Strategic planning for advocacy begins as soon as even one or two people in a country dedicate time and energy to advocating the adoption and enforcement of tobacco control laws or regulations. For advocacy to succeed, at least one person needs to think and act strategically.

These guides should be useful to any such advocates entering into a strategic planning process. But they should be particularly helpful to NGO and government advocates in countries in which a core leadership group of dedicated, experienced, and skillful advocates has emerged—and has decided to come together to develop a national plan for advocacy strategy.

A Model Strategy-Planning Group

Imagine you are attending such a strategy-planning workshop. As you look around the room at the people who have gathered, you need to see colleagues who together possess specific expertise, experience, and relationships:

• Tobacco control advocacy experience and a broad knowledge of who has been doing what in tobacco control—from networks of individuals to coalitions that will help advance tobacco control in your country.
• Expertise in tobacco control science and economics; connections to the World Health Organization (WHO) and to other international organizations that could provide guidance in developing sound policy and program goals and objectives.
• Legal expertise to help the group understand the legal and legislative process and draft your proposed laws
• An understanding of the political power structure your tobacco control advocacy efforts will seek to engage—including what messages key decision makers need to hear to persuade them to enact the laws and programs you want
• An understanding of the political operations, governmental ties, and advocacy strategies of the tobacco companies that operate in your country
• Knowledge of potential allies and opponents in government, the business community, and other interest groups—and how open your potential allies are to helping you build an effective tobacco control movement
• Knowledge of the media, including how open your nation's mass media will be to tobacco control media advocacy
• Strong relationships with preexisting networks of tobacco control advocates
• Experience with successful policy-advocacy efforts by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in your country-if not directly in tobacco control, then in parallel movements, such as the consumer or environmental movements
• Influence with organizations willing to provide financial and human resources to support coalition-building and advocacy activities
• Relationships with international organizations and experts who could provide access to human and financial resources

These qualities of knowledge and experience are a good beginning, and we discuss them in detail later. But since strategy planning is a highly collaborative activity, you also want to make sure that as many as possible of your group colleagues share the following characteristics:

• Enthusiasm and a proven commitment to tobacco control policy advocacy
• The ability to work collaboratively, listen to and respect the views of others, and be open in sharing their own concerns
• The capacity to contain their egos—and not always need to be the center of media and other attention
• Demonstrated trustworthiness, particularly in maintaining confidential information and respecting the views expressed by colleagues
• Willingness and ability to think and act in the interest of national tobacco control efforts as a whole
• Demonstrated capacity to follow through with commitments and work assignments

Some individuals should not be at your planning table. These will likely include:

• Government officials who have been defensive and hostile to independent NGO action
• Advocates who have been unwilling or unable to work collaboratively

A skilled, gifted facilitator who can guide the planning process is essential. This might be one of the participants who is:

• Well known and respected by all in the group.
• Not seen as tied too closely to a single organization or strategy.
• Deeply knowledgeable in tobacco control.
• A good listener.
• Respectful of the views of all other participants.
• Able to keep discussion focused on the strategy-planning tasks at hand

This facilitator need not be a saint, but as one participant in a national planning meeting exclaimed in frustration—after long, distracting speeches by one or two participants; stony silence by others; disrespect to younger participants and women participants; divisive arguments over such questions as which organization or city should house the coalition's secretariat—"What we need most is a mature adult to guide us!"

Outside Facilitation

It may be useful to invite an experienced tobacco control advocate and facilitator from an international nongovernmental organization to provide support to your developing movement. For example, such help might come from the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) or the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA).

Some individuals with essential knowledge—political insiders, friendly journalists, or lobbyists for non-tobacco clients—may not be comfortable sharing important confidential information with the whole group. In such cases, you may need a trusted group member to speak with that person alone. Later, that group member can share relevant details with the others at your planning sessions—without divulging the identity of the information's source.

