This paper provides insights for beginners and other practitioners how to chart the uncharted waters of advocacy. The paper intends to have guide posts on how to navigate the tough challenges of advocacy. It presents to the practitioner reasons why not to quit even when you think you are involved in an impossible mission of bringing about change. Why it is necessary to review your strategy instead of quitting because we know too well that if you run away from the battle field you will have to face the battle another day.
Advocacy requires strong inner will to take challenges to bring about change, which change often are blocked by heavy weights in politics, business, religion, the judiciary, diplomacy, etc. Often these set of people are small in number, but powerful in wealth, influence and power. So if one decides to take on advocacy on an issue, policy or otherwise, one should have at the back of the mind that a long haul is a possibility. Ones ability to sustain the advocacy in spite of funding restrictions/limitations remains to be part of the advocates strategy.
The advocates’ strong purpose is that the change envisaged is meant for the greater good and that should be the focus and not distractions that will be placed in the way to deviate from the advocacy strategy.
What I have described in the pages of this paper is a personal experience of my advocacy work in over 20 years. This paper will be reviewed as more experience are encountered in my work.
Joseph Rahall
