Advocacy: A Ministry of Influence
“We will engage in advocacy work with policy makers on behalf of people who are made poor.”
This is a statement from the Presentation Brothers 2005 Chapter. It is a dense sentence that reflects the profound reflection that underpins it. It also opens up fundamental questions such as:
- What is advocacy?
- What is it to engage in advocacy work?
- Why are people poor
Speaking Up and Speaking Out
Advocacy is a word that often describes a strategy or approach to social justice. But what is it? We are familiar with cognate terms like advocate and advocating. A lawyer in France is called an “avocat”, someone who speaks for another person before the courts of law. From Christian theology we are familiar with the Spirit who is described in the New Testament as an ‘advocate’, again someone will speak for us before God.
Here we touch upon the core meaning of the word ‘advocate’. It is about speaking up and speaking out. In that context advocacy belongs to the biblical tradition of prophecy, the tradition of speaking out against injustice. The prophet is less a shaman who foretells the foretells the future as a person whose whole consciousness is in solidarity with God’s world and knows instinctively when right relationships are disturbed. The prophetic consciousness speaks as much on behalf of the earth and the human scene as he or she does on behalf of some discerned demand of God.
To engage with advocacy is to be a discerning listener who listens to the heartbeat of the universe and of humanity and to be willing to speak out for a better and more just relationship among people and between humanity in the earth.
We create InjusticeHowever, we are now more aware that interlocking networks of systems determine how the world is and how things are for people and for the planet. Why are people poor? Because God will it so? No, we know better than that. The Statement from the Presentation Brothers’ Chapter speaks of “people who are made poor”. Poverty and injustice are “the work of human hands”. We create poverty. Systems create poverty and injustice. We ‘make’ people poor.
We make People Poor, We create Injustice
We are now more aware that interlocking networks of systems determine how the world is and how things are for people and for the planet. Why are people poor? Because God will it so? No, we know better than that. The Statement from the Presentation Brothers’ Chapter speaks of “people who are made poor”. Poverty and injustice are “the work of human hands”. We create poverty. Systems create poverty and injustice. We ‘make’ people poor.
To engage in advocacy is to challenge the systems that create, legitimate and maintain injustice.
The website of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America offers a three-point agenda for advocacy:
- To challenge and respond to the root causes and consequences of human suffering
- To empower local communities to take responsibility
- To address issues at local, national and international levels
This is very succinct and relevant description of strategies for advocacy.
Working for justice and peace challenges us ask questions about the causes of injustice and human suffering. In our own local situation we work with local communities in responding to local issues and facilitate people in taking ownership of their situation. And we are willing to address issues at the local and international levels.
Advocacy as Ministry
Advocacy is a ministry of influence using persuasion, dialogue and reason to obtain change. To be successful it must work at two levels: policy influence and citizen empowerment.
Advocacy is a ministry of influence with and for the marginalised. It is undertaken at the local, national and international levels. It uses the methods of persuasion, reason and dialogue. It is not a quick-fix or a band-aid. It is rather a process that seeks to facilitate long-term and sustainable responses.
We do not just give a person a fish or teach a person how to fish, we challenge those in stand in the way of person fishing. We empower people to ask the right questions about their situation. We stand with and by those who find the courage to ask the right questions and to act from the answers they have discovered.