Preseantation by Daniel Otunge of OFAB-AATF during The Scinnovent Centre's training on the Art of Influencing Policy Change: tools and strategies for researchers, held on 12-14 February 2013 in Nairobi

1. Tips for effective advocacy: lessons
from the Open Forum on Agricultural
Biotechnology in Africa
Sinnovent Policy Change Workshop: Feb 14, 2013

2. Presentation Outline
• About AATF
• About OFAB
• What is advocacy
• Purpose of Advocacy
• Key advocacy techniques
• Key Biotech advocacy stakeholders
• Effective advocacy tips
• Discussions

3. About AATF

4. These people
represent the
many others
we work with
They have different United by desire to
backgrounds eradicate poverty
and ensure food
security in SSA
AATF facilitates their
working together –
towards prosperous
farmers and a food
secure SSA

5. About AATF
AATF is a not-for profit organization that
facilitates public-private partnerships to
access and deliver appropriate agricultural
technologies for use by resource-poor
farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

6. AATF Vision & Mission
Vision - Prosperous farmers and a
food secure Africa
Mission - Access and deliver
appropriate agricultural technologies
for sustainable use by smallholder
farmers in SSA

7. Current AATF activities (con’t)
4. Protecting banana from banana bacterial wilt
Developing Xanthomonas wilt-resistant transgenic banana from East
African germplasm, using two genes found in sweet pepper, namely pflp
and hrap
5. Biological control of Aflatoxin
Using bio-control product, Aflasafe, with holistic strategies to address
aflatoxin problems in maize and peanuts
6. Improving rice productivity
Developing rice varieties with Nitrogen-Use Efficency, Water-Use
Efficiency, and Salt Tolerant Traits; hybrid rice
7. Cassava mechanisation
Brokering access to mechanisation and agro-processing equipment for
development and use in Africa, accelerating harvesting and processing

8. Enabling Activities
• Public awareness: Case of Open Forum for
Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB)
• enhances knowledge-sharing and awareness of
biotechnology
• contributes to building an enabling environment for
decision making on agricultural biotechnology in Africa
• Trends monitoring
• R&D Priorities
• Regulations for GM crops
• Evolution of Seed Systems
• IP policy and legislation

9. PPP in Action – MR-Cowpea
Tech Transfor-
Provider mation NARS: IAR,
INERA &
CSIR
Monsanto CSIRO
Licensing
Negotiation
Field testing &
AATF Trait introgression KH
Project Trust
Regulatory Compliance
Co-ordination Communication & outreach
NGICA
On farm demonstration
NARS, NGOs, Seed Co., CBO Consumer acceptance
Seed distribution systems
Seed Multiplication Product stewardship
and Distribution
F F F F F F

10. About OFAB
AIM - To enhance knowledge-sharing and awareness
on biotechnology that will
– raise understanding and appreciation of agricultural
biotechnology and
– contribute to building an enabling environment for
decision making
OFAB is expected to ensure that quality knowledge
is disseminated to both policy makers and the
larger public through provision of factual
information

11. OFAB Vision, Mission & Objectives
Vision: A food secure Africa where agricultural
biotechnology is making significant contributions
Mission: To enhance knowledge-sharing and
awareness on agricultural biotechnology that will raise
understanding and appreciation of the technology and
contribute to building an enabling environment for
informed and timely decision-making

12. OFAB Objectives
The objectives of OFAB are to:
• establish and manage a range of platforms to enhance
understanding of biotechnology in agriculture for
productivity;
• contribute to informing policy decision making processes
on matters of agricultural biotechnology through provision
of factual, well researched and scientific information;
• forge strategic alliances for optimization of resources
through convening and encouraging inter-institutional
networking and knowledge sharing in the agricultural
biotechnology space;
• enhance targeted capacity strengthening that will improve
communication across all sectors interested in biotech for
Africa’s development.

13. Management Model
OFAB is managed through collaborative efforts between
AATF & like minded institutions supported by a
Programming Committee (PC).
Roles of PC include:
• Provide strategic direction to the country chapter
• Development of strategic plans
• Events planning and management
• Development of action plans and budgeting
Host institution serves as the secretariat
The PC is made up of representatives from different
relevant institutions.

