Introduction
The Overall Policy Environment
Strategies
Policies
Laws and Regulations

Introduction

An analysis of the policy context for your research is vital to the establishment of an effective advocacy strategy. It should cover: the policy environment; the policy system; and the organizations and people involved.

In advocacy research people often concentrate on the issue, without paying sufficient attention to how power operates, how change happens and how it is sustained. Policy systems and processes are often complex, with varied and different points of entry. People are at the heart of policy-making, whether they are targets, messengers, allies or opponents. If you wish to influence policy change, you need to understand how key institutions (or organizations) work, who the decision-makers are, and how decisions can be influenced.

Key elements of policy context analysis include:

• Identifying the policy related causes of animal issues
• Understanding the structure of policymaking bodies
• Understanding formal and informal policy making processes
• Identifying key actors and institutions (or organizations) that make decisions about policy, as well as those who can influence policy makers
• Analyzing the distribution of political power among key actors
• Understanding the social and political context

Opportunities to influence policy-makers can arise at any time, so where there is advocacy capacity, it is recommended that the political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological environments are monitored to keep abreast of emerging issues and the positions of government and other leaders with respect to these issues.

The Overall Policy Environment

The policy environment includes all aspects surrounding policy-making. This would include the broader socio-economic aspects that are analysed in organizational strategy-making. Important sources for research into this broader policy environment – and what are the pressing concerns of the day - include: the media, research institutes, veterinary bodies, donors, business, and civil society.

The policy-making environment is greatly influenced by the country’s broader socio-economic situation. This will be covered in Module 3 on Strategic Planning for Advocacy. But in your research, it is important to remember to always keep an eye on the broader horizon, to ensure that you are ready and open for opportunities that may influence or change regular policy processes and priorities.

The more narrow governmental policy arena can be depicted diagrammatically as follows:

Key questions to be asked when analyzing the policy environment include:

• What are the animal welfare issues?
• How important are these to both the animals and to society?
• What are the existing strategies, policies and laws that cause or relate to these problems and how are they implemented?
• How could changes in policy help resolve the problems?
• What type of policy change is needed (legislation, proclamation, regulation, legal decision, committee action, institutional practice, or other)?
• What are the financial implications of the proposed policy change?

One aspect of the policy making environment that will have an enormous impact upon your advocacy is the level of openness and transparency. In some open and democratic regimes, it is possible not only to obtain all relevant information through official channels, but also to take part in relevant meetings and consultations. Conversely, in regimes that lack openness and transparency it may be difficult to meet key decision-makers and achieve involvement or consultation (and in some cases even to obtain information through official channels). Advocacy is more likely to be successful in a more democratic and open political system.

Strategies

Investigate the strategies underlying the policies on your issue. If dealing with government, you will find that most governments formulate strategies before taking legislative or administrative action. Strategies will help to identify attitudes, interests and motivations on an issue, as well as future plans.

Policies

Policies form the basis for policy action. They can be international or regional policies (including conventions and agreements), national or organizational.

Research into policies (and policy commitments) can help to identify policy implementation gaps, as well as future plans. Policy research is another important area, as this informs future policy-making. Policy research can be carried out at international, regional, national or local level.

Laws and Regulations

Your research should include any existing laws (acts and regulations) that may affect your issue. Different countries have different legislative systems – see the section below – so these will take different forms.

Once research has identified legislative provisions, it is necessary to go one step further, and to research enforcement.

International standards should be incorporated into national legislation and successfully implemented.

Regional regulations may be directly applicable (as in the case of European Union regulations).

Steps in the Research Process
Research Methods and Sources
Organizational Library
Scanning
Meetings and Consultations

Steps in the Research Process

There may also be additional research needed for strategic analysis

Research Methods and Sources

The first stages of research will include:

• Studies and literature reviews
• Academic or scientific research
• Gathering facts, figures and statistics

After this stage, there are various other research methods available:

• Depth interviews
• Consultations/focus groups/working groups
• Opinion polls
• Surveys and questionnaires
• Computer conferences
• Field visits and investigations
• Case studies
• Pilot projects

There are now many useful sources for research, and using a wide range will add depth, context and interest to your work. Do not restrict your research to the Internet and your local library (however convenient this may seem)! Remember that there are many other organizations out there collecting information (including international organizations, governments, universities and other NGOs) – and many would be only too willing to share this with you. Think of all the bodies with a professional interest in your issue, and find out what research they already have available or are working on.

