John Samuel
We have not made a single gain in civil rights
without determined legal and non violent pressure…
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor;
it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Martin Luther King
Be the Change you want.
Mahatma Gandhi
Advocacy means amplifying the voice, but the
fundamental question facing activists is whose voice and
for what purpose. Across the world large numbers of
people are marginalised and unheard in the corridors of
power. Advocacy can work to amplify their voices,
however, this aspect of advocacy is often less understood
or put into practice. Advocacy is more often perceived as
a systematic process of influencing public policies. Yet,
while policy change is
necessary, it is not sufficient to
transform the structures, attitudes, and values that are at
the root of societal inequities and injustice. Instead a more
people-centred approach focused on social transformation
is needed.
Characteristics of people-centred
advocacy
People-centred advocacy is a set of organised actions
aimed at influencing public policies, societal attitudes, and
socio-political processes that enable and empower the
marginalised to speak for themselves. Its purpose is social
transformation through the realisation of human rights:
civil, political, economic, social, and cultural. Peoplecentred
advocacy is by the people, of the people, and for
the people. Hence, it is the spirit of democracy that drives
the very idea of people-centred advocacy.
A ‘people-centred’ approach acknowledges the critical
role of citizens. However, it seeks to go beyond the
framework of a ‘State-Citizen’ axis to the arena of the
people that include both citizens as well as
disenfranchised people not recognised by the state as
citizens. That is why the term people-centred, instead of
citizen-centred is preferred. As Mikhail Bakumin pointed
out ‘No state, however democratic… is capable of giving
the people what they need: the free organisation of their
own interest from below upward, without any
interference, tutelage or coercion from above. …no
state… in essence represents anything but government…
by an educated, and thereby privileged minority which
supposedly understand the real interest of the people
better than people themselves.’
1 Hence, people-centred
advocacy is about mobilising
the politics of the people to
ensure that the
politics of the state is accountable,
transparent, ethical, and democratic. It is a mode of social
and political action.
Ethical choices
In people-centred advocacy
being is as important as
becoming.
• Unless one believes in a cause, one cannot advocate for
that particular cause. Integrity and legitimacy of
advocates are what provide moral force to advocacy.
Hence, it seeks to bridge the gap between the words
and the deeds; theory and practice; rhetoric and real
life experience. It stresses that unless you challenge and
change yourself, you cannot change others.
• People-centred advocacy stresses the
compatibility of
means and ends
. Unjust means can never be used for a
just end. In this sense, people-centred advocacy seeks
to change unjust power relations through non-violent
direct action.
Rights-based approach
People-centred advocacy encompasses a rights-based
approach to social change and transformation.
• People are not passive beneficiaries or charity seekers
of the state or government. The state’s political and
moral responsibility is to guarantee all human rights to
all human beings; particularly the right to live with
dignity. Hence people have a right to demand that the
state ensures equitable social change and distributive
justice.
• Citizens are the owners of the state. Hence, the state
should be transparent and accountable to citizens and
defend human rights. People-centred advocacy
1
M. Bakumin (1873) Statism and Anarchy, translated and edited by
Marshel S. Shatz, Cambridge University Press, 1990. p. 24.
Citation: Samuel, J. (2002)
What is people-centred advocacy? PLA Notes, 43: 9-12
xxx
mobilises people and civil society against societal
violations of human rights.
• It seeks to bridge the gap between micro-level activism
and macro-level policy change. It stresses a bottom-up
approach to social change rather than a top-down
approach through macro-level policy change. It seeks to
strengthen people’s participation in the process of
policy making and implementation.
Political perspective
• People-centred advocacy seeks to go beyond the idea
of
advocating on behalf of the marginalised to the
practice of enabling and empowering the
marginalised
to speak for themselves
.
• A value-driven process, it works to challenge and
change unjust and unequal power relations, e.g.
patriarchy at every level of society; from private to
public, from family to governance. Values of social
justice and human rights are at its core.
• It seeks to go beyond a state-centred approach to
social change and politics to one shaped and led by the
people. Grounded in the right to democratic dissent, it
also includes the responsibility to work for just and
viable political and policy alternatives.
