Developing Advocacy Capacities for Indian Civil Society Organisation

Capacity building of civil society organisations for policy advocacy

Our Focus

Provide technical assistance for the design of advocacy strategy development

Build advocacy capacities in civil society organisations

PRIA was an advocacy consultant for All We Can to assist in the development and implementation of a Country Advocacy Strategy Plan for India with two partner organisations of All We Can, namely Srijan Foundation (Jharkhand) and READ organisation (Odisha).

Objectives
The overall objective of the consultancy was to develop the Country Advocacy Strategy Plan and build the advocacy capacity of SRIJAN and READS by providing necessary skills for influencing policy making processes and improve the lives of the communities they serve. 

The advocacy capacity building process supported SRIJAN and READS to;

• Understand how the policy process works in India;
• Analyse their policy environment and contexts (States of Jharkhand and Odisha);
• Conduct participatory research for identifying and prioritising key advocacy issues and problems;
• Develop an advocacy goal(s) and objectives for selected issue(s);
• Identify stakeholders and target audiences;
• Develop and deliver effective advocacy messages;
• Analyse and develop evidence or data to support advocacy activities;
• Develop an implementation plan for advocacy; and
• Prepare a monitoring and evaluation framework.
• Draft an advocacy strategy

Methodology
PRIA conducted advocacy capacity development with SRIJAN and READS and a process of participatory research. This preceded the development of the advocacy strategy. PRIA worked in close collaboration with All We Can’s Advocacy Coordinator.

SRIJAN and READS have different levels of knowledge and practice of advocacy which means that they required individual and in some instances tailor-made support at the beginning of the process. Towards the end of the capacity building cycle, both partners came together to start planning a joint advocacy strategy with each organisation undertaking advocacy actions towards a common goal.

PRIA visited each organisation in Jharkhand and Odisha to get a sense of the context where they operate and the kind of work they do. Preliminary information was gathered from participants and reviewed. 

Workshop sessions were co-facilitated with the advocacy coordinator.

Technical assistance was provided for the design of advocacy strategy development workshops in Jharkhand and Odisha together with the appropriate methodology and tools

Outputs
Both organisations came together to produce a draft  Country Advocacy Strategy based on the outcomes of the participatory research and advocacy development workshops.

A final advocacy strategy was produced based on feedback received in a joint feeback session

PRIA produced a final synthesis report of the process