Earth Today | Environmental advocacy gets toolkit boost
Published:Thursday | September 3, 2020 | 12:10 AM
IN A time when environmental advocacy appears to have taken a hit as the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic is prioritised, civil society actors involved in conservation have been provided the benefit of a new toolkit.
The toolkit, developed by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), seeks to enhance the capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) to sharpen their advocacy efforts.
It does so through the examination of topics, including ‘Defining Advocacy, Caribbean Style’, ‘The Parlance of our Advocacy’ and ‘Principles of Effective Advocacy’. It also looks at the place and value of planning and writing an effective advocacy strategy, while also providing users insight into mini case studies that demonstrate advocacy in action.
“The purpose of this toolkit is to provide practical, comprehensive guidance to Caribbean CSOs on how to design and conduct effective advocacy, especially on key environmental and other sustainable development issues at the local, national, regional or international levels,” reads the document.
“Mini case studies capturing key examples of advocacy and on-the-ground actions undertaken by national and regional CSOs in the Caribbean form an integral part of the toolkit. These case studies provide inspiration and guidance to CSOs, and reflect lessons learnt and results to build awareness and capacity,” it promises.
“The mid-2010s to 2020 ushered in a wave of effective advocacy efforts, affording Caribbean CSOs opportunities – that did not previously exist – to participate in negotiations and sway and influence public and social policies in their respective countries. This toolkit was created to encourage Caribbean CSOs to continue to engage in advocacy at every level and to do it the right way – strategically!’ it said further.
Those efforts include the very effective ‘1.5 to Stay Alive’ campaign that kicked off in October 2015 in St Lucia and which involved Panos Caribbean, together with other regional partners.
That effort saw the use of creative acts – including the likes of Jamaican singer Aaron Silk, musician Adrian ‘The Doc’ Martinez of Belize, as well as St Lucian poet Kendel Hippolyte and artist Jonathan Gladding, among others – to expose the region’s climate challenges and to lobby for the inclusion of a 1.5-degrees Celsius target for inclusion in the Paris Agreement.
A theme song was released along with several other activities, including a Selfie Video Challenge, a staged flash mob, as well as the set-up of a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account to advance key messages and mobilise Caribbean people behind the campaign.
In the end, it worked, with the ‘1.5’ target included in the historic agreement that has since been ratified by some 189 countries worldwide and the campaign given high praise by various stakeholders, including from within CARICOM.
CANARI’s toolkit seeks to enable the replication of the success of that effort, and others like it, in the interest of sustainable development for the region.
“This toolkit was designed for use by Caribbean CSOs of all sizes, makeup, and with all manner of mandates; supporters and mentors of Caribbean CSOs; and anyone who considers themselves an advocate in the region. Whether one is a novice to advocacy or has been doing advocacy work for ‘donkey years’ (that is, [for] many, many years), this resource can help inform their approach,” notes the document.
At the same time, CANARI has welcomed feedback on the document, which represents an output from two projects implemented between 2017 and 2020. The projects are the European Union-supported ‘Powering Innovations in Civil Society and Enterprises for Sustainability in the Caribbean’ and the ‘CSOs for Good Governance: Enhancing Civil Society’s contribution to governance and development processes in Trinidad and Tobago’, which also looked at boosting the advocacy potential of CSOs and other regional stakeholders.
“CANARI regards this toolkit as a living document that will be refined, adapted and expanded based on its own and others’ experiences. We welcome comments, suggestions and feedback to ensure that the toolkit meets the needs of civil society organisations in the Caribbean,” the entity said.