The advocacy process involves a number of interrelated actions designed to strategically affect change at various levels - including increasing community awareness of the issue to create a constituency to push for legal reform, influencing law and policy making and improving the overall response to violence against women and girls. Drafters and advocates for new or improved laws should identify the purpose of the advocacy campaign before initiating action. The purpose may range from solving a specific problem by changing a law or policy to generally raising awareness about violence against women and girls in a specific country or region of the world.
CASE STUDY: Tanzania’s Advocacy Expert Series
From January 2002 to September 2005, Pact Tanzania implemented the Tanzania Advocacy Partnership Program. The program was a comprehensive capacity strengthening program for Tanzanian civil society organizations with the goal of building the capacity of the CSOs to conduct advocacy programs effectively. The outcome of the project was the creation of an Advocacy Expert Series as well as Legislative Roadmap Guides for Tanzanian civil society groups. The Advocacy Series includes six guides focused on Building and Maintaining Coalitions and Networks, Civil Society and Advocacy, Community Mobilization, Gender Mentoring, Policy Law and Governance, and Media. The guides highlight strategies for advocates in the African context throughout the advocacy cycle, including problem identification, research, planning, building alliances, action and evaluation.
CASE STUDY: In 2001-02, the Council of Europe implemented a pilot program in Moldova on criminal law reform on trafficking in human beings. The stated goal of the program was to contribute to the effective criminalization of trafficking in human beings at the regional level and to ensure protection of victims’ human rights. This program engaged Moldavian authorities in extensive analysis and review of legislation as well as development of and feedback on plans for implementation of a national strategy to combat trafficking. International experts as well as NGOs were convened to provide commentary on draft legislation to criminalize trafficking in human beings, with specific focus on harmonization with international legal standards. Council of Europe advisors also encouraged Moldavian authorities to develop secondary legislation on the prevention of trafficking as well as on assistance for victims. Ultimately, Moldova developed a specific action plan to implement the newly drafted legislation that reached far beyond simply passing the new law. Moldavian authorities identified the fact that they would need to promote the new legislation, develop new mechanisms to protect victims and witnesses under the new law, establish shelters and funds for victim compensation, improve legislation on cooperation between the government and civil society, create new specialized structures within the police, judiciary and border control, ratify several additional treaties and protocols, and designate government officials to actively engage with regional anti-trafficking networks. Ultimately, the pilot program in Moldova was followed by a region-wide anti-trafficking program designed to harmonize legislation in ten countries. See: Criminal Law Reform on Trafficking in Human Beings in the South: Pilot Project in Romania and Moldova, Directorate General of Legal Affairs, Council of Europe (2003).