Globaldev careers: The advocacy specialist

BARCELONA — A career in advocacy is not for those easily disheartened. Making change happen and ensuring that progress isn’t reversed involves constant hard work and there can be a few knock backs along the way. But it’s also an extremely rewarding career for anyone who cares about an issue and wants to help create change, said Joanna Shepherd, policy and advocacy adviser with Plan International. A genuine passion for the issues is important because the job centers around them. Devex spoke to Shepherd about her unexpected career journey into advocacy work, the highs and lows of the job, and the importance of persistence in creating change. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What is the job of an advocacy officer working with an international NGO? There’s a couple of key things that an advocacy officer is expected to do. Firstly, it involves developing positions and messaging based on evidence, which might come from the latest research, our programmatic work, consultations, or speaking directly with girls and young women through the work that we do. Once we have those kinds of positions and messaging in place, [it’s about] using those in our advocacy and influencing work. At the [country] level, it might be used by our regional and country office colleagues [to help influence] governments and decision-makers [in their countries]. Then, in terms of my external facing work, I also use these messages to influence global-level actors whether that's within the U.N. structures or other multilaterals or partners at the global level as well. What does your day-to-day look like? It’s really quite varied and especially with COVID, a lot has changed because advocacy, particularly at the global level, isn't really happening in person right now so we've had to adapt quite a lot. Being part of a global organization, the day to day might consist of meetings with external partners that are working on the same issues and strategizing around global processes that we're influencing. It might also be speaking with internal colleagues — whether that's other global level colleagues or regional and country level — to hear about their work and how we can support each other. And then I specialize in a specific area, which is protection from violence, so it might also be developing messaging on that and keeping up to date with new research, developing communications, and advising on that specific thematic agenda as well. How did you end up in this role? My degree was actually in music [but] once I graduated, I realized that I really wanted to work in gender equality and women's rights. From there, I worked at Plan UK for a little bit and got some work experience volunteering for other women's rights charities for a couple of years. “I feel like advocacy is sometimes like a game of chess and trying to preempt another person's next move.” --— Joanna Shepherd, policy and advocacy adviser, Plan International I did a master's degree in Edinburgh to have some academic experience in the field, and from there I worked in children's rights in Scotland. But I always knew that I would love to go back to Plan because I'm so passionate about a lot of the issues they work on, which is really at the intersection of children's rights and gender equality, so I kept an eye out for jobs until I managed to get a policy and advocacy job there. What are some of the biggest challenges of the job and what lessons have you learned that have helped you overcome these? Working in advocacy, particularly at a global level, I would say it can seem that change happens quite slowly and it's quite difficult to see your impact sometimes, which can be disheartening. Also, given the state that global politics is in right now, there can even be some quite regressive moves by certain countries which means that we're constantly having to reevaluate our messages and how we push back on that. In terms of how we overcome them, I always try to focus on wins — no matter how small they are — and the fact that they all link together and strategically build on each other and eventually the momentum is created through them. Even though it looks small at the time or it looks like you're not making a huge impact, if you step back and see the bigger picture, you will see that ultimately you are — that’s the hope anyway. What skills have you kind of focused on in order to build and progress in your career, or have you found to be most valuable? Communication skills in advocacy are obviously key, whether written skills in terms of messaging, strategic communications, or writing blog posts, or whether that's how you're engaging with external partners and stakeholders or decision-makers, or internally with colleagues. Always considering how you're getting your point across really matters and who you're trying to influence, what you're trying to achieve, and what the most effective ways of doing that are, depending on who you're engaging with, because that obviously does vary. I think also [something that’s becoming] more and more important and something that I'm trying to get better at is the analysis and strategic thinking. I feel like advocacy is sometimes like a game of chess and trying to preempt another person's next move. How have you seen the role of advocacy change over the years, as the sector has changed? International NGOs are starting to consider how we can best link up with and support the incredible grassroots movements that are happening all over the world and how a lot of the work that they can do obviously feeds into our work. [There’s more attention on] how we make sure that they're able to continue that by being funded and can do it in a safe way without the risk of violence or harassment, and making sure that as an international NGO we're able to work with them and support them but also [that we] don't take up any of the space that they are creating and [instead] mobilizing around it. I think that's something that we're continuing to work on a lot and we definitely haven't got there yet but that's one of the most exciting parts about what we're doing just now, and it changes a lot of our work. What advice would you have for others looking to get into a career in advocacy? I was always very focused about what type of work I wanted to do and I always found that quite useful in looking for jobs and in making your way through the sector to try to find the right role for you. And if you're not already ... then getting involved in campaigning or advocacy however you can, whether that's at a local level or national level, is such a great opportunity to learn about the structures that you're trying to influence and ... just learning the basics of advocacy work.