Advocacy and good governance

Governance covers the ways and institutions through which

individual citizens and groups express their interests, exercise
their rights and obligations, and mediate their differences.
Governance is thus a complex matter, although the essence is
trust and cooperation. Governance involves the public sector
orienting its work towards citizens’ concerns in a transparent
and accountable way, the private sector acting with
responsibility, and citizens being able and motivated to
participate in public decision-making. Individual citizens,
particularly women, who are poor and disadvantaged often
experience the greatest constraints in participating in such
decision making. This may be for reasons of active
discrimination in some case, or for more subtle reasons of lack of confidence in self-expression, lack
of information, and/or lack of time to attend meetings.
SDC considers good governance to encompass five interlinking aspects. These are
accountability, transparency, participation, non-discrimination, and effectiveness/efficiency.
Participation and non-discrimination are particularly important aspects with regard to poor
and disadvantaged people. As their opinions and needs are often not heard or reflected in
decision-making, pro-active steps are needed to ensure that they are. This often requires
training of both officials (to recognise the need for social inclusion and how to encourage it)
and of those concerned (to give them confidence in public speaking, awareness of their
rights, etc). It also often entails the introduction of clear participatory proceedings such as
participatory budgeting and public audits.

Subsidiarity, the principle that decisions are made as close as possible to where they will
impact, underlies the decentralized governance of Switzerland. SDC strongly supports
decentralized, good local governance in its partner countries.
Advocacy
What is advocacy?
Advocacy is a deliberate process involving intentional actions that seek to directly or indirectly
influence those who make policy decisions in order to achieve a stated objective or change.
This process is typically designed to influence the actions of decision-makers that are responsible
for devising laws or regulations, or for distributing resources in a way that impacts on the
well-being of a significant number of people. ‘Decision-‘ or ‘policy makers’ that are targeted can
encompass a wide range of individuals, including within the private and informal sectors and can
operate at the local, regional, national or international level.

WHO IS OFFICIALLY RESPONSIBLE

FOR ADVOCACY?
An important good governance issue relating to advocacy is that the responsibility and accountability for advocacy
needs to be clear.
In its formal decision-making role, council can officially advocate to external bodies or levels of government on behalf
of the community and municipality. Public statements are usually made by the mayor or the Chief Executive Officer
(CEO), although some councils have internal protocols which empower particular councillors to issue statements on
matters within their portfolios or allow individual councillors to advocate on issues which affect their wards.
One of the roles of individual councillors as representatives is to advocate to council on behalf of their constituents.
This is legitimate, as long as it’s done within the framework of good governance in terms of language, using
appropriate forums and focussing on issues rather than personalities.