Integrating principles
The three integrating principles of people-centred
approaches are:
participation, communication and
legitimacy
. They integrate its politics and ethics as well as
the various arenas of advocacy.
Participation
Participation is not a mere strategy to manufacture
consent, manipulate consensus or extract cheap labour.
Participation is a principle based on an
inclusive moral
choice; participation means sharing power, legitimacy,
freedom, responsibilities, and accountability. Participation
is both a principle and means to include as many people
as possible in the process of social change. Built on a deep
respect for plurality, tolerance, and dissent, it also involves
an ability to understand and appreciate differences.
Transparency is a pre-requisite for true participation. In
people-centred advocacy, participation is a crucial means
to initiate, inform, and inspire change in all arenas of
advocacy.
A deep sense of participation and communication help
promote solidarity. Strong social movements sprout from a
cause and identity common to large numbers of people
sharing a vision and passion for change.
Communication
Advocacy is a communicative act and a set of actions that
involves communications designed to promote social
action. Community, collectivism, and communication are
closely interwoven. The process of advocacy involves
different elements. These include:
Communicate to
Convince; Convince to Change; Change to Commit; and
Commit to Convert to the cause.
Communication is not merely the use of language. It is an
attitude – a willingness to share; to learn; to reach out;
and to speak. The clarity of the message is as important
as the choice of medium. An effective communication
strategy involves the creative use of symbols, language,
information, knowledge, poetry, prose, and politics. The
commitment of the communicator is as important as the
message. Such a process involves learning from people,
sharing with them, and inspiring and being inspired by
them. Advocacy communication needs to be consistent,
continuous, creative, compelling, and convincing.
Legitimacy
Legitimacy is not merely about legality; it is both about
ethics and politics. Legitimacy is not something one
assumes, but something one acquires. Connected to the
perception of power, legitimacy is derived over a period of
time through a series of actions. It is the sense of deep
commitment, accountability, communicability, and action
that help to derive legitimacy. It is both relative and
dynamic, and fosters credibility. Each arena of advocacy
demands a particular type of legitimacy.
Arenas of people-centred advocacy
Defining the arenas of people-centred advocacy helps
clarify the roles and strategies of different set of actors in
bringing about social change. As Figure I shows, there are
four arenas of people-centred advocacy – a) People b)
Public c) Network/Alliance, and d) Decision-makers – that
are linked to each other and overlap at certain points.
People
Key to the process is the arena of
people:
• those who are directly affected by an issue;
• those with whom an organisation or movement is
directly working; and,
• those who identify with a particular cause or issue.
Advocacy work in this arena involves educating people on
an issue, mobilising people around an issue, and
organising a particular group or community for long-term
social transformation. Mobilisation is a continuous process
of interaction, learning, critical awareness, and collective
action. It needs to educate, enable, and empower the
people. Such a process needs a clear political perspective
and a long-term strategy for communication and
participation.
Public
‘The Public’ is one of the most used yet least understood
terms. People-centred advocacy defines the public
principally as the middle class, opinion makers,
intellectuals, and media. Whether as perpetuators or
PEOPLE
a) Affected
b) Directly working with
C) Who identify with the cause
Citation: Samuel, J. (2002)
What is people-centred advocacy? PLA Notes, 43: 9-12
xxx
challengers of the status quo, they play a substantial role
in shaping the political agenda and have the means to
amplify the voice of the voiceless. To be effective,
advocacy needs to tap a critical mass of the public.
Media Advocacy is the strategic use of communication
and mass media to bring an issue into the public arena
and the political discourse. It has two aspects:
• creating news through building collective action; and,
• articulating views through the media (see Box 1).
Knowledge-based activism is an important factor that
influences the public. In the information age, it is not only
the emotional appeal of an issue that matters, but the
overall rationale based on a knowledge-based argument
that makes a decisive impact.
Networking and alliance
The arena of networking and alliance is important for
sharing resources, coordinating multiple strategies, and
involving a large number of actors in advocacy.
Networking widens the outreach and helps to build up a
multiplier effect in terms of impact and public discourse.
