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| While working with tobacco
control . . . one of the things [that made it hard] was
we didn't have a very united tobacco control movement. |
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-Shoba John, India |
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The short answer to the first part of Question 6 is: Probably, yes.
Collaboration among individual allies and allied groups is among the most important elements of effective advocacy. It is also one of the most difficult elements. The reason is simple: Collaboration is subject to all the difficulties of human interaction: distrust, envy, competition, egotism, ambition. To help overcome these difficulties, collaborating groups often need to create formal rules to govern their collaboration. Such formal collaborations are called coalitions.
Informal, loose alliances can produce important tobacco collaborations. The Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) is an effective "virtual" alliance of more than 180 diverse NGOs from around the world that came together to advocate for a strong WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Their coalition is one successful example of the benefits of informal collaboration with minimum rules and no hierarchy.
Canada has developed—more formally—one of the most effective national tobacco control coalitions. A founding member, Ken Kyle of the Canadian Cancer Society, writes about the building of this coalition in "The Canadian Tobacco Control Coalition." Kyle also offers guidance based on the Canadian experience. His report appears in this guide as Appendix A.
Yet as critical as coalitions have proven to the tobacco control movement, tobacco control advocacy networks remain the movement's life blood—or its sinews and muscle, as this text from "Smoke Signals" suggests.
Links to Information on Coalition-building and Collaboration Smoke Fighting: A Smoking Control Movement Building Guide (ACS/UICC, 1985).
http://www.strategyguides.globalink.org/guide15.htm
This ACS publication discusses in detail such issues as the benefits and difficulties of formal tobacco control coalitions and informal networking. It also offers lessons in organizing and leading coalitions.
Advocacy for Social Justice: A Global Action and Reflection Guide (2001)
http://www.advocacy.org/publications.htm
This book is based on the experiences of the OXFAM/Advocacy Institute Advocacy Learning Initiative. Both the book and its companion website (which is accessible through the link provided above) provide readers with valuable lessons collaboration.
The Democracy Owners' Manual: A Practical Guide to Changing the World, by Jim Shultz (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, 2002).
You can purchase this book online at http://www.democracyctr.org/resources/manual/
Veteran NGO social justice advocate Jim Shultz offers sound guidance for forming and managing coalitions.
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All successful local and national tobacco control movements begin with a handful of passionate, dedicated advocates. They may be:
- Doctors moved to passion by the endless lines of patients with tobacco-caused disease they cannot cure;
- Scientists energized by the evidence that unfolds in their studies;
- Public health or consumer advocates outraged by the predatory behavior of the tobacco companies;
- Teachers helplessly watching teenagers succumb to the appeals of tobacco advertising; or
- Others from diverse walks of life aroused by the death of a loved one from tobacco use.
These individuals may be credentialed or self-taught; public figures or private; in public office or volunteers. What distinguishes them is this: Each is so personally committed to tobacco control that he or she is prepared to subordinate the demands of profession and family to the cause. These persons initiate, organize, energize, and excite the movement.
As Dr. Nigel Gray of the UICC has observed that, historically, only a handful of committed activists have inspired even the great voluntary associations and international health organizations.
As they find each other, come to know and trust each other, work together, reach out to still other friends, co-workers, and family members, a network spontaneously arises.
Networks build strength and unity by connecting individual activists, enabling them to engage in joint action and to draw upon each other's knowledge, experience, and judgment. When properly tended, networks can aggregate the energy of lone individuals, reinforce their commitment, empower them, and sustain them through discouraging times.
Too often, when we think of building a tobacco control movement, we focus on the important role of coalitions. Yes, coalitions play important advocacy roles. But coalitions are too often formal structures without purpose or energy.
One of the great achievements of smoking-control networks is that their members activate and energize the organizations they lead or to which they belong.
We can think of tobacco control networks as the sinews and muscle of a tobacco control movement, coalitions as their skeletons. Of course, without sinews and muscle, skeletons are empty shells.
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Government and NGO Collaboration
No country has made significant progress in tobacco control without effective collaboration between government officials committed to tobacco control and non-government tobacco control advocates.
| When we established our NGO
coalition in South Africa, we deliberately excluded the
government from being part of the coalition, because one
of our jobs is lobbying and the government can't lobby
itself. However, this did not preclude close collaboration
with the health ministry. |
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-Yussuf Saloojee, South Africa |
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Only governments can propose and enact tobacco control laws. Only NGOs can mobilize political support and pressure governments to take action, when necessary. Tobacco control advocates can give government officials vital information. NGOs can also help them write the most effective laws and regulations. In exchange, government officials can give NGOs vital political intelligence to help them advocate effectively.
Advocate David Bristol thought an alliance between his St. Lucia coalition and the government might be beneficial:
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Our hope really for the local coalition is that
we would continue to have a very, very strong association between
the Cancer Society, the Ministry of Health through the Health
Education Bureau, and I think we need to extend to the Ministry
of Trade and now try to get not just them but the Ministry of
Finance, who would look at taxation issues and get them on board. |
Should government officials and NGOs be members of the same tobacco control coalition? Sometimes, but not always. Especially when a coalition must put pressure on the government, NGOs need to meet, plan, and act independently. Even the most dedicated government official may say: "Don't criticize us. Trust us to do the right thing. Criticism will only anger government leaders and turn them against you."
This might sometimes be sound political advice, but it more likely reflects the desire of government officials—like everyone else—to avoid conflict and criticism. NGO leaders need to make independent decisions about whether open criticism of the government is strategically necessary. In the last section of this guide, "Lessons in Movement Leadership," we explore the need for such "outside" pressure.
Finally, the secret of effective tobacco control collaboration depends more on the quality of leadership than on any ideal structure. In the next section, we discuss the kinds of leadership that characterize successful tobacco control movements, formal or informal.
The complementary, but contrasting, roles of officials and NGOs, and the importance of maintaining the "insider/outsider" distinction, are also discussed in chapter four, "Foundation for Success: Capacity Building", of the World Health Organization's Tobacco Control Legislation: An Introductory Guide, http://www5.who.int/tobacco.
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