1. PLANNING POLICY ADVOCACY PROPOSALS AND STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
DAY 2, SEMINAR POLICY ADVOCACY AND LOBBYISM

2. Objectives of Today To explore and discuss
How to select specific solutions – policy proposals - for the current problems, and how to do it in practice.
How to conduct a stakeholder analysis – identifying people with a say on the policy proposals – and how to do it in practice.

3. Identifying Policy Solutions
Identifying solutions for key policy issues
You have now identified several problems or issues that require action. The next step is to develop corresponding policy solutions for these problems.
What can an organization (such as an NGO or an interest group) or a political institution (such as a government ministry) do to help solve the problem?
Policy Solutions are important for advocacy
Problem descriptions with a proposed solution get more attention and make your presentation towards policy makers and the public serious and constructive. That goes especially in cases, where policy makers lacks funding to realise the proposal.
Turning to identify and select solutions for the selected issues
After having identified several problems or issues that require action, the next step is to develop policy solutions for these problems by widening the range of possible solutions to a problem
What can a political organization or institution do to help solve the problem?
In the previous tables we found that men are aware of family planning in general, but they do not know much about male sterilization. This is the problem or policy issue.
In what ways could organizations or government institutions help solve this problem?
Family planning providers who conduct education programs could decide to increase attention to male sterilization as a contraceptive option.
That is a policy solution.

4. Identifying Policy Solutions
Definition of Policy Solutions
Policy solutions seek to improve the effectiveness of public laws and regulations, inform the use of public funds, and address practices that impact upon the specific issue.
Example of a policy solution
Men are aware of family planning in general, but they do not know much about male sterilization. This is the problem or policy issue. In what ways could organizations or government institutions help solve this problem?
Family planning providers who conduct education programs could decide to increase attention to male sterilization as a contraceptive option. This is a policy.

5. Identifying Policy Solutions
Finding policy solutions
Policy Solutions typically rely on policy instruments that government can use, including actions such as spending more or less and starting or ending programs.
If you have a positive and feasible solution to suggest, do so. If you don’t have a proposal, if you want to counter a proposal, or if you want to create fresh alternatives, stimulate your thinking with any of these approaches:
Review the problematic conditions with a fresh eye, looking for unnoticed solutions
Reconsider a tried-but-failed or a known-but-ignored solution to find new potential
Look at the problem from a different perspective (a different stakeholder’s, for example)
Assign it to a different governmental level or jurisdiction if government already addresses the problem
Consult with nonprofit groups and nongovernmental organizations that are concerned about the problem

6. Workshop: Identify Possible Solutions
Indentify solutions for your issues
Take 10 minutes to identify possible solutions for your issues
List at least two public policy alternatives for each of your selected four key issues.
Each alternative must specify the actual government or government agency that will carry out the proposed action.
Remember: Develop new/original policy alternatives, not policy goals
Improving education, reducing pollution, lowering the crime rate and things like that is not policy proposals but policy or advocacy goals
A policy solution must include a specific type of government action to reach the policy or advocacy goal.
Sharing experiences with the group
List your selected key issues
Look at the problems behind your selected issues. Are there any of the issues that could be decreased or eliminated through a new public policy?
Look again at the problems behind your selected issues. Have the current policy simply failed to even deal with the problem? Should it be totally replaced, strengthened or improved?
List at least three public policy alternatives. Each alternative must specify the actual government or government agency that will carry out the proposed action.
Tips: Three possible proposals for reducing teen drunk driving deaths are:
Reducing the legal level for alcohol blood levels from 0.1 to 0.08.
Increased education in schools about alcohol and the consequences of drunk driving by implementing an information campaign on local school level.
Raising the age at which you can get a license to 18.

7. Workshop: Selecting Possible Solutions
Sharing your experiences with the team
Submit your policy issues for the team, one group at a time:
Does your policy solutions point to a specific type of goverment action to come about to solve the specific issue and contribute to reach the overall advocacy goal?
What is it, that the government specifically has to do to solve the problem?
How exactly should the government do it?
Which government branch is responsible for carrying the policy proposal out?

8. Selecting Main Policy Proposals
Using a prioritation framework
A prioritisation framework can help select policy proposals for action by sorting the solutions after immidiacy of action and possibilities to influence policy makers or engage members.

