So you want to plan and evaluate your campaign
Most campaigns are organised around single, unrelated events, demonstrations or forums. Where these activities build on one another and provide the same message, their impact and success is much greater. Persistence and a systematic approach are key components of an effective campaign - so hang in there!
The many different campaign events organised by the ICBL and national campaigns have helped to publicise our message, build public support and raise funds. Tables in shopping centres, shoe pyramids in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, concerts in a public square in Maputo, bell ringing in schools and churches around the world, street demonstrations, marches and vigils in different countries and news conferences at treaty negotiation meetings...these are some of the events we have organised.
It is important that the different events and campaigning methods complement and reinforce each other. Depending on levels of capacity and the political context, different campaigns choose to use all, or only some, of the available campaigning methods: lobbying, public events, direct action, media and publicity, research and public education.
Advocacy, sometimes also called campaigning, can be defined as:
- speaking out about a problem or issue in your community in order to try to improve the situation;
- actions to influence decision-makers to design, adopt and change policies and practices and; and
- a means to guarantee implementation and monitoring of policies and practices.
Remember that governments, and other decision-makers, have choices when they decide on their landmine policies. They make choices and their choices can be influenced. So, your job when planning and evaluating a campaign is to look at how best to influence these choices.
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Table of contents
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Events and overall campaigns require careful planning.
First, do the basic groundwork of self-education on the landmine issue. This can be done through research, visiting the ICBL web site (http://www.icbl.org) meeting with groups and experts. See also the list of resources in this pack. Then examine the landmine issue that is relevant to your country or region eg. Is your country affected/contaminated by antipersonnel landmines (APMs)? Are there many victims and survivors of mine injuries eg. ex-military or people living in certain parts of the country? Does your country produce and/or export APMs? Has your country signed/ratified the Mine Ban Treaty? Has it passed national legislation? Does your country fund humanitarian mine action programmes? Are there companies or non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which are responsible for mine clearance in other countries?
If your campaign is well established you will be able to skip this step, though ongoing education on the issue and developments, and information-sharing with new members or staff, will still be important.
If you have new recruits and groups in your campaign it is useful to practise explaining our campaign position with other members of your organisation and to learn to answer frequently asked questions like: Why do you want to ban antipersonnel landmines? Are you not being unrealistic? But what about the people who are employed at landmine-producing factories - won’t they lose their jobs? What has our/your government done about antipersonnel landmines? Are we signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty? How will the Mine Ban Treaty be monitored? How will countries/groups who continue to use antipersonnel landmines be brought into line? What difference will it make on the ground, especially if China, Russia and the US have not signed?...Think of other frequently asked questions and how they can be best answered.
Second, decide where to focus your efforts. Look for weaknesses in your opponent - these will provide points of leverage on which to focus criticism and action. An important part of this process of determining your target is to choose the short-term goals of your campaign. Long-term goals are easier to decide on, such as achieving a landmine-free world or world peace. However it is the short-term goals that provide milestones along the way to reaching these long-term objectives. Your choice of short-term goals will depend on your country or regional context; your government’s position on landmines; how open they are to meeting with NGOs and a whole range of related political and social issues.
Some short-term goals could include:
- to get your government to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty by X date;
- to ensure your government has a plan in place for destruction of stocks by X date;
- to get your government to start/increase funding for mine action; or
- to have an audience with the relevant minister by X date.
The key thing is that the short-term goals are:
- winnable;
- measurable: how will you know whether you have achieved your short-term goal?;
- timebound and;
- significant: do they contribute to achieving the long-term objective?
Third, once the goals have been set, conduct an analysis to see who could participate in and support the campaign. Who do you need to participate? Who is on your side now? How are those people reached? Each campaign has its own different membership structure - based on individuals or organisations, and led by one organisation or comprising a coalition of organisations.
Your supporters may include: members of religious organisations, military veteran groups, mine clearance organisations, organisations representing disabled people and survivors, development organisations, women’s groups, school and college associations, human rights bodies and anti-war groups. Some campaigns also have well-known public figures as supporters, including singers, artists, retired politicians, former political prisoners and so on.
Also ask yourselves: Who are the neutral people who could become supporters, or could be lost to the opponents? Often the neutral forces can be won over to the mine ban cause, for example, representatives of the media may start off as neutral reporters of events and statements and are convinced due to exposure to the issues, interviews with survivors or trips to mine clearance sites.
Also ask: who are your opponents? How can they or their supporters be won over or neutralised? Opponents vary from country to country and region to region. Sometimes government officials and politicians can be allies in the campaign against landmines, and in other cases they are neutral parties or opponents of the campaign. The same can be said for the defence forces, political parties (including opposition parties) and military veterans. Mostly, you will find a mixture of allies and opponents within a large institution, such as parliament, the defence or security forces, a particular government department or ministry. Your strategy will need to take into account who are your friends or foes and how to work with them, win them over or neutralise them.
