Community Monitoring in Health Resources for the Practitioner |
Alliance / Coalition Building
Advocacy can rarely be done alone. One of the key responsibilities of the advocate is perhaps to obtain a mandate from the very people whose cause she/he is taking forward. Thus building a partnership with the affected is an important step in the process. But this alone is not enough, other important constituents in an advocacy strategy include members of the media, NGOs concerned with the issue, academics, public personalities who can endorse the demand, health groups, legal and so on. The objective of coalition building is not only to engage more constituencies around to issue and build broader consensus and political support around the issue but also to increase resources within the group.
In the process of coalition building the main issue should remain clearly in focus and not get diluted. However together with this process there needs to be consensus built on the specifics- viz. what will be the position of the group on the issue, what are the various outcomes that are desired, who will take what roles and so on. During these discussions the various people involved should discuss which are the non-negotiables, what is the common minimum understanding and what are the areas of compromise.
Identifying Allies
In the process of coalition building the main issue should remain clearly in focus and not get diluted. However together with this process there needs to be consensus built on the specifics- viz. what will be the position of the group on the issue, what are the various outcomes that are desired, who will take what roles and so on. During these discussions the various people involved should discuss which are the non-negotiables, what is the common minimum understanding and what are the areas of compromise.
Identifying Allies
- Which other groups and organisations are working on the issue?
- Are there any pre-existing networks working on the broad issue?
- What are their stands, approach to the problem? How similar or dissimilar is it?
- What are the relative strengths of these organisations and networks?
- Can we contribute to their processes and activities, do they need our contributions?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of working together with these groups and networks?