ACPST boot camp on advocacy and human security
Changes in policy and practice are needed to counter emerging threats and consolidate gains in an effort to achieve human security in Africa.
Date: 2013-03-18 to 2013-03-29
Venue: 6th Floor Get House Building
, ISS Addis Ababa
Rationale for the training course
Changes in policy and practice are needed to counter emerging threats and consolidate gains in an effort to achieve human security in Africa. More specifically, changes in the attitudes and behavior of leaders, decision makers and the general populace are necessary to deal with domestic violence, waste management and environmental degradation, the management of diversity, conduct of peaceful elections, human trafficking, drug trafficking, etc. Peace and security practitioners need advocacy and campaigning skills to improve their ability to bring about change in the sectors in which they operate. These skills are, however, limited among practitioners working on human security issues in Africa.
Participants
The course brought together state and non-state practitioners working on a wide range of human security issues. The 21 participants from 17 African countries worked on issues as diverse as wildlife conservation, human rights, women and children’s rights, trauma counseling, crime prevention, sustainable rural development, anti-corruption, labor rights and veterans rights.
Contents and outcomes
The course provided peace and security practitioners working in Africa with advocacy and campaigning skills that will increase their ability to significantly impact the sectors in which they operate. The following questions were addressed:
- What is advocacy?
- How does one go about building and implementing highly effective advocacy campaigns?
- How does one do advocacy on human security issues?
- How can advocacy help peace and security practitioners in Africa become more effective in their work?
- How can effective advocacy campaigns help in the fight against threats to human security?
The course provided participants with the skills and tools needed to develop and implement individual strategies. In addition, each participant developed an advocacy campaign strategy in an area of her/his choice. This included undertaking context analysis; stakeholder mapping; and developing a campaign identity, a monitoring and evaluation framework, a media strategy and press pack, and a policy brief.
Many participants developed advocacy campaign strategies on issues that are part of their regular work and that they hope to implement in the near future. For example, one participant who had attended ACPST’s course on Countering Human Trafficking succeeded in raising funding from the US Embassy in Kampala for an awareness campaign on human trafficking. The advocacy strategy for the awareness campaign was developed during this course and funding for the campaign will commence in April 2013.
