As part of the “Civil Society for Kazakhstan” project, aimed at promoting freedoms and rights in Kazakhstan through civil society efforts, training sessions were held in Almaty (May 13-14, 2024) and Astana (May 20-21, 2024).
The two-day seminars on “Advocacy” in both cities were conducted in a hybrid format – both offline and online – to allow maximum participation. The seminars included lectures, discussions, practical exercises, and interactive activities.
In her welcome speech, Gulnara Dusupova, Program Manager of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan, emphasized the importance of this project and spoke about the EU’s work in Kazakhstan. Aziza Mukhametova, Project Manager at IWPR, highlighted the goals, objectives, and future activities of the project in her opening speech.
Svetlana Ushakova, Director of the PF « INIDI », served as the moderator of the sessions. Her expertise in NGO development, civic activism, public participation, transparency, and accountability in governance and business, as well as program and project monitoring and evaluation, proved valuable to the participants.
Theoretical and practical tasks were supervised by talented trainers such as Tatyana Sedova, an expert in organizational development, consulting, and project management; Sergey Gulyaev, General Director of the Decenta Foundation; and Roman Reimer, co-founder of the PF “Wings of Liberty” and a practicing lawyer.
The training program was divided into five stages, forming an advocacy campaign (AC).
Stage 1 – Preparation: focused on identifying needs and priorities, and setting goals (strategy) for any AC.
During this stage, participants determined whether they knew their target audience, its needs, and how to ensure the accuracy of these needs.
Stage 2 – Planning: involved setting the goals and objectives of the AC, and learning methods and techniques for conducting ACs, such as petitions, letters, e-otinish requests, court actions, etc. (based on stakeholder analysis).
Stage 3 – Organization: emphasized coalition-building skills and developing messages for potential partners. The importance of selecting the right partners and establishing interaction rules was also discussed.
Stage 4 – Implementation: included developing tactics for engaging with selected local authorities or specific public figures, as well as learning risk assessment methods and understanding the risk map to ensure the safety of civil society organizations, human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, and journalists implementing advocacy campaigns.
Stage 5 – Campaign Evaluation: discussed the feasibility of evaluating ACs and the indicators used for this purpose.
An integral and important part of the program was the session on ensuring the safety of civil society organizations, human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, and journalists conducting advocacy campaigns.
Participants were actively involved throughout the training, attentively following each session and eagerly participating in the discussions and all practical tasks, whether working in thematic groups or developing and presenting tools for identifying needs (questionnaires, surveys, focus group guides).
Participants faced hypothetical situations requiring them to practice pitching skills. For example, the trainers posed a scenario where a participant meets the mayor of a city or district in an elevator and has two minutes to negotiate or defend their project.
Participants not only appreciated the high level of organization of the training but also its relevance to their professional development, expressing a desire to participate in future similar events.
“Thank you very much to the training organizers, a very good and clear training. I now want to conduct advocacy training myself and create a coalition in the Abay region. I hope for further support,” said Askar Sadikov, a representative of a public organization from Semey city.
“I liked and found it important to review specific real cases from the trainers’ experience, the friendly atmosphere, and the useful information received. Two days were not enough; I would have liked to delve deeper,” said Asel Zhatkanbai, an activist from Almaty.
Sakan Aubakirova, an activist of retirement age from the village of Karabas in the Abay region, said, “The training was very useful. The speakers are top-notch professionals. My wish: more time for the training because there is a lot of information – it takes time to absorb.”
Many participants noted the short duration of the training and expressed a desire to spend more time at such training sessions to deepen their knowledge of AC. It is worth mentioning that the project plans to conduct online training on data collection to identify needs in the regions, as well as expert visits to the regions to develop and initiate coalitions and exchange experiences, where participants will gain even more practice and skills in the field of advocacy.
This publication was funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of IWPR and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.