After desk research, initial fact-finding meetings (e.g. with civil servants working for key policy makers) can help to ascertain key motivations, possibilities, and barriers – which can then be specifically targeted and dealt with in subsequent research.

Avoid going into too much depth before you have made an informed assessment of what is feasible (so as not to waste time).

Also, do not consider your research over as soon as your report has been finished. It pays dividends to keep abreast of your issue throughout your advocacy campaign. If you have the resources, it is helpful to order any relevant publications (such as trade or issue journals). Many organizations organize a press cutting service – where they monitor the media on their issue and send copies of any relevant articles around to interested staff. This helps to update those involved on any changes in policy or public opinion (which can be factored into their advocacy work).

Internet

An enormous amount of information can be found on the Internet these days. Using a search engine, such as Google (see Web Site reference below), you simply enter key words to define your search. If you are inundated with results, then make your keywords more restrictive/accurate. Conversely, if you obtain no results, simply widen your keyword category. When using information found on a Web site in a published document, this should be referenced using the Web Site URL and the date accessed.

Organizational Library

Some animal welfare organizations keep their own reference library. This can be extremely helpful, as it provides quick access to selected books, and relevant reports and other publications. Even smaller organizations can start useful book collections – it is surprising how these build up over time.

Scanning

The broadest form of information gathering is ‘scanning’. It can include all the factual material to be seen on television, read in newspapers and periodicals. To scan effectively the following is needed:

• To identify and order relevant publications
• To ensure a range of publications in order to understand different viewpoints (e.g. different political viewpoints, trade as well as animal welfare etc.)
• A press cutting service/person
• A circulation/notification system

Scanning should be a continuous activity for advocacy organizations.

Need for Focus

As well as different modes of scanning, there are different levels of information gathering ranging from the broader political environment to that related directly to the campaign issue. Tips for advocacy research:

• Target within agreed campaign strategy
• Start wide; decide focus; narrow search

Caution!

In practice any investigation can only use a small fraction of the available information. Warning: information is boundless; scanning can be costly. And don’t forget copyright law, and need to give sources!

Research Support

One good tip is that you may be able to use University students (e.g. veterinary students) to help you with your research. Some may do this free-of-charge, if they can use the results towards their studies/research. This can then also involve the University staff/lecturers, which has the added benefit of adding to their understanding and support.

Meetings and Consultations

Once the available information has been collected, it is helpful to arrange background meetings and fact-finding consultations. These could include potential targets, partners, competitors or any other stakeholders involved in the issue or the fight against it e.g. government, industry, academics/scientists, cultural/religious bodies, professional bodies such as vets, lawyers, biologists etc., and other animal welfare societies/NGOs.

This may lead to a greater understanding of: areas to target and/or avoid; potential strengths and weaknesses; driving factors of the problem; relevant political and legislative factors; potential collaborators and competitors etc.

What Sort of Research
Type and Source of Research
Why is Research Important?

What Sort of Research?

In order to persuade policy-makers to change their policies, laws or implementation – be this through direct lobbying or other means such as provoking an official investigation or influencing public opinion – you will need information. To obtain this, you will have to do some research. That could mean anything from combing through piles of documents in the office or a library, to searching the Internet, to taking photos and talking to witnesses. This is all research.

In fact, research is any systematic investigation to discover facts or collect information.

If research is to be useful to policymakers, it will need to be:

General - Providing extensive background information, not just selective cases and anecdotes.
Accessible and Easily Understandable - A body of good evidence, presented in a user-friendly format, and collated and analyzed.
Targeted - Findings are presented in multiple formats, tailored to each audience, with information needs of policy makers (content and format) being taken into account.
Relevant - Appropriate to their area of work, priorities and interests.
Measurable – Incorporating facts, figures and statistics. Timely – Provided at the right time, and using up-to-date information.
Practically Useful – Grounded in reality, and providing practical, feasible and cost effective solutions.
Objective – Gathered from objective sources, without unsubstantiated value judgments or emotional arguments.
Accurate - Providing a true and fair representation of the facts.
Credible - Reliable, sourced appropriately, using accepted tools and methods.
Authoritative - Carried out by an organization that policy makers perceive as credible and reliable.