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Some pointers for building alliances and coalitions 1. Define your short-term and long-term goals and make sure that these are agreed among alliances partners. With a coalition it is especially important to ensure that your goals are reasonable, realistic and achievable. Take into account the participants’ levels of ability, interest and expertise too. 2. Plan events that will bring coalition members together such as watching a relevant video, setting up tables to ask members of the public to sign a petition or meeting a public official. 3. Don’t avoid difficult issues or possible obstacles, put these on the agenda and discuss them. 4. Know that the quality of the process of discussion, agreement on objectives, planning etc. will be reflected in the final product and outcome. So put time and energy into this preparation and process work! 5. Keep all members informed about changes of policy and progress. This will maintain good relationships for the future. Work out your communication processes: produce regular letters for members, set up an e-mail list, hold regular meetings and so on. (Dr Marjorie Jobson: Human Rights Institute of South Africa) |
Fourth, after this analysis develop your campaign message. This message is shaped to appeal to different target groups - your opponent, your allies, neutral members of the public - and to fit with your goals (short- or long-term goals). What are you calling for as the campaign? What are you saying about what is being done or not done about the landmine crisis in your country or region or worldwide?
Tips for designing effective messages:
- make your message short and simple;
- use everyday words and images;
- make your most important points first
- give the issue a human and local face - by describing the impact of landmines on one family or women in your community, give a real-life story;
- emphasise the positive values of what you are advocating;
- use values that are acceptable within your particular culture;
- pay attention to individual differences within a particular culture;
- try out your message on different people to see if they understand it;
- practise presenting the message repeatedly to improve it and your presentation skills;
- provide additional background information without getting into complicated statistics or economics;
- always include an action component to your message.
Fifth, now draft your plan of action and be sure to add in dates, deadlines and who is responsible for each action. You may set up a working group, for example, to organise a lobbying meeting and another to arrange tables to collect signatures on a petition.
When you have done this check whether the events feed into each other and build up pressure as time goes on, possibly through bigger and more public events and through a stronger message. This kind of escalation is necessary if the pressure on opponents needs to be increased because your message is not yet being heeded.
So, for example, you may begin your campaign with low profile events such as tables to collect signatures and move on to public meetings or lectures, then to a news conference to announce your position and a lobbying meeting with a government official. If you find that you are not having enough leverage on the decision-makers you may choose to use additional tactics like a march or picket outside the defence ministry, followed by a news briefing and a letter-writing campaign targeting the president. Media liaison and publicity is important throughout this process, though you may put across a more forceful message as time goes on.
Every context is different - so decide what kinds of actions and what order of events will be most effective for you.
As soon as possible after a plan is put into action, the process of evaluation should begin. Since, without evaluation an organisation or campaign cannot tell whether a plan is working and what factors are contributing to success or failure. Evaluation logically follows planning and implementation and, evaluation in turn informs future plans - in a circular relationship.
Step-by-step evaluation and preparation
You can use the following steps to analyse a campaign or to prepare for a campaign:
1. Dates of the campaign
2. Goals
Long range
What were the ultimate goals being sought?
Short range
What goals were set?
Were they achievable?
Were they measurable? Can you tell if they’ve been accomplished?
Would reaching them have brought the campaign measurably closer to the long-range goals?
Timetable
Was a timetable set to allow for periodic measurement of progress of the campaign? What was it?
Bottom line
Were there any minimum acceptable goals set in advance, so as to avoid being compromised or co-opted?
3. Participants
Who was on "our side" at the beginning? What new supporters did we gain/joined our efforts? Who was needed if the campaign was likely to succeed? How could those people we needed have been reached? Was there a core of people organised and prepared to stay with a sustained campaign so as to provide continuity? Were all those who wished to participate able to do so?
4. Opponents
Who were the opponents"? Who was making the decisions in opposition to the campaign? Was it necessary to win over or neutralise supporters of the opponents in order for the campaign to succeed?
How were supporters of the opposition won over or neutralised?
5. Organisation and constructive work
What was the organisational structure to carry out the campaign? How were decisions made? How was the campaign funded? Were there parallel institutions to replace those being opposed or any constructive work done during the campaign?
6. Preparation for action
What research and investigation was done? Education? Public Forums? Mass training? Training for the main actions? Was there adequate preparation for anticipated repression (jails, levies, violence)?
7. Preliminary action
Were approaches made to opponents? Negotiation and arbitration? Petitions or letters? Was an ultimatum issued? If so, what was the response?
8. Action
What form of action was used: Picketing, leafleting, marches etc? Was it necessary to escalate to a higher level of struggle? Why and when? Why did the action end when and where it did?
9. Reaction of opponents
Were participants jailed/beaten/repressed? Media black out? Intimidation? Ridicule? Was the campaign ignored?
10. Results
Were the short-range goals achieved? Any progress made towards the long-range goals? Did any opponents lose support? Any property destruction by participants?
11. Analysis
Were appropriate tactics used at appropriate times? Was the best target chosen? Was the timetable realistic? Did the campaign meet the timetable? If not, why not?
Was consciousness raised among the general public? Did the actions clearly communicate the myths, secrets and realities of the issues and society? How could the campaign have been improved? Was the organisational structure adequate to conduct the campaign? Was the decision making responsive to participants? Were there problems in making decisions or a lack of decisiveness? Who had the initiative during the campaign? Were there any surprises, which hurt or helped the campaign?
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Thanks to the following for the use of their experiences and material:
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In brief:
- "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you and then you win" - Gandhi
- If you have new recruits and groups in your campaign it is useful to practise explaining our campaign position with other members of your organisation.
- Who are the neutral people who could become supporters, or could be lost to the opponents?
- Use values that are acceptable within your particular culture.
