Topic 3: Working with government and policy makers

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Topic 3 Working with government and policy
makers

• The Turkish Case
• Filiz Bikmen, TUSEV
• WINGS Peer Learning Event
• Ottawa, Canada 2005

2
Topic 3 Working with government and policy
makers

• How can the association seek to relate with
  government at different levels of policymaking?
• What are the strategic options available and
  examples of successful approaches?
• What are the indicators of a good relationship
  with government?
• What can the association do if efforts fail?

3
Agenda

• Motivations for Giving and Philanthropy
• Overview of Civil Society
• Overview of Turkish Case
• Political Analysis and Strategy
• 3 Key Questions
• Maximizing Impact

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Turkey

• Population- 70 million
• Area- 814,578 sq. kilometres
• Borders
• Greece
• Bulgaria
• Georgia
• Armenia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Syria

• Type of Government- Republic, Parliamentary
  Democracy
• AKP and CHP governments
• Legal System- Civil Law, Judicial review under
  certain conditions in the Constitutional Court
• Branches of Government- Pres. Elected by
  Parliament, prime minister appointed by the
  president, Cabinet appointed by the president
  based on the nomination of the prime minister
• Parliament- Turkish Grand National Assembly of
  approx. 550 members

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Turkey

• Independent Judiciary
• Turkey is a member of
• UN
• NATO
• Council of Europe
• OSCE
• Accession Country to EU

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Turkey

• 22nd Largest Economy in the World
• 30 living under 2USD a day
• 80.000 Associations, 25.000 in Istanbul
• 3.500 Private Foundations, 2.500 in Istanbul
• Foundations Directorate (Prime Ministry) and
  Dept. of Associations (Ministry of Interior)
• Taxation- Ministry of Finance (3 experts)

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Motivations for Giving and Philanthropy in Turkey

• Giving has much less of a religious motivation as
  one would expect. Basic expectations are to help
  the poor and contribute to development, no matter
  what the reason.
• 3,500 private foundations
• none of them grantmaking
• 90 of which have less than 250,000USD in annual
  income
• Larger foundations are holding/family
  foundations, which establish universities,
  museums, hospitals, etc.
• No other organized mechanisms for philanthropy
  currently exist.
• NGOs do very limited mass fundraising, and
  although 18 of the public has been reported to
  make donations, they are one off and mainly to
  their own family or relatives (87).

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Overview of the State of Civil Society in Turkey

• Based on the recent (2005) study on civil
  societys and CSOs
• Structure
• Environment
• Values
• Impact
• Overall weak, but many of the factors are
  reported to have an upward trend Things are
  IMPROVING!

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Structure

• Still relatively un-organized with a limited
  number of umbrella organizations (and mainly only
  economic-oriented business associations and
  chambers are organized as such).
• Depth and breadth of civic participation via
  membership and leadership is low- especially so
  for disadvantaged groups
• Participation via donations and volunteering are
  low
• Self regulation mechanisms are not developed, and
  connections between NGOs both in Turkey, and with
  international organizations, is reported to be
  very low
• Capacity building is an increasingly prominent
  topic of discussion, but actions to promote
  capacity of CSOs is still quite limited

Source Civil Society Index Study, TUSEV,
Unpublished, 2005
10
Environment

• Laws governing CSOs are improving, but CSOs still
  sense some level of government interference
  (mainly those working in the area of rights).
• Government relations with CSOs are seen to be
  getting increasingly better, but areas of
  dialogue are limited. Government has only
  recently assigned specific provisions in law to
  support (fund) CSOs- but informally this has been
  happening for many years (e.g. donating land,
  buildings, etc.)
• Private sector relations with CSOs are limited.
  Although the number of companies seeking
  sponsor relations with CSO projects is
  increasing, they tend not to rely on corporate
  giving strategies or programmes to do so, and
  instead rely mainly on PR budgets.
• The EU accession process is seen to have created
  a positive effect on the development of the civil
  society sector in Turkey- not only through
  funding but through increasing CSOs activity in
  areas such as promoting democracy and building
  communities.

Source Civil Society Index Study, TUSEV,
Unpublished, 2005
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Values

• Promoting values
• CSOs perceive themselves to be most active in
  promoting environmental sustainability, poverty
  eradiation and democracy
• CSOs are less active in promoting tolerance and
  encouraging the transparency of government and
  private sector
• Practicing values
• CSOs are less active in practicing tolerance,
  democracy and transparency within the sphere of
  civil society and in their own organizations.

Source Civil Society Index Study, TUSEV,
Unpublished, 2005
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Impact of CSOs on Policy

• CSOs are increasingly attempting to be active in
  influencing policy, but there are still very few
  organizations with this awareness and objective
• CSOs suffer from the lack of skills and capacity
  to launch and pursue successful campaigns,
  especially in terms of influencing and informing
  public opinion
• CSOs are ineffective in organizing coalitions for
  joint advocacy initiatives which weakens their
  ability to be effective
• The State has not provided CSOs with the space or
  the opportunity to influence policy and as such,
  even successful attempts and campaigns have
  rarely had any impact.
• Challenges to CSO effectiveness in influencing
  policy and having societal impact on critical
  issues affecting citizens
• Overall lack of citizen respect and trust of
  CSOs, lack of civic participation
• Existing culture not attuned to holding
  authorities accountable
• CSOs inability (interest, skills, resources) to
  communicate their message through media
• Medias lack of support and interest to promote
  CSO activities and messages
• CSOs working on similar areas inability to form
  coalitions/joint campaigns.

