Advocacy in Cambodia: Increasing Democratic ... - Pact Cambodia

disseminating information • raising awareness and concern • networking
advocacy
strategies
staging organized action • facilitating engagement • lobbying
Increasing Democratic Space
While most successful advocacy campaigns
vary considerably in their design, the Advocacy
Institute suggests that a common characteristic
of successful campaigns is the use of a wide range
of strategies and techniques. Advocacy campaigns
conducted in Cambodia have employed a variety
of strategies, the most common of which can be
classified into six broad categories:
• disseminating information;
• raising awareness and concern;
• staging organized action;
• facilitating engagement;
• lobbying; and
• networking.
Disseminating Information
Perhaps one of the most powerful advocacy
strategies used by NGOs is the collection and
dissemination of information. Information can be
used to legitimize advocacy issues and inform
decision-makers, providing them with arguments
for why a reform is necessary. There are two
aspects to information strategies: collecting
information on problems and collecting
information on prevailing public opinion.
Documenting Problems
Perhaps the best example of information that
helped initiate an advocacy campaign is research
that was conducted by the Project Against
Domestic Violence (PADV). In 1994, a group of
concerned women surveyed 50 victims of
domestic violence. The following year PADV
produced a Household Survey on Domestic
Violence in Cambodia in cooperation with the
Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Thanks to this and
other studies, today domestic violence is openly
acknowledged as a problem in Cambodia. The
inclusion of questions on domestic violence in the
Ministry of Planning’s Demographic and Health
Survey is an indication that the problem is no
longer being concealed. The presentation of
statistics and personal stories are an important
strategy for generating support from the public
and government officials.
Oxfam GB’s Land Study Project is another
example of a research project that has forced
policy makers and development actors to
acknowledge that land disputes are a major issue
in Cambodia which need to be addressed. On a
smaller scale, the NGO Forum’s Fisheries Working
Group produced a series of case studies to
document incidences of fisheries violations. The
case studies gave the first documented description
of the escalation of disputes and provided specific
information on which articles of the law were
being violated. These legal details provide
advocates with important justification when
addressing authorities. One of the lessons learned
early on in the preparation of these documents was
the need to distribute them in Khmer to
government workers and other interested actors.
In other examples, human rights groups
conduct investigations and regularly disseminate
their findings to the Department of Justice, police
department, and UNCHR. The Kompong Cham
advocacy KANAN network provides reports to the
NGO Forum, Wetlands International, and Oxfam
GB regarding natural resources and the
environment.
While NGOs are making an effort to collect
important information, it is often difficult for
interested actors to access that information. For
example, the researchers of this report were hard
pressed to locate statistics on urban poverty,
fishing violations, or the frequency and
effectiveness of strikes. Even a formal network
such as the HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee
does not have ready information on the number
of HIV positive people, and has no information
that can be distributed through electronic media.
Strong advocacy campaigns will invariably
maintain current materials on their sector to
distribute to interested actors in order to legitimize
their campaigns among stakeholders.
Assessing Public Opinion
Another strategy involving information is the
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