1. How to develop a national advocacy campaign?
Maria Brandao
Consultant to Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals
at Burson-Marsteller Brussels
IF Workshop, Brussels, 28 June 2011
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2. What is advocacy?
• Advocacy by an individual or by an advocacy group normally aims to
influence public­policy and resource allocation decisions within
political, economic, and social systems and institutions
• Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organisation
undertakes including media campaigns, public speaking,
commissioning and publishing research, polls, briefings,
position papers, etc
Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy
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3. What can YOU gain from advocacy?
• Public recognition, increased awareness of and
mobilisation for your issue...
• ... Leading to POLICY CHANGE...
• ... that will improve in the LONG TERM the situation
for your organisation and the issue you are defending
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4. How can you start an advocacy campaign in your country?
The five step process
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5. Five step process for an effective advocacy campaign
Step 1: Monitoring
Step 2: Information & Analysis
Development phase
Step 3: Strategic Consideration
Step 4: Develop and key messages and
communication tools
Step 5: Advocate: make noise
Implementation
phase

6. Monitoring:
What’s happening? Who’s doing what? How can
you benefit from or shape the environment to
reach your objectives?
Tips: Mozilla Firefox, Google alerts, etc
Information and Analysis:
Map stakeholders and developments you can
use/leverage (e.g. Guidelines, policies, etc).
Identify potential opportunities versus
challenges early enough
Tips: make sure you get facts and figures of
interest to your country
Strategic consideration:
Develop your strategy based on the information
& analysis, and set out objectives, actions,
responsibility and timeline! (e.g. European and
national plans in key countries)
6 Tips: make sure you track down your activity as
it will help you keep focused!

7. Develop key messages and other tools:
­Identify which stakeholders you will be
reaching out to, what you will tell them and with
which objective in mind
­Develop messaging accordingly
Tips: use message houses to structure your
messages and make sure you include evidence
Advocate: make some noise
­Reach out to stakeholders identified in step 2,
set up a meeting and follow up accordingly on
next steps (e.g. Establish collaborations, get
them to speak up about your issue, discuss
funding)
­ Organise an event and generate media attention
(e.g. Policy event or media luncheon)
­ Disseminate communications tools widely
Tips: Prepare, know what you’re asking each
7 partner to do and be ready to give them
something in return

8. Message House
The Story in 30
seconds
Key Key Key
Message 1 Message 2 Message 3
(Context) (Relevance) (Difference)
Supporting Supporting Supporting
facts and facts and facts and
examples examples examples
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9. Case study: The EU NTD advocacy campaign
Objectives
1. Move the debate on NTD prevention up the EU policy agenda and
from the food to the public health arena
2. Develop partnerships with credible 3rd parties to improve the visibility
of your organisation and the NTD issue
3. Secure the inclusion of NTD prevention in health
policy programmes (e.g. rare diseases) and education

10. Case study: The EU NTD advocacy campaign –
RESULTS at regional level
 Improved visibility of the NTD issue and debate being held in
public health arena
 Dissemination of key messages via postcard campaign
 Dissemination of 2000 copies of the report to policy makers,
healthcare community (e.g. congresses) and online (e.g. Commission
website)
 Members of the EP published questions and Commission’s Heath
Department (DG SANCO) expressed commitment to NTD prevention
 Secured partnerships and political support to be leveraged
if/when needed (e.g. with MEPs, EFCNI, etc.)
 Secured policy successes that will last in the long­term
 NTD prevention to be included in the EU Rare Disease Road Map
 Maternal health dimension in EP report on health inequalities
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11. Coming up soon...
Publication of studies on NTDs in medical
journals
What can you do?
Publish them online and disseminate them to
your contacts
Strengthening partnerships with important
partners and exploring activities of mutual
benefit not only at EU but also at national level
Publication of the 2nd report on NTDs
What can you do?
11 Coming up later today

12. Thank you for listening!
Any questions?
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13. How to leverage advocacy activities and the report
at national level?
Maria Brandao
Consultant to Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals
at Burson-Marsteller Brussels
IF Workshop, Brussels, 28 June 2011
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14. About the 2nd report on NTDs
1. Partners
Led the drafting and Endorsed
Supported with data
sponsored (MC and Bayer) (partly or fully)
2. Concept: focus on policy impacting NTD prevention
from a horizontal perspective
3. Key messages
1. Little has happened in the last 20 years and no progress
since the first NTD report
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2. More can be done in the area of prevention

15. About the 2nd report on NTDs
Our call to Action
1. Adopt and align recommendations of folate acid intake with WHO standard and monitor their
implementation by healthcare professionals
2. Raise awareness in women of childbearing age and the healthcare community (for example, include
messages on prevention of NTD and the importance of folate levels in health and sexual education
curricula)
3. Ensure NTD prevention is included in related policy (e.g. Rare Disease, Health Inequalities,
Nutrition, etc)
4. Continue funding European registries and push for more and better collection of comparable data
5. Investigate further the costs of food fortification and supplementation strategies
6. Explore new methods to raise folate levels of women of childbearing age including the value of food
fortification and supplementation strategies
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16. How to
create some noise about the report?
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17. How can you leverage the 2nd report on NTDs at national level?
Get the report adapted to your national
situation, translate it in your language & secure
foreword by key national personality (policy
maker, Key Opinion Leader, etc.)
Use it as a point of entry to discuss the issue
with policy makers, Key Opinion Leaders and
other 3rd party organisations and identify your
national champion to ensure he/she voices your
key messages!
Disseminate it online, in your publications and
ask partners and policy makers to do the same
(e.g. Post it on Ministry of Health website)
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18. How can you leverage the 2nd report on NTDs at national level?
Collaborate with national partners on a launch
event with media campaign to present report
findings
Work with a Key Opinion Leader to explore
authoring a feature article
Disseminate it (e.g. at stands, in meeting packs,
etc.) and secure speaking opportunities at your
partners’ congresses to present it
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19. Thank you for listening!
Any questions?
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