new coalitions of Angolan CSOs were formed and 4) forty-one percent of the CSOs trained participated in a coalition or joint advocacy action. Not only did the CSOs with which ADF worked become more active and effective at representing their members’ needs to relevant authorities, the work of the CSOs also positively influenced the way the public and government officials view their role in the reform process.

 

In its Return and Reintegration of Populations Program in Croatia, ADF provided training and technical assistance to Croatian NGOs advocating for democracy and human rights. Successful NGO advocacy campaigns supported included the mobilization of a national broad-based coalition of over 100 NGOs lobbying for changes in the Associations Law, support for an NGO coalition mobilizing citizen participation in the 2000 Croatian Presidential elections, and support for NGO advocacy campaigns for changes in public policy relating to refugee rights and return issues.

 

In Mozambique, ADF implemented the Civil Society Proposing Policy Alternatives Project (CSPRA) providing training, technical assistance, and umbrella grants to civil society organizations to develop advocacy skills and organizational capacities to participate in public policy making including proposing reforms for social, economic, and democratic development. Ninety-eight Mozambican CSOs gained an understanding of advocacy and developed skills in planning advocacy campaigns. Over 20 advocacy campaigns were conducted by the CSOs to influence policies and practices related to various macro-political areas of interest. Ten coalitions of NGOs were formed to pursue advocacy on issues of common interest.

 

ADF’s Citizens' Networks Program in Haiti worked with more than 400 popular organizations in twenty communes of Haiti to increase their understanding of the concepts of democratic governance and the role they have to play in strengthening democratic governance in Haiti, through advocacy and the implementation of joint civic actions to address priority needs in their communes. These Haitian popular organizations engaged in more than 200 joint civic actions that demonstrated the increased engagement of popular organizations, increased joint effort among civil society organizations in the communes, and increased collaboration between popular organizations and local government officials and managed to affect public policy issues at the local level.

 

In Egypt, ADF's Business Association Strengthening Activity (BASA) of the NGO Service Center strengthened the governance and leadership of Egyptian business associations in order to enhance their role in economic development and support export growth through increased business competitiveness. The capacity building of Egyptian business associations enabled them to become better participants in policy dialogue through advocacy training and technical assistance. ADF supported more than 45 advocacy campaigns dealing with issues such as export promotion, internal trade, taxation, business representation, government procedures and regulations, infrastructure development, gender equity, and access to training, education, and marketing opportunities.

 

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, ADF's 2001-2004 Democracy Network II project, funded by USAID, provided training, technical assistance and grants to more than 150 NGOs that improved their institutional capacity, advocacy skills, and program delivery. NGOs successfully implemented 46 advocacy campaigns that resulted in legislative and regulatory reform supporting a wide range of citizen interests and mobilized over 40,000 people to participate in the campaigns as activists, volunteers and other supporters.