TAI Network Strategy

TAI Advocacy Tools

Lalanath de SilvaDirector, The Access InitiativeWorld Resources Institute Washington DCTAIs strategy is to

Laws, practices and institutionsCSO teamsTheories of Change Punctuated Equilibrium

3Punctuated Equilibrium - change happens incrementally; major change is rare and unpredictable. Forum shifting and changes in policy image are elements of most major change.

In PE Theory TAI Partnersbeaver away at incremental change

take advantage of major change opportunities

4TAI partners beaver away at national-level incremental change and take advantage of major change opportunities. They do this by offering information that can change the policy picture or advocate forum shifts. They counter negative feedback to the system with positive feedback in favor of access.Theories of ChangeTipping Point

5Tipping Point - When a critical number of countries respect access rights the balance will tip and an access rights epidemic will ensue.Fig: Harrold Jarche. Bring Gladwells and Everett M. Rogers (in his 1962 book, Diffusion of Innovations.) together.

In TP Theory TAI Partners tap

Networkers(Connectors)

Go-to People(Mavens/Innovators)

Champions(Salespersons)6TAI partners are connectors (networkers), mavens (knowledge stores) and sales-people (champions).

Theories of ChangeGlobalization processes

ACTORSMECHANISMSPRINCIPLES7Globalization process (Braithwaite and Drahos 2000) Conceptualized in terms of relationships between actors, mechanisms and principles. Actors (States, NGOs, Business, etc) use lower order mechanisms (coercion, reward, reciprocal adjustment, non-reciprocal coordination, capacity building and modeling) to support principles that serve their interests. They do this to create a race to the bottom or ratcheting up.TAI partners are key actors, work epistemic communities and webs of influence, access model monger, and advocate access principles.In the GP model TAI partners

Key Actors

Webs of Influence

Model monger

Advocate Principles8TAI partners are key actors, work epistemic communities and webs of influence, access model monger, and advocate access principles.

The TAI House..

9Capacity: the Foundation and the strength of each column and roof. Increased capacity of the network implies that it has the necessary tools for advocacy, research and networking increased capacity in these three will raise the visibility of TAI within the community of practice that helps capture key actors of change. It also implies that it has the skill, resources and motivation to use those tools.Advocacy: is one of the three pillars of the house and encompasses both cooperative and adversarial advocacy. Its aim is to promote access principles, target key actors, change policy images and shift forums. It is outcome oriented and its outcomes are measured by the extent to which access legal, institutional and practice reforms increase access for people, particularly the marginalized and poor. It is used mostly by Champions and Connectors. Communications is an advocacy tool. Bear in mind that the word does not translate well in some languages (e.g. Eastern Europe) not do actions such as lobbying associated with it in the USA always resonate in other cultures. In some cultures lobbying is wholly unacceptable behaviour.Research: consists of collecting and analyzing access related information. The collection includes laws, institutional information, policy and practices. It also includes access stories (both successes and failures) and evidence of the relationship between increased access and decisional environmental outcomes. Research includes TAI Assessments at the national, regional and global levels. It also includes access model building and testing. The main objective of this research is to provide evidence of access trends, status, gaps, solutions, models, policy pictures and forum analysis for advocacy. Research results form the substance for epistemic communities loose communities of knowledge based actors who share certain values, attitudes, substantive knowledge and ways to use that knowledge (Haas 1989). Mavens tend to gravitate to this pillar.Networking: consists of connecting actors and the general public with one another. People skills and connectivity are basic networking tools. The objective of TAI networking is to connect access practitioners (within CSO, Govt, business, media) and to strengthen the access practitioner community. Networking also helps establish and maintain epistemic communities, coalitions and alliances. TAI Networking can be outcome oriented outcomes being measured in the number of actors in the network, the frequency of interaction and the status of social cohesion in the network. Connectors tend to gravitate to this pillar.

Andrea Sanhueza Participa, ChileTAI Regional LeadOctober, 2010

MODEMA AND THE 8-STEP ADVOCACY STRATEGY: Reject the coal power plant Barrancones

The goal was to stop the installation of the coal-fired power plants in or around Punta de Choros, home to a wealth of biodiversity, including two nature reserves: the Isla Damas, and the Humboldt penguin reserve (which is home to 80% of the total remaining population of this marine species). Such a project would also affect tourism and the local culture.

Starting in July of this year, the Incide project of Corporacin Participa began to apply the 8-step advocacy strategy. The challenge was to avoid the installation of the Barrancones Power Plant.

Outreach activities targeted the 19 regional council members who would vote on the project.

At the same time, the strategy was essentially based on highlighting the campaign pledge of President Sebastin Piera regarding his opposition to the installation of a power plant in the vicinity of Punta de Choros. This promise had been disseminated through radio commercials as well as over the Internet.

Advocacy Strategy Workshop (July, 2010)

Modema developed strategic alliances. The job performed by the audio-visual producer CHAO PESCAO was extremely important.

MODEMA compiled 27,000 signatures from various countries in Latin America and Europe.

The issue had not achieved much public attention until the day of the vote. The vote was 15 to 4, in favor of the project (24 de agosto de 2010). This result quickly spread throughout Chile through the internet, Facebook and Twitter, resulting in peaceful protest marches against the decision adopted. The demonstrations demanded that the President fulfill his campaign promise.

The result was that, only two days after the decision, President Piera decided to personally oppose the Barrancones project. He stated that he had spoken with the Suez Energy company in order to relocate the coal-fired plant to another location, far from Punta de Choros. In addition, he commissioned a research with the goal of establishing protected areas in Chile.

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