Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office

1. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. AdvocacyandPolicy Influencing • KOEN W. TOONEN • ARJOLA AGOLLI • Tirana • 7 – 9 April 2010

2. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Policy Influencing and AdvocacyPrinciples C-L-A-S-P

3. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. A&L Principles CLASP • Credibility; why would people trust you? • Legitimacy: who or what gives you the right to interfere? • (members, boards, participation of beneficiaries) • Accountability (transparency towards deciders and constituency, upward and downward acc.) • Service: how are you being helpful, win-win, timely • Power: what is your power and how do you use it? • (joined forces, expertise, belief in your message)

4. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Why principles Policy Influencing is about influencing government, business or civil society actors – with decision making power These decisions have an impact on larger groups or society as a whole. If you influence these decision, you become co-responsible to a certain extent. Decision makers – on the other hand – require reliable information

5. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. CLASP exercise • Write one card per level of CLASP on: • What do you do on C-L-A-S-P? • How can you proof it? • Discuss in groups and/or plenary • Apply on PI Cycle

6. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Credibility - what? • Credibility refers to the objective and subjective components of the believability of a source or message. • Two key components: • Trustworthiness is based more on subjective factors, but can include objective measurements such as established reliability. • Expertise can be similarly subjectively perceived, but also includes relatively objective characteristics of the source or message (e.g., credentials, certification or information quality). • Secondary components of credibility include source dynamism (charisma) and physical attractiveness. • Note: it has become an important topic since the mid-1990s, as the web has increasingly become an information resource.

7. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Credibility - how • How to proof your credibility? • Facts • Figures • Research • Evidence • Positions • Personal behavior

8. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Legitimacy (political) – what? • Legitimacy in political science, is the popular acceptance of a governing regime or law as an authority (refers to a specific position in an established government) • Legitimacy is used when describing a system of government itself—where government may be generalized to mean the wider "sphere of influence.“ • Something becomes legitimate when one approves of it. • issues of legitimacy are linked to those of consent (the provision of approval or assent, particularly and especially after thoughtful consideration). • For example, an institution is perceived as legitimate, if approval for that institution is general among those people subject to its authority.

9. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Legitimacy – what? (2) • It is considered a basic condition for rule, arguing that: • without at least a minimal amount of legitimacy, a government will lead to frequent deadlocks or collapse in the long run. • the government is not legitimate unless it is carried on with the consent of the governed.

10. Legitimacy – how? Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. • How to proof and create legitimacy? • Participation of beneficiaries • For the beneficiaries and marginalized • With the beneficiaries and marginalized • By the beneficiaries and marginalized • Involvement board and constituency • Preparation of positions jointly • Information sharing on progress and experience • Meetings and feed back • (budget for this!)

11. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Accountability – what? • Accountability is a concept in ethics and governance with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as responsibility,[1] answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving. • As an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the public sector, non profit and private (corporate) worlds. • In leadershiproles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance, and implementation within the scope of the role encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences. • Accountability is the way you proof to all stakeholders that you are reliable as an organization or a person.

12. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Accountability – how? • How do you proof that to be accountable? • Backward accountability: • Consult your constituency, beneficiaries and board • Organize meetings to prepare PI positions and feed back PI • Forward accountability: • Be transparent about your constituency, board, relations with stakeholders • Publish data • To all provide in an open access space (p.e. website): • reliable information, facts & figures • reports and research • Financial data and audits reports

13. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Power – what? • What is Power? • Ghandi – definitions: • Power over • Power to • Power with • Power within • Always assess the power of all actors involved in relation to you and others.

14. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Power – how? • How can you assess and/or establish Power? • Providing evidence, facts & figures, knowledge on the issue (to) • Being legitimate and representative (with) • Establish alliances (with) • Believe in your message (within) • Negotiate (over / win-win)

15. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Service oriented – What? Service orientedness addresses your attitude towards your audiences – beneficiaries, media, director and political targets by delivering information, reports, and answers to questions that is relevant to them. Your audiences will use it in order to create a better profile for them. Do not be overindulging and leave your pride at home.

16. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. Service oriented – How? • How can you satisfy your political targets ? (media, politicians, directors etc) • Do as you promise • Provide only information that is • - relevant – asked for • -high quality • 3. Be in time – so that the person can do something with your information

17. Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations Regional Office This project is funded by the European Union. When apply CLASP CLASP can be applied always – throughout the whole PI Cycle ánd at the level of each step and at every moment of PI.