Making Change Happen: Advocacy and Citizen
Participation
28-30 November, 2001
Washington, DC
If
we want the darkness to flower, if we want to establish lands
of dignity and integrity,…lands where people can live in
light and justice…then our guiding stars must be struggle
and hope.
Pablo Neruda
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Summary Statement
We are a group of forty-nine people committed
to equity, social justice and the fight against poverty and
discrimination. We are engaged in advocacy and citizen participation
work in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, North
America and Europe. We have come together from eighteen countries
to share experiences, to reflect on lessons learned, to address
concerns arising from our work, and to express our hopes, dreams
and practical directions for the future.
The concept of citizen participation is now more widely appreciated
by governments, donors and civil society organizations. In practice,
however, the result has often been quite limited forms of public
consultation. This has tended to reinforce, rather than change,
the prevailing development and governance models such as those
advanced by the International Financial Institutions and other
donor agencies. We believe that for participation to be effective
in addressing the root causes of poverty, inequality and exclusion,
there is a need for a deeper, longer-term commitment to processes
of organising, decision-making and advocacy by citizens.
Advocacy itself is often treated as a mere technical activity,
without taking into account dynamics of power. Many advocacy
models assume a political environment that is open and pluralist,
relatively devoid of conflict and risk. However, to be effective,
there is a need to re-inject understandings of power and politics
in mainstream advocacy work. Power must be addressed in its
many dimensions, in its visible and hidden forms, and in its
social and ideological facets, including divisions of class,
caste, race, ethnicity, religion, age and gender that lead to
extremism and exclusion.
Advocacy for policy change is often disconnected from longer-term
efforts for social and economic transformation. As a result,
many new policies fail to be implemented and the impact on exclusion
and poverty remains slight. For sustainable results, efforts
to influence policies should be more closely connected to social
change movements that build critical awareness, understandings
of basic human rights and long-term visions of social change
among citizens.
The capacity of civil society groups to engage in advocacy
needs to be strengthened, including the ability to assess power
and to decide whether, how and when to engage in the opportunities
that arise for participation and engagement. In human rights
work, there is a need to build the direct advocacy of marginalized
groups, and to protect their rights to participate, to dissent
and to organise.
Active citizenship, we have found, can only be claimed and
defined by people as "makers and shapers" of rights
through their own processes of constituency building, advocacy
and change. The legal framework for citizen rights is important,
but is not sufficient to ensure democratic participation. We
are concerned that definitions of citizenship are often being
imposed externally, both by states and by transnational institutions
of power.
In addition to active, democratic citizenship there is a need
for effective, accountable and proactive states that can advance
and uphold social justice and equity goals. Such states must
be effectively and continuously accountable to poor and excluded
people, while providing transparent legal and administrative
governance. The challenge of the politics of the new century
is to build strong states combined with strong civil societies.
Finally, we are concerned about the pain and long-term impact
of both September 11th and some of the responses that have followed.
As advocates and educators from Latin America, Asia, Africa,
the Middle East, Europe, and North America, we know the devastation
of poverty, discrimination, and repression and the cycles of
violence they generate. We are concerned that global security
is currently being defined primarily as a military challenge,
rather than one of ensuring basic economic needs and human rights.
In some parts of the world, including the US, space for such
citizen alternatives and dissent appears to be narrowing. Yet
debate about these issues is crucial to finding lasting solutions
and is at the heart of citizenship. In our work, we affirm a
vision of global security founded upon increasing equality and
justice in the world, and upon the free and active involvement
of all people in decisions which affect their lives.
We have resolved to take action to address these diverse challenges
and we invite others to reflect and explore ways to deepen and
strengthen their commitment to meaningful citizen advocacy and
participation. In particular, we discussed the need for:
1. The development of clear guidelines for engagement. Using
such guidelines, citizens and civil society groups can better
decide when, whether and how to engage in policy processes.
To ensure accountability, we need to establish engagement strategies
informed by our mandate and principles that include specifics
on negotiable and non-negotiable items. We need to assess the
opportunity costs for participation, and to develop mechanisms
of validation, communication, and accountability.
2. Strategies which link policy change efforts to strategies
of social and economic transformation. To be effective in reducing
exclusion, poverty and injustice, policy changes need to be
reinforced by long-term social change efforts that challenge
underlying power relations and that empower and strengthen marginalized
groups within society. Such links will go a long way toward
improving accountability and reducing the 'implementation gap'.