14. OFAB Chapters and Hosts
OFAB
Kenya
ISAAA
OFAB OFAB
Ghana OFAB Uganda
CSIR AFRICA UNCST
AATF
OFAB OFAB
Burkina Faso Tanzania
INERA COSTECH
OFAB
Nigeria
NABDA

15. ADVOCACY TIPS:
LESSONS FROM OFAB

16. What is advocacy?
For OFAB advocacy simply means:
Actively supporting a worthy cause, and
trying to get others to support it as well
Speaking up in an organized manner to
drawing attention to an important policy
issue
Taking deliberate steps to influence
policy making process

17. Purpose of Advocacy
With regards to biotech in Africa, the following
are main purposes of advocacy are to:
• Promote biosafety and biotechnology legal,
regulatory and policy change,
• Promote acceptance and uptake of biotech
products
• Counter propaganda spread by groups and
individuals opposing application of the technology
and use of its products

18. Key advocacy techniques
The following are some of the advocacy
techniques used by OFAB
• Informing
• Dialoguing
• Sensitizing
• Petitioning
• Mobilizing
• Negotiating
• Pressuring

19. Key biotech advocacy targets
The following are the main categories of
OFAB biotech advocacy program in Africa.
Decision makers (The Executive, Legislature
and Judiciary)
Beneficiaries (farmers, scientists, regulators,
relief agencies, consumers, millers, industry)
Allies and partners (media, NGOs, donors,
RECs, industry)
Resistant groups (NGOs, media)

20. ADVOCACY TIPS

21. 1. Advocacy is a daily activity
• Advocacy is not a one-time activity, rather it is a
process.
• It is not a one-hundred meter dash to the finish
line.
• It is more akin to a cross-country marathon race
full of ups and downs.
For example, it took Kenya almost a decade to
pass the Biosafety Bill into law, meaning ten years
of sustained advocacy campaign

22. 2. Gather policy and political information
Before you begin your advocacy initiative, it is vital
to:
Have clear understanding of how key institutions
work (parliament, ministries, AG, media)
Identify decision/policy makers to target
Build a network of supporters (Netmapping,
stakeholder mapping)
Gather all the necessary information you need on
the issue
Develop a media strategy
Develop an advocacy strategy
Have a budget to implement the strategies

23. 3. Assess risks
The more you understand the socio-political
context in which you operate, the less likely you
are to make a costly strategic mistake.
In Tanzania for example, OFAB learnt that quiet
that includes dialoging, informing, sensitizing and
negotiating is more acceptable to policy makers
than mobilizing the public and the media to
pressurize the government.
The same also works well in Uganda but in Kenya
pressurizing and mobilizing works faster.

24. 4. Develop specific goals
• The secret for success in advocacy is to
always pursue a single goal at a time, e.g.
enactment of biosafety law.
• Working towards one goal at a time helps to
avoid the risk of spreading yourself too thin.
• Focusing on one goal also helps you to avoid
being viewed as a nuisance by policy makers
• Even so, one can still have small SMART
objectives/activities that can be attained in
the short or medium term

25. 5. Cultivate strategic relationships
• Undertaking an advocacy is a team effort
• It is best done through alliances and
friends
• Globally, organizations supportive of and
those opposed to modern biotechnology
have combined forces to share synergies
for maximum impact
• They organize activities including
workshops conferences, demonstrations
and seeing-is-believing tours

26. 6. Identify and build key champions
Effective champions must be or have:
Trust worthy,
Integrity,
Credible,
Supportive and committed to the cause
Knowledgeable
Netmapping can be used effectively to identify
suitable champions

28. 7. Be media savvy
• Developing media relations skills is essential
to effective advocacy
• A good understanding of how the media work
and utilizing that knowledge effectively is
likely to make you more successful in getting
them to support your course.
• This is vital because the media’s agenda-
setting and opinion-shaping role is well
documented
• Cultivating media relations takes time and
resources

29. Ghanaian Journalists display
their DNA after extraction

30. 8. Highlight benefits & cost of inaction
• To get policy makers to act
positively, it is vital to highlight
benefits of your cause and costs of
failure
• For instance, OFAB relies heavily
on findings of socio-economic
studies on the benefits of biotech
crops for effective messaging

31. 9. Maintain your focus
• In advocacy consistency and focus on one goal
at a time always pay off.
• Never take your eyes off the prize even after
winning : there are several adversaries who will
never rest until they rob you of victory
• Kenya biotech stakeholders’ strategic mistake
was to celebrate too soon and let premature
feelings of accomplishment :
• Results: Ban on GMO imports, Stringent
regulation on labeling

32. 10. Keep track of issues
• Plant your network members into state
commissions, agencies and relevant
international bodies.
• Designate associates as liaisons to
commissions, agencies and bodies of interest
to get prior information. E.g. OFAB Ghana
chapter PC members also serve in the NBC
• Track activities of parliament, RECs, UN, gov’ts
• Closely monitor media reporting on the issue

33. 11. Be ready to tell your story
As an advocate you and your network
must:
Be ready to tell your story on short notice
Prepare messages focused on positive
issues and benefits
• A good example is a message map
• Rule: APP (Anticipate, Prepare and
Practice)

34. Example of a message map

35. Thank you
www.ofabafrica.org
www.aatf-africa.org