Enhancing CSO Influence on Policy

1. Enhancing CSO Influence on Policy CIVICUS Workshop Glasgow, June 2006 Julius Court & Vanessa Weyrauch

2. Why this matters? • CSOs are important players in development … • … but, acting alone, their impact is limited in scope, scale and sustainability. • There is more potential for partnership. • Many development challenges remain. • CSOs increasingly involved in policy engagement. • The credibility and legitimacy of CSO involvement is questioned.

3. Workshop Outline • Introduction • Case Study from Argentina • Discussion: CSOs and policy influence – challenges and opportunities. • CSOs and Policy Influence: Recent Evidence • Discussion: How to do it - experiences & lessons. • Close

4. Self Introductions. • 1 minute!

5. Influencing the Educational Budget: CIPPEC´s work in a Southern province in Argentina Vanesa Weyrauch Av. Callao 25, 1° • C1022AAA Buenos Aires, Argentina - Tel: (54 11) 4384-9009 • Fax: (54 11) 4371-1221 • info@cippec.org • www.cippec.org

6. CIPPEC as organisation • CIPPEC as an organisation in evolution: hybrid between focus on research, advocacy, monitoring and implementation. • Initial institutional funding enabled the selection of the research topic and methodology. • Multidisciplinary team with clear and legitimised leadership. • Experience from the civil society standpoint: capacity building, monitoring and influence through alliances with CSOs. • Experience from the politics standpoint: advice and implementation with provincial governments.

7. Research at CIPPEC • Project “The educational provinces”: a comparative analysis of the implementation of the Federal Education Law in the 24 jurisdictions. • Creation of an external international Advisory Council to ensure quality and reputation. • Selection of a differential focus (provincial level) and based on a milestone of the policy under study (10 years after implementation). • Participatory approach: engagement of all stakeholders. Consensus building to identify potential reforms.

8. Research at CIPPEC • Intensive follow up of media coverage to assess prevailing discourses. • Detection and analysis of all related policy proposals. • Translation of findings into a clear and simple format (rankings, indexes, etc.) • Use of language of policymakers: get to understand them. Face to face interaction.

9. The context • Argentina as a federal country: the double level of decision making processes. • Political rationality in the provinces: education perceived by policymakers as a weight and a problem. • Lack of social participation in the educational policies. • Different political settings derived from a federal system that required diverse intervention strategies.

10. Influence strategies • Legitimisation: the risk of the “foreigner”: the comparative look and academic rigour as key endorsements. • Capacity building: two handbooks on how to influence the educational budget and the social investment in children. • Policy debate: active participation in the diverse stages of the discussion and sanction of the Education Financing Law.

11. Influence strategies • Media campaign: dissemination of the provincial report through local media and partnership with a local CSO. • Combined and staged process: a window of opportunity with the change of a government accused of corruption and arrival of “fresh air”. • Complexity of the measure: TDF is the province with higher investment on education per student and lower budgetary effort for education (paradox of the coparticipation).

12. Evidence: key data

13. The impact • High impact in media, policymakers and educational sectors: awareness of the urgent need to adddress budgetary issues. • Hired by the new Minister of Education to provide advice. • Draft of a law for investment in education. Governor refuses to committ. Mingled actors and steps. • The initiative is welcome by part of the oposition in the provincial Congress (ARI). Unpredictable alliances: changes in power. • Sanction of a law to increase investment in education (reach 25% increase in 4 years).

14. Some lessons… • Influencing public policies implies interrupting chaotic, complex, unpredictable processes. • The double thrust of interrupting and walking along the forces in the decision making processes. • Work with a double perspective: the comparison brought by a foreigner and alliances with organisations with local knowledge. • Dialogue with all stakeholders, find a niche in discourse. • Challenge: fulfilment of laws in unstable legal domains. • Secure long term funding: processes are long and unexpected opportunities arise.

15. Any questions about the case?

16. Discussion: CSO and Policy • Group work • What are the main enabling factors? • What are the main barriers?

17. Linear model Too close for comfort, Edwards Impact & Effectiveness, Fowler ‘Context, evidence, links’, RAPID Policy narratives, Roe CSO legitimacy, L. David Brown Links and Learning, Gaventa ‘Room for manoeuvre’, Clay & Schaffer ‘Street level bureaucrats’, Lipsky Policy as experiments, Rondinelli Policy Streams & Windows, Kingdon Disjointed incrementalism, Lindquist Tipping point model, Gladwell Mercenaries, missionaries and revolutionaries, Malena ‘Non-Western?’, Lewis Global Civil Society, Salamon, Kaldor Types of Engagement, Coston Linear model of communication, Shannon ‘Space’ for thought & action, Howell Simple and surprising stories, Communication Theory Provide solutions, Marketing Theory I Find the right packaging, Marketing II Global Civil Society?, Keane Global Legitimacy, van Rooy Epistemic communities, Haas Policy entrepreneurs, Najam Advocacy coalitions, Keck & Sikkink Negotiation through networks, Sabattier Social capital, Coleman Accountability, OneWorld Trust Communication for social change, Rockefeller Foundation Wheels and webs, Chapman & Fisher CSOs & Policy: Literature www.odi.org.uk/rapid/lessons/theory

18. CSOs, Evidence, Policy, Impact

19. Main Barriers to Engagement CSOs • Capacity (62%) • Funding (57%) • Process kn (48%) (CSO evidence not seen as credible) Policy Processes • Not open (47%) • Corrupt • No capacity to use evidence

20. Discussion: Support for CSOs • What more can CSOs do to influence policy processes? • What kind of support would help you influence policy more?

21. Problems and Solutions

22. Needs for Effective Policy Engagement • Training (59%) • Latest thinking (55%) • More research (52%)

23. Specific Tools Overarching Tools - The RAPID Framework - Using the Framework - The Entrepreneurship Questionnaire Context Assessment Tools - Stakeholder Analysis - Forcefield Analysis - Writeshops - Policy Mapping - Political Context Mapping Communication Tools - Communications Strategy - SWOT analysis - Message Design - Making use of the media Research Tools - Case Studies - Episode Studies - Surveys - Bibliometric Analysis - Focus Group Discussion Policy Influence Tools - Influence Mapping & Power Mapping - Lobbying and Advocacy - Campaigning: A Simple Guide - Competency self-assessment

24. Further Information Julius Court jcourt@odi.org.uk Vanessa Weyrauch vweyrauch@cippec.org www.odi.org.uk/rapid www.cippec.org