Advocacy in Southern Africa

This volume emerged from an advocacy training and information-sharing project implemented across the Southern African region by Co-operative for Research and Education (CORE) in 1997. The underlying premise was that a rich and historic experience already exists in the region and that civil society organisations (CSOs) do not need to rely on "northern" experience to teach the principles of effective advocacy work, but rather to validate regional experiences and use these to guide future work.

CORE commissioned and edited 13 advocacy case studies from around the region, dealing with issues including human rights, women's rights and political participation, rights of disabled people, land reform, civic education and election monitoring, HIV/AIDS, and landmines.

The editors have also written a 50-page introduction which draws on their experiences and others, as well as specific inputs from CSO representatives who participated in the project, to lay out principles and policies in conducting CSO advocacy programmes. It also summarises many lessons learnt and explains how those lessons can inform advocacy work in the region and elsewhere.