9. Work Shop: Selecting Policy Proposals
Selecting your main policy proposal
Take 15 minutes to select the most important solution to work for
Use the prioritation framework to select your main policy proposals by sorting the solutions after immidiacy of action and possibility to influence policy makers or engage members.
Fill out solution prioritisation framework number 1, taking into account the immidiacy of the problem and the actual oppurtunities to engage in policy making.
Fill out solution prioritisation framework number 2, taking into account the immidiacy of the problem and the actual oppurtunities to engage members and the public.

10. Workshop: Selecting Main Policy Proposals
Annex to policy proposal prioritisation: Framework number 1
Annex to issues prioritisation step 2
Issues Prioritisation Framework

11. Workshop: Selecting Main Policy Proposals
Annex to policy proposal prioritisation: Framework number 2

12. Workshop: Selecting Policy Proposals
Sharing your experiences with the team
Submit your main policy proposal for the team
Why did you choose this policy proposal?
Which policy issue does the proposal refer to?
What does this policy proposal require of the politicians?
How can the policy proposal be finansed?

13. Selecting Policy Issues and Proposals
What to do, if policy makers don’t care
Some times government simply don’t care about others opinion.
In a democratic proces politians has the right to close their eyes. In such situations maybe resources are better spend at membership services, unless you can join other actors, that the government is interested in.
Selecting your key issues is also about choosing between advocacy and membership services. You need membership services that attracts new members. The more members you have the more relevant you are for the politicians. Representativity of workers is also an advocacy tool.
Where do you get the highest payoff for your ressources – advocacy or services? – or can you combine both?

14. Stakeholder Analysis Who are stakeholders
Stakeholders are persons, groups or institutions with interests in a project or programme and includes both winners and losers, and those involved or excluded from decision-making processes
Why conduct stakeholder analysis
You can use stakeholder analysis to:
Identify people, groups and institutions that can or will influence your project either positively or negatively.
Anticipate the kind of influence, positive or negative, these gruops will have on your project.
Develop strategies to get the most effective support for your projekt and reduce any obstacles for pursuing your policy issues.

15. Stakeholder analysis Identifying stakeholders
Which actors has a (positive or negative) say about the matter
Having identified advocacy goals, issues and solutions – and through this the specific policy proposals to work for in an advocacy startegy, we are now going to identify your advocacy targets through stakeholder analysis. That means all the people or groups who has any say on your proposal.
Focus on actors with high power over the matter
Given the often limited resources available for advocacy, it is important to focus your advocacy efforts on the individuals, groups or institutions that have the greatest influence over the matter and thus the greatest possibility to realise the desired policy change.
Show consideration towards actors with high interest in the matter
The more people who are talking about and supporting your proposal the more legitimacy and broad ownership it gets. Actors with high interest in the matter can be used to verbal promoting in the public and political arena, even though they can’t decide on the matter themselves.
Identifying and selecting your advocacy targets
Having identified your advocacy goals, issues and solutions, we can look to identify and select your advocacy targets.
Given the often limited resources available for advocacy, it is important to focus your advocacy efforts on the individuals, groups or institutions that
have the greatest influence over the matter and thus the greatest possibility to realise the desired policy change.
Identifying advocacy targets will help you to plan strategically and choose the most appropriate methods or activities.

16. Workshop: Identifying Stakeholders
Identifying key stakeholders
Take 20 minutes to identify your stakeholders
Organize a brainstorming of potential stakeholders
Identify all people, group, and institutions that affect - or can be affected by - your policy proposal, and write them down.
Identify the specific interests each stakeholder have in your project
Consider the benefit(s) of the proposal to the stakeholder; the changes that the proposal might require the stakeholder to make; and the activities that might cause damage or conflict for the stakeholder.
Assign IL for low interest and IH for high interest for each of the stakeholders.
Identify how important the stakeholder are to the success of your proposal
Consider the power and importance of the stakeholder and the role he must play for the proposal to be adopted, and the likelihood that the stakeholder will play this role. Also consider the likelihood and impact of a stakeholders negative response to the proposal.
Assign PH for high power and PL for low power.
Place your stakeholders in the power/interest grid
When you have assigned the level of power and influence for each of your stakeholders, place them in the power/interest grid to get a picture of which stakeholders to attend to and how.