Advocacy seeks to integrate power of knowledge and the
power of networking. Advocacy is also a process of
negotiating with various institutions, including institutions
of governance. Such a process requires long-term
commitment and optimal institutional and financial
resources. Networking is an important means to synergise
the strengths of both institutions and individuals that
identify with the advocacy cause. Clarity of goals,
compatibility of perspective, and convergence of interest
are crucial for any sustainable networking. It seeks to
bridge the gap between micro-level activism and macrolevel
policy initiative, developing multiple voices and
diverse efforts in favour of the advocacy cause.
Box 1
Both
poetry and politics c a n play a role in developing
communication strategies. In a campaign against a Hydro e l e c t r i c
p roject in Silent Va l l e y, a virgin forest in Kerala India, our
experience validates the power of poetry in influencing the public.
The Silent Valley campaign (1978-83) was basically meant to
p rotect bio-diversity and to raise critical questions about the
n a t u re of development. No community was to be displaced by the
p roject. The entire media, political establishment, and trade
unions were for the hydroelectric project. Yet over a period of time
four poets and five poems changed the public mood and political
context. The poems caught the imagination of the young people,
and many were mobilised through the People’s Science
Movement. Media could not aff o rd to ignore the concerns of
such a large number of middle class youth nor the opinion of
poets, writers, and intellectuals. This created one of the first public
discourses on the environment and sustainable development in
India during the late seventies and early eighties. Advocacy
strategies focused on the public arena can influence all other
a renas substantially.
Figure 1 Arenas of people-centred advocacy
NETWORK /
ALLIANCE
(Social Justice and
Human Rights)
Legitimacy
PUBLIC
Middle class, Media, Opinion
Makers, Writers,
Intellectuals etc.
DECISION MAKERS
Government, Socio-cultural
Institutions, Local Self
Government, Corporators,
Religion etc.
PERSONAL
VALUES
Citation: Samuel, J. (2002)
What is people-centred advocacy? PLA Notes, 43: 9-12
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Decision makers
The decision makers are those who have authority to
make decisions and influence power relationships. This
includes not only state policies, but also those who have
the power to make decision in socio-cultural institutions,
corporations, religious institutions, etc. There are multiple
arenas of power and institutions that influence public
policies and social attitudes. For instance, many of the
religious institutions and practices perpetuate
discrimination on the basis of gender and cast.
Lobbying is a strategic process of convincing those in the
corridors of power to make decisions or to exert their
influence in favour of an advocacy cause. It is a rational
process of making a convincing argument, using
information and knowledge. However, the real bargaining
power of a lobbyist comes from people, the public, as well
as the process of networking. A people-centred
perspective insists that lobbyists should be grounded in
real life experience, and have an organic relationship with
grassroots movements and the credibility and legitimacy
that comes from that relationship.
Power, politics, and policy
Public policy is a function of the dominant politics. Politics
is a dominant set of power relationships, so there is a
need to understand the link between public policies and
political process on the one hand; and political process
and power relationship within the society on the other
hand. An issue needs to be framed the way people feel
and perceive it. An issue is a social, economic or political
concern or phenomenon, which affects a large number of
people over a long period of time. It needs to be
understood in terms of power relationships within the
society, politics of the state, and policy priorities.
One of the key problems in most of the countries in the
Global South is the increasing gap between policy rhetoric
and real implementation. Radical sounding language is
increasingly used to gloss over deprivation, injustice, and
inequality. Through the co-option of language, symbols,
and institutions that claim to represent civil society and
the marginalised, decision makers tend to create more
and more
policy mirage. Policy mirage is a public policy
statement, which articulates a lofty vision and principles
for change, without any clear programme to move toward
that vision and without any budgetary allocation to
implement the policy. Such policy mirages create illusions
of change while perpetuating the status quo. Hence, there
is a need to understand and change a public policy in
terms of policy direction, relevant legislation,
accompanying programme, implementing mechanisms,
and most importantly, financial allocation.
People-centred advocacy always considers every aspect of
policy, process, and negotiation in terms of the real impact
it can bring to the lives of the poorest. Every action needs
to be inspired and informed by Mahatma Gandhi’s
talisman:
I will give you a talisman… Recall the face of the
poorest and the weakest man whom you may have
seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is
going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything
by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own
life and destiny? Then you will find your doubts and
yourself melting away.