General background information helps to place the issue in context, providing the ‘bigger picture’ against which the local problem can be examined – for example: by providing facts and figures, or researching the international and regional dimensions of a problem (for instance: international animal welfare standards; regional animal welfare conventions or regulations; or a comparison with the situation in other countries).

Research also helps to personalize your issue and build empathy. You can do this by using methods such as undercover investigations showing individual animal suffering involved; case studies; quotations from witnesses; photo or video evidence etc.

Effective research should:

• Focus on a problem that directly affects the welfare of animals
• Be linked to your program work
• Look into the root causes of problems in order to identify workable solutions
• Analyze the policy environment to uncover implementation gaps
• Link local, national, regional & international aspects
• Collect evidence in a systematic way

The key is that evidence is collected in a rigorous and systematic way.

Type and Source of Research

Categories of Research

There are two categories of research:

• Quantitative – statistical techniques, surveys/market research, experimental techniques
  • Can be useful to illustrate scale of problem and/or when you want to generalize about an issue or sector (e.g. the views of 'consumers' or 'voters/public'.)
• Qualitative - views, opinions, and beliefs
  • Useful for 'softer' aspects, difficult to quantify (e.g. using focus groups)

Data and Its Sources

The difference between data and information is that data is raw, unprocessed whilst information is in an accessible, meaningful form.

Some useful sources are:

• Internet (range of information ever-increasing
• Libraries
• Directories
• National and local agencies
• Databases
• Government information and statistics and other 'public records' (Freedom of information legislation is a great help here)
• Legislation and precedents (e.g. court cases)
• Trade associations/trade journals/trade e-mail lists/conferences
• Other NGOs, including animal welfare societies
• Exhibitions and conferences
• News media
• Opinion Polls
• A national library (or large public library) is probably the widest ranging source of published information

Referencing

Always make sure to reference your research, so readers can check your sources. In general, what you are trying to achieve is that any reader can clearly see the source of your research (and look this up themselves, if they wish to). There are various formats for referencing your research. One of the most widely used systems of referencing is the APA system (created by the American Psychological Association system, but now used internationally).

Why is Research Important?

Research helps you to gain a clear understanding of the causes and effects of animal welfare issues from the perspective of identifying practical and feasible policy solutions that make it possible to build a consensus in favor for change. It is impossible to argue logically and coherently for policy change without the strong understanding of your issue that research provides.

[In some cases, the only solution to prevent severe animal suffering may be a ban on the practice (e.g. abolition of gin traps). In this case, the evidence of the animal suffering must be strong and graphic in order to convince influential stakeholders.]

Research is the foundation for successful advocacy. It is important for both:

• An effective advocacy strategy - by enabling thorough strategic analysis; and
• Successful advocacy work - by providing authoritative and accurate evidence to support advocacy.

Advocacy research can:

• Give your advocacy substance
• Establish your reputation as an expert on the issue
• Provide feasible and workable solutions to your issue
• Provide you with case studies, anecdotes and examples to make your issue 'come alive'
• Provide cost-benefit arguments, including the (often hidden) cost of alternatives and inaction
• Demonstrate public support or public concern
• Help you to analyze your issue from different perspectives
• Help to disprove myths, rumors and false assumptions
• Analyze and provide counter arguments to positions held by stakeholders who may not be sympathetic to your cause
• Provide evidence for your positions
• Explain why previous strategies have or have not worked
• Provide the basis for media and public awareness work

It is said that every dollar spent on research is worth ten spent on lobbying. If your research is thorough, it will be easier to develop a winning advocacy strategy.

Introduction
Advocacy Research and its Importance
Methodology
The Issue
The Policy Environment
The Policy System
People and Organizations
Targeted Research
Investigations
Further Resources

Introduction

This module examines advocacy research and analysis. Research is the solid foundation of effective advocacy, providing both the key to a winning strategy and indisputable facts for influential lobbying. This module examines different aspects of research and analysis, including not only the policy issue, but also the policy environment, systems, and the organizations and people involved. This includes:

• Research methodology
• Issue choice, and tackling problems at the root
• The policy environment
• People, organizations and power
• The effective use of evidence

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest" -Ben Franklin