Consultant Dan
04 March 2011
Effective lobbying for effective policy: a great example of the 1-Pager
My clients have truth and ethics on their side but they know that these things alone are never enough. Integrity and facts are necessary if you want to change the world, but never sufficient, if you intend to win.
Positive social change only happens if you can mobilise public support and persuade decision makers that they should respond to it.
I take my clients to Canberra (or elsewhere) to help them persuade the powerful. Their audiences range from politicians and public servants, to activists, journalists, executives, academics, diplomats, bankers and unionists.
This week I helped a coalition of industry, research, NGO and faith groups who are talking to the Government and Opposition about aid effectiveness. We had experts among us and a library of evidence to justify our case. We represent hundreds of thousands of people, in electorates across the country.
Importantly, we also had a great 1-Pager.
As everyone knows, the 1-Pager is a 2 page document (printed on both sides to save paper) that you hand over at the beginning of a meeting. It is a summary of your intended conversation. It serves as the client’s aide-memoire, to help them stick to the key messages they want to get across. It then sits on the desk of the decision maker, or her advisor, to remind them of the case you made and how they can take action in response.
I asked my clients to let me post their 1-Pager, Building Aid Effectiveness with WASH because I think it is a good example of the genre. The campaign is a great one and if you are interested in poverty I urge you to read the 1-Pager and then considering supporting the work done by WaterAid.
RSS