3. Greater capacity building for civil society to engage in
advocacy. Stronger capacities are needed for power and risk
analysis; for self-reflection; for accountability and representation;
and for engagement, negotiation and collaboration with donors,
governments and the private sector. Capacities are also needed
for developing longer-term visions and strategies in which advocacy
is linked to wider empowerment objectives.
4. Broader ways of defining and assessing success in advocacy
and citizen participation. Progress is often measured according
to narrow, quantitative and externally defined indicators. Systematic
efforts are needed to develop alternative tools and methods
which enable people to define their own indicators of success
and to learn from their experience.
5. Attention to issues around representation, legitimacy and
identity. Both within organisations and groups, and across levels
of advocacy activity, there is a need for greater accountability
with regard to citizen voice. Particularly important is to address
who legitimately speaks for whom at local, national and global
levels, and how those voices are held accountable.
In pursuing these issues we have committed ourselves to four
broad areas of action. Firstly, we will engage in processes
of learning, analysis and understanding of effective strategies
of advocacy and citizen participation. Secondly, we will create
and strengthen networks and linkages for sharing experience
and for mutual support. Thirdly, we will document and share
effective practices to enhance learning and action. And fourthly,
we will engage in dialogue and influence with others, especially
to broaden the definitions and understandings of advocacy, citizen
participation, power and social change. We invite others to
join us in this endeavor to make change happen.
(see the
meeting report)
List of Workshop Participants
(organisations listed for identification purposes only)
Daoud Tari Abkula
Pastoralist Communication Initiative, Kenya
Trish Ahern
Regional Director Latin America, USA
Patricia Ardon
CEDPA, Guatemala
Holly Bartling
Center for the Study of Human Rights,
Columbia University, USA
Sonia Cano
Washington Office on Latin America, Guatemala
Ophira Carr
ActionAid, USA
Jennifer Chapman
ActionAid, UK
Cindy Clark
The Asia Foundation, USA
David Cohen
Advocacy Institute, USA
Dan Craun-Selka
Pact, USA
Joanne Derwin
The Ford Foundation, USA
Rashida Dohad
The Asia Foundation, Pakistan
Rona Donefer
ActionAid, Guatemala
Keshav Gautam
ActionAid, China
John Gaventa
Institute of Development Studies, UK
Richard Healey
Grassroots Policy Project, USA
Irungu Houghton
ActionAid, USA
Shireen Huq
Consultant, Bangladesh
Brian Kagoro
Crisis in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
Nancy Kachingwe
MWENGO, Zimbabwe
Ruengrawee (Jieb) Ketphol
The Asia Foundation, Thailand
Edwige Lafleur
ActionAid, Haiti
Dina Lumbantobing
Yayasan Sada Ahmo, Indonesia
Harsh Mander
ActionAid, India
Valerie Miller
Just Associates, USA
Malena de Montis
Center for Democratic Participation
and Development, Nicaragua
Yuriko Mori
The Asia Foundation, USA
Andrew Mott
Center for Community Change, USA
Irfan Mufti
South Asia Partnership, Pakistan
Jethro Pettit
Institute of Development Studies, UK
Riana Puspasari
The Asia Foundation, Indonesia
Molly Reilly
Women, Law and Development International, USA
Jenny Russell
Catholic Relief Services, USA
Aasim Sajjad
Sustainable Development Policy
Institute, Pakistan
John Samuel
National Centre for Advocacy Studies, India
Kathy Selvaggio
Catholic Relief Services, USA
Sabbir Bin Shams
ActionAid, Bangladesh
Farhat Sheikh
The Asia Foundation, Pakistan
Nader Tadros
America's Development Foundation,
Egypt / USA
Jeffrey Unsicker
School for International Training, USA
Meenu Vadera
ActionAid, Uganda
Nicole Van Houten
The Asia Foundation, USA
George Varughese
The Asia Foundation, Nepal
Lisa VeneKlasen
The Asia Foundation, USA
Zhang Ye
The Asia Foundation, China
Carol Yost
The Asia Foundation, USA
Mishka Zaman
ActionAid, USA
Fikre Zewdie
ActionAid, Ethiopia
Nani Zulminarni
PPSW (Center for Women's Resources Development), Indonesia
Just Associates
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