a. What are the most urgent/pressing issues to be addressed?

b. What are some mid-range goals?

c. What is your final goal?

2. Do you want to focus on an individual  case? Or, would you rather focus more broadly on an issue? Or, both? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each approach?

 

·       Where does power reside?

·       Where does change come from? Who/what organizations have the power to effect change? Who are the key stakeholders with respect to the goals you have set for your advocacy? What is their agenda? What are the potential risks/rewards of working with “unlikely allies”?

·       What power do you have? What is your relationship to powerful institutions? What is your place in systems of power? How can you influence institutions and hold them accountable?

i. Student – University: How can you leverage your position as a student and relationship to your university in your advocacy? 

ii. Consumer – Business/Corporation/International Olympic Committee (IOC): The power of the consumer is typically the power to withdraw from the system—to stop buying goods, to boycott a brand/label, or to not attend the Olympics if they are held in China. The difficulty with this strategy is that it is not effective unless it is done on a mass scale. One person not buying from Nike or one country not attending the Olympics is not as powerful as many. Some individuals/countries do command more power/attention/moral authority than others though. Jewher and Teng likely have more power than you do. But, how can you leverage your position and resources/connections to influence others?

iii. Citizen – Government/institutions: What power do you have as a citizen to influence your government? What relationship(s) does your country have with interested countries/powers?

iv. Expert/s: Knowledge is power. Felix Kaputu mentioned that the first step in advocacy is research and educating yourself. As individuals, what can you do to educate yourself and become experts?

·       What are the challenges/ethics involved in speaking for someone else? 

·       What does it mean to “give voice” to someone? 

 

b. Brainstorm and discuss various types of advocacy and activism. Examples include: 

 

·       Protest, demonstration, march, rally 

·       Boycott, divestment campaign 

·       Petition/letter-writing 

·       Social media campaign (hashtags, digital memes, graphic art, video witness/testimony) 

·       Traditional media campaign- authoring articles, interviews with media 

·       Legislative campaign (focusing on passage of a bill) 

·       Visual/art 

 

c. What challenges/obstacles might you encounter with your chosen advocacy method? 

·       What is the efficacy (in both ideal and real conditions) of each approach? 

·       What is the risk/safety and cost/cost-effectiveness of each approach? 

·       Why is your cause timely? 

 

·       Who are potential partners – _at the local, national, regional, and global level – _that you can reach out to for information, support, and guidance? 

How can you identify reliable sources of information? 

 

·       When/how will you know if you should continue with your chosen strategy or try something new? 

·       It is important, to the extent possible, to collect and track data. Examples: social media followers, ‘likes’ etc; petition signers; official sponsoring a bill…