CLIMATE ADVOCACY WORKSHOP

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Now that You have your campaign strategy agreed i.e Campaign objectivesPower analysis Critical pathway TimelinesBroad messaging

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Communication Strategy?

What are your program/campaign/organizational goals?

What do you want to achieve ?What does success look like?Why are you launching a communications

effort in the first place?Do you need to mobilise, hold a call to action,

disseminate information or provide updates on the campaign?

What are your communication goals?

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How much staff/volunteer time are you willing to commit to your comms strategy?

What is the budget you can set aside for your comms strategy?

Do you have communications experts on your team ?

Do you need to collaborate with professionals ?

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What are your resources?

Who do you need on your side to get what you want?

Who are the people who can pursuade the decision makers to do what you want?

Who is your target / audience?

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How will your issue resonate with the values and needs of your audience?

Why will your issue interest the media?

What is your issue really about?

Who are the main protagonists ? Who is the victim? who is the hero? who is the villain?

What is your frame?

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Problem - describe how your issue affects your audience and its broader impact?

Solution - the change you want to see, and how it will improve the lives of those impacted and your audience

Call to action - call your audience to do something specific!

What is your message?

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Do you have arresting images?

Do you have rivetting human interest stories

Do you plan to hold direct actions, demonstrations?

Do you have social media presence?

What is your narrative ?

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People engage best with people, not abstract issues (single case studies done well are better than simply gathering and presenting information)

Communicate the difference people can make (we all love these stories,

showing the need with the opportunity for improvement. The spirit and dignity of people is part of that)

Listen to the people on the ground (and hear from them what the real problems are/what is needed?)

Be honest about your own agenda

Shift from compassion to solidarity campaigning.

Select the relevent data

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Lessons from morning session

Crowdsourcing is a way to delegate tasks to a group of people or foster collaboration between a group of unconnected people. It can happen online or offline, and generally relies on a public audience for contributions; one that is perhaps outside your usual network of allies.

Ever-expanding social media networks and improved internet connectivity have made crowdsourcing a popular and accessible tool for digital activism. It allows you to amplify your message by multiplying the number of voices contributing to and spreading that message. Volunteering or donating time or money is made more manageable by the sheer number of people sharing the load.

It can also empower and embolden your community by creating a sense of identity through collective storytelling. For organisations, crowdsourcing information means that it is now easier to get data that was formerly either inaccessible or unattainable due to lack of resources. It can also serve as a publicity tool for your campaign while at the same time inviting the participation of your community.

CROWDSOURCING

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Collect information – Clearly identify the kinds of information you want to collect. Set up a platform that enables a maximum degree of participation from your target community. Spread out across a range of media, both online and offline. Encourage contributions by providing incentives for community members to submit reliable information.

Verify the information – Information collected must be verified according to criteria defined by your team and your project.

Action and Result – Organise and publish the information within a framework that motivates those with the power, resources or responsibility to act on the submitted reports. Share the information so it trickles down, to encourage further contributions.

Crowdsourcing - basics

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Using crowdsourcing techniques to collect personal stories from the community can be an effective way to not only document an issue and ground it in real experience, but also to strengthen and define a community around that issue.

*****The blog Uprising of Women in the Arab World is a bilingual English-Arabic site that combines personal storytelling with participative actions. Bloggers are encouraged to tell their stories through personal blog posts or express their solidarity with collective photo campaigns. Many of the posts deal with issues of gender roles or incidents of sexual harassment. Participants are united around a common cause and are able to empower themselves by exposing the prevalence of these occurrences in their own communities.

*****Collective creation can also be fomented by time-limited environments like Book Sprints. The goal of a Book Sprint is to produce a book from zero in 5 days. Facilitators and contributors share knowledge and resources, spurred by the team-building and intense collaboration needed to publish a book in such a short period of time.

COLLECTIVE STORY TELLING

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Interactive mapping platforms, of which the best known is Ushahidi, give a valuable geographical dimension to your crowdsourced reports, which can serve not only to clarify raw data and identify problems, but also as an important resource for workers on the ground, especially in crisis situations. Uchaguzi, a system set up to monitor the Kenyan elections, and Syria Tracker, an aggregator for crime reports and other information, are both good examples of effective use of Ushahidi-based participative mapping platforms.

*****Map Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum, was nothing but a blank spot on the map before young Kiberans decided to create a free and open digital map of their community. Using OpenStreetMap, an open source mapping software, they plotted various locations and roads in the neighbourhood and supplemented it with information from residents. Map Kibera works well because it addresses a crucial issue: the scarcity of information available, and the failure of the government to provide it. Contrast this with an initiative like They Work for You, which looks at the ineptness of the government at making available information that already exists. Focusing on the problem is crucial for a successful crowdsourcing campaign.

PARTICIPATIVE MAPPING

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THANK YOU

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