As we discuss later, close working relationships between NGOs and government officials, both political and civil service, are essential—and often challenging. One critical task for NGOs is to influence—sometimes by making public demands, and even by criticizing government actions. Government officials who participate with NGOs in planning meetings often strongly protest strategies that call for public demands or criticism of the government. "Trust us," they will argue. But NGOs should not avoid lobbying or media strategies that are necessary to increase pressure on the government.

At the same time, important individual allies within the government are often as dedicated to tobacco control as any NGO leader. These individuals are vital in any tobacco control movement. They understand the need for "outside" voices to make demands on the government; such voices make other, unresponsive decision makers uncomfortable with their lack of action.

These government allies may also be willing to provide political intelligence—and to insist upon doing so in confidence. They might agree to participate in a strategy-planning meeting with NGOs—but most likely only if no other government official is present! Having more than one government official in your strategy-planning sessions could also prevent open discussion of strategies needed to force the government to take action. It is probably best, then, for NGO representatives to make plans among themselves, and meet separately with government officials.

A Closer Look at Planning-Group Qualifications

Let us take a closer look at the kinds of expertise, experience, and knowledge that need to be represented among the individuals who participate in your early planning efforts:

Tobacco control advocacy experience and a broad knowledge of who has been doing what in tobacco control—from networks of individuals to coalitions working to advance tobacco control in your country

Even in the early stages of tobacco control development, most countries have a small core group of dedicated tobacco control advocates. This group might have spent many years developing the needed knowledge and experience. Its members also may have developed a wide network of national and international allies.

Usually just such a group of advocates, with the commitment, energy, and knowledge of those working seriously in tobacco control, will convene the very kind of meeting we have been imagining. And it will be these persons who will have the energy and determination to make certain that the planning process is more than a talking exercise—that it proceeds to action, including seeking and finding the money and human resources to carry out the plan.

Tobacco control science and economics expertise; connections to the WHO, UICC and other international organizations that can provide guidance in developing sound policy and program goals and objectives

Relationships with international organizations and experts who can provide access to knowledge, human, and financial resources

Some of the people you will bring together may have attended international meetings and training sessions. They might already be active on GLOBALink, the electronic network for international tobacco control maintained by the UICC. They will have a sense of the international consensus on model comprehensive national tobacco control laws and programs. They will also know where to go for expert international advice on such laws and programs.

If your national planning group does not include people with such expertise, you might be able to invite international experts to your planning sessions. Your group might also call upon GLOBALink's network of members online to help answer questions that arise over the course of your planning.

Legal expertise in the legislative process and in drafting strong proposed laws

Since you will need to consider the specific, formal language of legislation, you will want to find and recruit lawyers—especially lawyers who have experience with drafting legislation for your national government. They can make certain any law you propose will be written in proper legal language. You may be able to get unofficial help from lawyers-or legal professionals who have worked closely with lawyers—who have actually drafted proposed legislation in the Ministry of Health, the Justice Ministry, or the legislative drafting office of Parliament.

International legal experts may also prove to be sources of help. For example, David Sweanor of Canada has written about dangerous "loopholes" that tobacco companies have often tried to include in tobacco control legislation—their purpose is to weaken tobacco control provisions.

An understanding of the political power structure your tobacco control advocacy efforts must confront

You will need to learn who has the final power to enact the laws and programs you want, and which individuals have influence over those with that power. This identifying process is sometimes called "political mapping."

Yussuf Saloojee tells of creating an informal political map of South Africa's government and Parliament. One of the first steps South African advocates took was to confidentially interview "the highest ranking political leader of the ruling party who was friendly to tobacco control efforts." In Poland, Witold Zatonski created his own political map. He made himself readily available and listened carefully to friendly parliamentarians to learn of both opportunities and threats at every stage of the advocacy process.

Professional lobbyists who work for other public health and social justice issues may also be willing to help. You may even get critical political intelligence from business lobbyists not connected to the tobacco companies—lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies that market nicotine-replacement therapies, for instance. Sympathetic political science scholars and teachers can also be helpful.

