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Advocacy and Lobbying

Advocacy and lobbying are activities that represent and promote the needs of specific groups in political and social arenas. One such group is women, who can collectively pressure their leaders for legislative reforms to protect and promote women’s rights and concerns. It is the goal of advocacy groups and lobbyists to ensure that both the public and politicians understand and support their cause, so that it gains strength and credibility. Securing rights and gains for women requires coalition-building, funding, civic education, awareness-raising and individuals willing to lead the way.

While the goals of advocacy and lobbying are similar, the processes are distinctly different. Advocacy involves gaining and exercising power to influence a political action. Employing methods such as demonstrations, public campaigns and civic education, advocacy can be the primary mission of international agencies and civil society organizations seeking to influence global and national decision makers. Women worldwide frequently organize themselves for advocacy purposes, drawing on their collective power to affect legislation, official policies and governmental programs. Lobbying, however, refers to influencing the government and its leaders. Lobbyists attempt to sway policy makers and legislators to address specific issues, often by introducing or revising legislation and policy. Lobbying activities may include private meetings with decision makers, public campaigns and demonstrations.

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From the Library:

Women, Revolution, Politics and Power

During the Arab uprisings, an unprecedented number of women took to the streets, paving the way for a more important role in politics. However, in the transitional period that follows, they now have to fight against their exclusion from the political arena.

The extent of their participation in the new political process, the author argues, will depend on three main factors: their contribution to the democratic culture established, the nature and role of political Islam, as well as gender representation in the news media. As her research in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria suggests, the fight to carry the women‘s newly found political status through the transitional period will blur the conflict lines between the „traditional-religious“ and the „urban-modern-non-religious“ blocs. Arab women are finding new forms of political participation, distinct from the Western models.

Consolidated Response on the Impact of New ICTs on Information Behaviour of Women in Politics

According to Marcia J Bates, professor at UCLA, "Information behaviour is the currently preferred term used to describe the many ways in which human beings interact with information, in particular, the ways in which people seek and utilize information.” How do we find the information we need?  How do we identify what it is we are lacking, and how do we go about obtaining it?  What sources do we turn to, and how do we process, analyse and distribute knowledge?  Though these may be common practices these are not the questions asked often enough by women in politics, but they are essential to the actualisation of (political) obligations and goals.  Efficient and targeted information behaviour is invaluable to any political campaign, so how do women candidates and voters make the most of this? 

This consolidated response will explore the use of new communication technologies along with detailing the difficulties women encounter in their information behaviour.  It will also highlight some strategies that have been used to overcome these, focusing mainly on networking, civil society and education at large.   

Making It magazine issue on the economic empowerment of women

Charles Arthur's picture

Fourth quarter of 2011 issue of UNIDO's Making It magazine is devoted to the issue of women's economic empowerment. Articles by Michelle Bachelet, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Zoe Elena Horn, Jan O'Sullivan, and many more.

‘Women hold up half the sky’ is a Chinese proverb affirming women’s equal contribution to the human experience but it is an aspirational, rather than a factual, claim. In developed and developing countries alike, gender gaps persist in education, health, work, wages and political participation. For this issue of Making It, the theme is gender equality and the economic empowerment of women.

As Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, pointed out, “There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women”.

Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours but women earn only 10% of the world’s income, and women own less than 1% of the world’s property. Women lag far behind men in access to land, credit, and decent jobs, even though a growing body of research shows that enhancing women’s economic options boosts national economies.

Support for Local Government: Policies, Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming - DGTTF Southern-Sudan

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 created the new autonomous Government of Southern Sudan [GoSS]. The GoSS was required to establish in-stitutions and processes of governance including at the local level, with no pre-vious experience in government and in an environment characterized by the tribal nature of its traditional social or-ganization, identity and culture.

This document details the DGTTF projects launched in South-Sudan, including Project II: Strategy for mainstreaming gender em-powerment in local government.  

Resource Guide for Theme Groups

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in their own right and central to all other development efforts. This resource guide for Gender Theme Groups (GTGs) has been developed to strengthen coordinated action in the UN system to support countries to achieve these goals.

Gender Equality and Justice Programming: Equitable Access to Justice for Women

This primer outlines the major obstacles and barriers women face in accessing justice and suggests strategies and interventions to overcome these challenges. Gender mainstreaming is not a goal in itself, but rather a strategy towards achieving equality between men and women. The majority of this primer focuses on women’s access to justice and the social relationships between men and women that disadvantage women and hamper this access.

MPs Online: Connecting with Constituents

The report provides recommendations for MPs, constituents and for Parliament.  Primary amongst these are that MPs need to develop a policy for the use of email and strategies for digital media that define the target audience and connect with their offline strategy. Constituents benefit when MPs are online and so citizens are encouraged to promote the internet and provide examples of good practice to break down barriers amongst those MPs who are more resistant. In the digital age democracy can be driven by both sides. Finally, the report recommends a review of the licensing and re-use of content created by Parliament.

Parliaments: The Gender Dimension

This two-pager highlights UNDP's take on parliamentary development, discussing in particular the importance of the gender dimension and the need to get more women in parliaments.  The paper provides more information on UNDP's work in this field and offers references and resources for further reading.  

Rising Through the Ranks: A Young Woman’s Guide to Leadership and Political Party Engagement

Whether you are brand new to your political party or a more experienced activist, this guide is designed to provide you with the basic tools necessary to enhance your leadership skills and help position you to advance to the next level within your party. It’s a guide for young women leaders, based on the experience of young women leaders.

Focusing on building confidence, enhancing capacity and making connections, this guide will help you assess where you are as a leader, identify where you want to be, and help you create your personal roadmap to develop your leadership potential and rise through the ranks of your party.

The Role of Parliamentary Committees in Mainstreaming Gender and Promoting the Status of Women

As part of its efforts to strengthen the capacity of parliaments to promote gender equality, the IPU convened a seminar for members of parliamentary bodies that deal with gender matters. The seminar, on The Role of Parliamentary Committees in Mainstreaming Gender and Promoting the Status of Women, was held in Geneva from 4 to 6 December 2006, and brought together over 100 parliamentarians and parliamentary staff from 36 countries.

This report serves not only as a record of the event, but also as a practical tool for parliaments and their members to pursue efforts to mainstream gender equality in their work. Whether it is through specialized parliamentary bodies on gender equality, or through conventional committee structures, parliamentarians are well placed to ensure that legislative outputs address the needs of all sectors of society. We hope that you draw inspiration from this report for your future work.