Source Civil Society Index Study, TUSEV,
Unpublished, 2005
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Overview of Turkish Case

• Recent Developments Context
• Mandates of Reform, Context of EU accession
• Changing role and growth of the third sector
• Current Issues National Level, Third Sector
  Policy
• Associations Law
• Foundations Law
• NGO-State Cooperation (Public Administration
  Reform Law, Municipality Law) and State/Public
  Funding Mechanisms
• Taxation and Public Benefit

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Why Policy Reform?

• Inspire generate support for an issue or action
  raise new ideas or question old ones create new
  ways of framing an issue or 'policy narratives'
• Inform represent the views of others share
  expertise and experience put forward new
  approaches
• Improve add, correct or change policy issues
  hold policymakers accountable evaluate and
  improve own activities, particularly regarding
  service provision learn from each other.

How Civil Society Organisations Use Evidence to
Influence Policy Processes A literature review,
ODI
15
Tools and organizations on the cooperation/evidenc
e axes
TUSEV
Tools for Policy Impact A Handbook for
Researchers, ODI
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Political Analysis and Strategy
Tools for Policy Impact A Handbook for
Researchers, ODI
Message
Approach
Timing
Targets

• When
• Other policy reform
• partners which
• want the same
• thing

• Values
• Style
• How you
• leverage

• Stakeholder
• Analysis/Mapping

• Clear
• Specific
• Focused
• Consistent

• Key players/decision makers
• Constituents objectives
• Targets who, motivation, position

• Spokesperson
• Values and style
• Rewards

• For Turkey? For EU?
• For people?
• For democracy?
• For economic development?
• For employment?

• Timeline
• What are other issues going on in the external
  environment which you can piggy back your message
  on?

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How can the association seek to relate with
government at different levels of policymaking?

• Position of members vs. position of association
• Understanding of political culture
• Timing and agenda of government
• Experts/Informants

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What are the strategic options available and
examples of successful approaches?

• Consultative vs. Adversarial Approach
• Policy Analysis vs. Policy Research
• Educational/Networking Activities
• Site Visits
• Meetings/Conferences/Seminars
• Training

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What are the indicators of a good relationship
with government?

• Depends how you define good!!
• Balancing your closeness and distance
• Credibility
• Timeliness/ Responsiveness
• Level of Detail

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What can the association do if efforts fail?

• Assessing Risks
• Donors
• Publicity
• Positioning between NGOs and Government without
  risking confidence of both
• Alternative strategies
• Revisit
• Target
• Approach
• Message
• Timing

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Other Challenges

• Moving Target
• Time
• No Mechanisms
• Lack of Expertise
• Other Agenda Items

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Maximizing Impact to Improve Changes of Policy
Influence
How Civil Society Organizations Use Evidence to
Influence Policy Processes A literature review,
ODI

• Legitimacy Legitimacy matters for policy
  influence. Evidence can be used in particular to
  enhance the technical sources of CSO legitimacy,
  but also representative, moral or legal
  legitimacy. Making legitimacy explicit can help
  others make decisions as to whether they wish to
  endorse CSO work. A more general point linked in
  with this is that CSOs are more likely to have an
  impact if they work together.
• Effectiveness Evidence can be used to make CSO
  work more effective. Gathering evidence can be a
  tool for CSOs to evaluate and improve the impact
  of their work, share lessons with others, and
  capture the institutional memory and knowledge
  held within organisations.
• Integration There is often a disconnection
  between CSO work on implementation or service
  delivery and the rest of the policy process. CSOs
  can have greater influence if they find better
  ways to turn their practical knowledge and
  expertise into evidence that can be used to
  inform other parts of the policy process (agenda
  setting, formulation and evaluation). This could
  also help improve the learning which occurs
  across CSOs.
• Translation Expert evidence should not be used
  to 'trump' the perspectives and experience of
  ordinary people. CSOs should find ways to turn
  people's understanding into legitimate evidence,
  and of combining community wisdom with expert
  evidence.
• Access Access to policymaking processes is vital
  for CSOs. Examples in this paper indicate that
  the question of CSO influence is often one of
  whether they are included in policy processes and
  can respond accordingly. Evidence can help CSOs
  gain better access to policy arenas. Using
  high-quality and uncontested evidence can allow
  even politically radical CSOs be included fully
  in policy debate.
• Credibility Evidence must be valid, reliable and
  convincing to its audience. CSOs may need to
  adapt for different groups the kind of evidence
  they use - the same evidence may be credible to
  some but not to others. Credibility can depend on
  factors such as the reputation of the source and
  whether there is other accepted evidence which
  substantiates it.
• Communication Evidence must be presented in an
  accessible and meaningful way. The most effective
  communication is often two-way, interactive and
  ongoing.