Advocate for Youth! – 1 / 2 

Objectives 

• To make participants understand the process of advocacy 
• To make the participants experience the decision-making and policy making processes 
• To make the participants involve in advocacy process   

Duration and Planning

Advocate for Youth – Afternoon Session 

• Problem analysis : 45 mins 
• Stakeholder analysis : 45 mins 
• Presentations : 15 mins 

Advocate for Youth – Morning Session 

• Choosing the Tool : 45 mins  
• Activity Plan : 45 mins 
• Creating a Strategy : 45 mins 
• Feedback Round : 30 mins 

Materials 

• Flipchart 
• Board Marker
• Coloured Pens
• Hand outs  

Recommended Method 

Advocate for Youth – Afternoon Session 

The facilitator provides participants with the model of the advocacy and step by step, the following process would be followed throughout the workshop. 

1. Identification and analysis of the problem/issue

2. Identification of advocacy objectives

3. Analyse the decision-making space

4. Analyse channels of influence

5. Organizational Analysis (e.g. SWOT)

6. Design advocacy strategy

7. Develop an action plan

8. Carry on continuous monitoring & evaluation

In each step, the participants will have 10 minutes of time to develop the overall action concerning to the issues of the young people. Until this process, the participants have explored the issues of young people when it comes to the human rights of young people. In this process, they have to choose one problem that they define as important. 

Problem Identification 

In the first phase, the participants are divided to 5 separate groups. The aims for this step in

analysing and developing a strategy are to identify:

• How laws and policies are creating the problem/issue or exerting further problems/challenges; and how they might contribute to its’ solution?
• What are the information gaps/needs to finalize the analysis and mapping?

After deciding the issues on the country that they plan and defined. They have continue with the problem triangle. The problems that should be advocated does not only come from the issue of the laws or policies but analyse from three different categories : 

Each group is asked to check the issues from the perspectives related to culture, content and the structure concerning the issues of the young people. 

Content is the laws, legislation, budget, etc. related with the problem/issue you identified.

Structure is the official and/or un-official mechanisms for the implementation of a law and/or policy; such as police, ministries, courts, education & health programs, etc.

Culture analysis include an analysis of values, behaviours and attitudes which influence perceptions of people towards a specific issue. Religion, customs, habits, class, gender, ethnicity, age, etc. also plays an important role on values and behaviours.

In the first phase, the participants should fill out the following form : 

According to the problem, they have to figure out the problem’s related issues concerning the culture, structure and the content. In this phase, the participants should develop the sections concerning to the culture, structure and content to develop the solutions by referring to the issues in one section which is easier for them to tackle. 

In the next phase, the participants should find out relevant stakeholders concerning to the problem they have decided to work on. During this process, the facilitator should refer to the simulation game that were already done so that the participants can understand the roles of each stakeholder clearly and their roles and how they can engage with the each stakeholder to change the situation of the problem that they have identified in previous session. 

It will be beneficial for your advocacy strategy to categorize the individuals and institutions you listed according to the allies and opponents spectrum (as below). The most effective strategies/activities to be selected are those that will bring individuals/institutions in each group to move one step closer to where you are/stand.

After deciding the ailles who can support them during the process of advocacy, they should list the stakeholders and put them in an order according to their involvement strategy. In this phase, the participants should only thing about the allies and the opponents and the stakeholders. For the next morning, they will continue working on the development of the tools concerning to the tools and methods with the participants. 

For example, for norm change requires a long-time and there can be a lot of active opponents which can prevent the achievement of the strategy. Thus, these issues should be given to the participants in a clearer way so that they can continue to development of meaningful and effective lobbying and advocacy strategies. 

The participant group makes the presentations and the trainer team provides feedback for the work to be done in the morning so that they keep the feedbacks on mind to deal with the development of the tools and strategies. 

Advocate for Youth – Morning Session 

In next morning, the participants work development of their advocacy strategy by using the tools. During this phase, the participants were informed about the tools for the advocacy with the fundamental tools of advocacy: 

• Lobbying
• Organizing
• Education and Awareness Raising
• Media/Press Work
• Mobilization

Each group has to develop the same methodology concerning to each aspect of the strategy. In this phase, the participants should work on the development of strategies. ( please consult the tool list ). You can provide the list to the participants for make them understand the issues. They continue to work with the same groups to decide on their strategies. They can use the tools and possible activities that are indicated by specificizing them with the context of the issue that they have defined for 45 minutes. 

During this process, the participants should think about the resources of the organizations involved as well as their own resources that they can use so that they should not plan something unachievable. In the next section of the workshop, we will revisit the overall strategy that they have developed. 

After the selection of the tools and laying out the details of each activity according to the following table : 

In each section, the participants will fill out the name of the tool that they chose, the activity they plan to do i.e. visiting to the mayor, planned measure i.e. providing a report or declaration, reason i.e. mayor can be an ally, s/he is the direct decision maker of the issue that is related to the problem, resource i.e. contacts to reach out the mayor. 

After the implementation of this phase, the participants will continue with the last section of their strategy to monitor the strategy that they have developed. In this phase, they have to keep on eye to make their goals as “SMART” so that it can be achievable and implementable within the timeline of their planned process. 

Advocacy Strategy Action Plan 

After the development of the strategy action plan, the participants will present their results in an exhibition format, the others can provide feedback with the post-its and the facilitator should lead the group to visit every develop strategy to make the participants give feedback to each other and  finalise the strategies that are developed. 

Additional Information and Readings
Civic Space Advocacy Information Note : https://civicspace.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/advocacy-workshop-info-note-5d628ca0f41f4-3.pdf

Smart GOAL Examples : https://www.bitesizelearning.co.uk/resources/smart-goals-meaning-examples

Tool List