Civil society is an important promoter of people’s interests. There are organizations in the country that do very important things for society using limited resources more out of enthusiasm For the messages of the civil society organizations (SCOs) to be heard, these can carry out advocacy campaigns. International communication expert Radic Nebojsa was invited by FHI 360 to train the SCOs supported within the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society project, which is financed by USAID. The organizations were taught how to organize advocacy campaigns, to identify the needs of people and to promote them. The expert answered the questions of the reporter of IPN News Agency.
---
– Mister Nebojsa, why did you come to Moldova to conduct this training?
– This training is organized within the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society project. In the training seminars, we discuss methods by which civil society can cooperate with the Government and the public authorities so as to find solutions to the problems faced by Moldovan society. Moldova is now at a very important stage. The country is witnessing changes related to the rapprochement with the EU and time is now opportune for the Government to cooperate with civil society so as to engage society more in taking decisions.
– How important the advocacy campaigns are for SCOs?
– The goal of advocacy is to establish communication ways by which the government can obtain structured information from civil society and the community in general and by which the organizations can reach such decision makers as Parliament and other institutions formulating policies so as to promote the ideas for which they plead. The final aim is to strengthen this communication channel. Within this training, we teach how to cooperate with the mass media and how the NGOs can make their messages more attractive for media outlets because the mass media are the sphere where representatives of the Government cooperate with representatives of civil society. We can say that advocacy means active cooperation between the community and representatives of decision makers, aimed at finding solutions to problems in concert.
– What are your impressions about the advocacy campaigns conducted by the Moldovan SCOs?
– I’m impressed by the activity of the groups that promote the rights of persons with disabilities in Moldova. I found out about their activities aimed at sensitizing the mass media to the language that should be used in relation to the persons with disabilities as, by using inappropriate language, the mass media can cause harm to the person or can do more harm than good. It’s important that these discussions already have positive effects. I was impressed by the activity of an NGO that promotes the rights of Romany people. This NGO established that a very low number of young people of Roma ethnicity have secondary school or high school studies and saw that the problem has its roots in primary education. They started to work with the local public authorities and schools and the identified solution was to launch an extended learning pilot program for children from socially deprived families in several schools. This pilot project was financed by donors. Now the authorities and the NGO are analyzing its results to see if the project can be implemented nationwide.
This is also a form of advocacy. There are designed pilot projects that are financed by donors. Afterward, the results are examined together with the public authorities. If they are positive, possibilities are being identified for financing such initiatives from the national budget. The street protests can also be a form of advocacy, but advocacy is more than that. First of all, advocacy refers to cooperation, identification of problems and cooperation with all the players involved in a move to find together solutions to the problems.
A piece of advice for the NGOs that try to promote certain causes - they have to determine how the problem affects the whole society and must present the way in which the problem influences society.
– What recommendations do you have for the Moldovan SCOs? What these organizations should focus on when they promote an idea or the interests of a group of people?
– For a successful advocacy campaign, it is very important to collect evidence and data about the addressed problem. Studies can be made with little money too. There are cheap methods that do not entail large costs. The Internet provides a lot of possibilities in this respect. A number of international organizations decided to make public the data concerning Moldova. Furthermore, in Moldova there are several powerful local organizations that can help the NGOs find the data they need.
– Which are the most important criteria the CSOs should take account of when planning an advocacy campaign?
– An NGO must understand that it’s not possible to carry out an advocacy campaign successfully if it is detached from the main players. It’s practically impossible for an NGO to promote an advocacy campaign if it works by itself. Two things should be taken into account if one wants to achieve results – to have good relations with the key players, the beneficiaries and its constituents and to make effort to establish networks or coalitions with other NGOs working in the same field. I would encourage the NGOs to find communication platforms or methods to attract society into their campaigns so that they do not do everything with their own forces only. Possibilities should be found to offer the people the possibility of becoming involved in campaigns. In the training seminars, we discuss an instrument that enables several persons to contribute small sums. We must use the relevant online platforms. Another possibility is to stage roundtable meetings that would involve ordinary people who would state their opinions about the addressed problems. An option is to provide volunteering opportunities for those who want or to offer the people the possibility of subscribing to a petition or another document of the kind so as to show that they support the promoted cause.
– Is it true that an advocacy campaign can be staged only with a stable budget or such a campaign can be organized with little money too?
– There are different budgets in fact, based on money and on enthusiasm. There are organizations with enormous enthusiasm that do great things with small budgets. Such organizations usually use creative methods to promote their messages.
– The activities of the Moldovan SCOs are yet not sufficiently made public. The people have vague ideas or insufficient information about them. How can this problem be fixed?
– I found out from a number of sources that in Moldova they do not correctly understand the role of civil society and there are wrong perceptions that these organizations have enormous budgets and that they de facto promote donors’ interests. In fact, they can do two things to overcome this situation. The first can be done by the civil society organizations themselves as there are organizations that do big things with small budgets. They can establish ties with civil society to inform that they do these great things. On the other hand, the mass media must make effort to discover persons who work out of enthusiasm and dedicate their life to prompting such a cause. These two sides can cooperate in order to overcome the ambiguities. Within the training, we discuss how the organizations can make themselves visible. We explain to the organizations what’s worth being news and how to establish contacts with the mass media and to promote their messages.
----
Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society is a five-year project implemented by FHI 360 with the financial resources of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The goal of the project is to improve the capacity of the Moldovan civil society to represent people’s interests, to influence the public policies and to support the democratic function of the civil society sector. The project contributes to strengthening the Moldovan SCOs and their networks and to improving the relations between these organizations and the public authorities.
Mariana Galben, IPN