The International Centre for Policy Advocacy (ICPA) is a non-profit, capacity development organisation dedicated to preparing researchers and advocates to participate more meaningfully in evidence-informed policy-making processes. Founded as an independent NGO, ICPA has grown out of a conviction that policy-making processes informed by more voices, evidence, and analysis are more likely to lead to outcomes serving the public interest. In countries where they work, the building of such liberal democratic processes and institutions is an on-going project where the openness and the capacity needed are often missing and politicised debate dominates policy choices.

They focus on leveling the playing field and fostering broader engagement towards a more multi-voiced and balanced discussion of important policy decisions. For the different target groups they work with, this means adopting different approaches and practices in their policy work:

• - For researchers and think tanks, this means producing more focused and targeted research that supports and feeds decision-making processes, taking the key results, and actively advocating for influence.
• - For NGOs, this means complimenting a human rights or interest-based approach to advocacy, learning to ‘talk policy’, drawing on research evidence, and more effectively engaging with government decision-making processes.
• - For government officials, this means developing the willingness and capacity to produce and consume evidence-informed policy perspectives through the decision-making process.

They work closely with partners to build comprehensive and lasting policy skills, ranging from conducting applied research and analysis to writing effective communication tools, to designing and implementing successful advocacy plans. Acknowledging that developing this capacity requires significant effort and a hands-on approach to really achieve results, they offer a combined approach to support practitioners.

Their focus is on engagement and process and they rely on their partners and trainees to bring expertise in their issues. In over a decade of work, their flexible meta focus means they have worked with a wide range of partners who have developed projects covering everything from macroeconomics to minority inclusion.

They are a newly established independent organisation but not a new initiative; ICPA is the continuation of a programme that existed for a decade as part of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) of the Open Society Foundations, Budapest. They are registered in Berlin as a non-profit company (gGmbH), and continue to mostly work with partners and policy practitioners in the developing and changing democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and also West Africa.