Advocacy Skills Training

In December 2001, POSDEV responded to reports of increased number of populations (mainly in developing countries) falling below the poverty line by conducting a three-day workshop amongst its member organizations to establish a core team of competent staff to undertake policy advocacy for poverty reduction. As many development practitioners began to take a critical look at the role of policy as one of the causes of poverty, POSDEV aimed to build the capacity of 26 staff members to achieve the following objectives:

• Equip member organizations with skills to design advocacy strategies to influence poverty reduction policies at the national level
• Build the capacity of member organizations to deliver advocacy training as part of their development interventions.

The end results:

• Participants gained a better understanding of policy and advocacy by receiving new techniques in policy and advocacy training
• Ability to identify difficulties associated with effective advocacy
• Acquired the skills to formulate and implement advocacy strategies
• Learned to use advocacy as a programming tool