Note from Harsh Jaitli, CEO, VANI

The Good, Bad and Ugly World of Lobbying

The Voluntary Organizations world over have been using word ‘Advocacy and lobbying’ interchangeably to define their strategy to influence pro-poor policies of government, donors and other components of ruling elites. For voluntary sector, this task is central to their work where they take learning, observations, and opinions of and from marginalized to change the policies. All these is generated from the intensive work at grass roots levels wherein it is believed that to provide decent and dignified life the change in policies and attitudes is necessary. The most popular mode is dharna and demonstrations. People called it emotion based advocacy and argued for evidence based advocacy. So many voluntary organizations started various types of research within participatory framework to articulate agenda, process and soliciting solutions and suggestions. Based on findings of such research, the activists substantiated their learnings and suggestions from the community. Last few years we witnessed a new trend of celebrity centric advocacy, where film personalities came forward to deliver message in favor of social movement. Some termed it superficial, glorification ornamental display of issues.

The private sector is also very active in their form of advocacy and lobbying and the most effective instrument in this are various federations and chambers. With the increase of their influence and resource their mode is also changing. They not only conduct captive research to prove their points but also organize seminars and conclaves in five star hotels. One of the recent trends is to rate government and even media towards friendliness. Richer the federation more luxurious and influential is the event. Recently, they even started taking up social issues where business interest is involved. For example, education and health, both are being a lucrative and attractive business proposition. Of late, there have been interesting blend of business and government on such issues by calling for ‘inclusive growth’.

Any how things were quite under socio-economic and ethical decency, but recently we have seen new trends wherein professional lobbyists have come to limelight. The recent scandal in telecommunication exposed the existence of lobbyist in our system, which work only for commercial interest. There are whispers within the corridors of power in Delhi that rates are fixed to even arrange appointments with senior government officials and ministers. The facilitation fees vary depending upon the importance of department. These lobbyists include PR (Public Relation) companies, legal forms and even some media barons have been named in that.

The big challenge in front of voluntary sector today is to search for space in this uneven playing field. The private sector is joining hands with government on social agenda, but will go only for non-threatening, financially beneficial and publicity oriented issues. Who will raise contested issues and question status quo which is still heavily tilted towards powerful elites. We need to reflect and design new strategies to search and work with individuals with the system to get the voice of marginalized heard. These sensible and committed people are in every sector. It time to build new bridges to achieve our goals.

VANI INITIATIVES @ May, 2010

22nd May, 2010: State level consultation in Patna on State policy on the voluntary sector , direct tax code and it’s implications on the voluntary sector

A one day meeting was held in Patna, Bihar, to discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by the voluntary organizations in Bihar in association with VANI – New Delhi, CENCORD – Patna and ABVA-Patna. The meeting was attended by 72 VOs from all over Bihar. Mr. Harsh Jaitli (CEO-VANI) talked about invariable questioning on legitimacy on VO sector and stressed the fact that the government is run by economics based people; hence the social issues are neglected while looking at the report since they look primarily at numbers. He further said that the private sectors in India are getting stronger day by day and especially through their CSR policy, they are venturing into the social world. Therefore, today, the voluntary sector has to deal with both government and the private sector. More...

12th may 2010 : Launch of Civil Society Accountability Toolkit for India

VANI along with the Commonwealth foundation has released the India Toolkit on “Civil Society Accountability: Principles and practices”. This toolkit was released on May, 12, 2010 in a day long meeting at India International Centre, Delhi.. The toolkit is the outcome of a year-long project between VANI, the One World Trust and the Commonwealth Foundation to identify the principles and practice of accountability for civil society in India. This seminar was organized to have discussions around the need of promoting CSO Accountability and credibility in India. More...

Coming up…..

Announcements :

1. Training on women leadership development for women staff members working with development organizations
   
   
   Duration : Ten days (22nd July to 31st July 2010)
   (This training is organized by Sahbhagi Shiksha Kendra with special 15 days session on gender sensitization by Breakthrough, New Delhi) More...
   

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