When you work with professional lobbyists, be sure they have no clients whose interests conflict with tobacco control efforts. And remember that lobbyists need to maintain their long-term relationships with lawmakers—they usually shy away from even the most effective advocacy strategies that call for public criticism of legislators.

You can usually find a few political journalists and columnists who cover the national government who will help you privately—although they may not publicly express support. These members of the media might be willing to provide insights and guidance on the inner workings of the government and the political parties—in confidence.

Knowledge of the political operations, governmental ties, and advocacy strategies of the tobacco companies that operate in your country

Government officials in many countries have been involved in WHO tobacco control activities. You may also find nongovernmental advocates who are members of the Framework Convention Alliance; this group was formed during the negotiation process for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. While observing the negotiations was sometimes a frustrating experience for advocates, it was also educational. It helped country representatives learn about ideal policies, tactics used by tobacco industry lobbyists to weaken tobacco control efforts, and the typical resistance of government officials.

An understanding of what messages key decision makers need to hear to persuade them to enact the laws and programs you want

Before individuals in power will move on an issue, they usually need to be persuaded, forced, or shamed into taking action. (Guide #1 in this series, Strategic Planning for Tobacco Control Advocacy, discusses this topic at length.) Who can help us know what messages are most likely to move these key decision makers?

Your planning group will need to include colleagues who have watched the political decision makers keenly. These observers will know these individuals' personal and political "hot buttons"—the messages that will motivate them to react, both positively and negatively.

Key decision makers and influential leaders of groups outside the government will also need to be represented sometime in your strategy planning. (In the next section of this guide, we look at these groups.) Someone who has worked with youth groups, teachers unions, or parent-teacher organizations, for example, could give you advice about seeking such groups as allies. This individual can also help you decide what messages the leaders of these groups will need to hear to be motivated to join you.

Knowledge of how your nation's mass media will react to tobacco control media advocacy

You will also need colleagues who understand the barriers to support for tobacco control among the mass media in your country—and who have a grasp of the media's interest in tobacco and health stories. This knowledge will tell you where you may be able to gain favorable attention in the mass media, and which media-advocacy strategies have proven effective.

Your group also needs an experienced media watcher—a person who knows the interests and prejudices of the media decision makers. These key figures are the media's "gatekeepers"—they decide what gets into the news and what stays out. Advocates often know journalists who are sympathetic to tobacco control, but who are unable to get their bosses to run tobacco control stories—for instance, stories that criticize the tobacco industry or political leaders who do the industry's dirty work. Only if you know who the gatekeepers are, and how they may respond, can you develop realistic media strategies.

Again, you can gather such knowledge from sympathetic journalists, television producers, and newspaper or magazine editors and publishers, and from public relations professionals who have experience in working with the media. And again, they will most likely speak to you only in confidence, in one-on-one conversations outside your group meetings.

Knowledge of and experience with successful NGO policy-advocacy strategies in your country

Advocates for issues other than tobacco control may prove helpful. Consumer and environmental activists, for example, are often attuned to political realities. Such people can provide a realistic assessment of the political environment that your tobacco control proposals will face. For instance, Mary Assunta is an experienced consumer advocate in Malaysia. She has brought her fellow tobacco control advocates a sophisticated understanding of strategies for confronting powerful corporate interests, in Malaysia and around the world.

Influence with organizations willing to provide financial and human resources to support coalition-building and advocacy activities.

Tobacco control advocates in developing countries have made extraordinary progress as volunteers with no pay, and almost no money. But a few full-time paid organizers and advocates who can focus only on tobacco control can provide a strong foundation for building and sustaining a growing movement. This means you need money to support their activities. Of course, most advocates would rather spend their time advocating for tobacco control, not fundraising. But the most successful advocacy efforts also manage to find enough money to pay for necessities.