Kharkiv: participants learned to develop advocacy campaigns and form coalitions

Training on networking, coalition building and advocacy campaigns was implemented in Kharkiv during September 14-18. The trainers – Tetiana Durneva and Oleh Kulinich. The event was attended by 22 participants from all regions of Ukraine.

The trainers introduced participants to the concept of "Advocacy", worked out various approaches to defining terms, gave examples of advocacy campaigns, identified the characteristics of unsuccessful campaigns and analysed the reasons. Besides, the trainers introduced participants to the system of government in Ukraine, explained the difference between the executive and legislative branches, local and national authorities, and local self-government bodies.

"Participants got acquainted with such tools as public hearings, public consultations, participation budgets, requests for information, citizens' appeals, etc. The trainers paid attention to the need for public actions, the importance of constant communication and drawing attention to the problem of systematic work with the media", the trainers emphasized.

Tetiana Durneva and Oleh Kulinich also reported that participants had mastered the main stages of advocacy campaigns and focused on the importance of their planning, common understanding of goals, strategies, and plan of action development. Besides, the topics of partnership, cooperation and interaction were discussed, the trainers talked about the types of interaction, the importance of synergy and multistakeholder partnership.

"The positive effect of working in groups was manifested in the establishment of contacts between participants who eagerly shared their knowledge and experience. All the participants had their own practical examples and sincerely shared their stories, which enhanced the overall impact of the training. The duration of the training (5 days) also predetermined its effectiveness, as there was enough time for different methods of work, to discuss the results of group tasks, games, as well as to establish lasting connections between participants", the trainers summarized.

Some feedback from participants:

- Alternating theory, practice, and game analysis is really smart from an advocacy perspective.
- Thanks to the organizers. Quite a valuable training with interesting examples.
- Thanks for the professional trainers.
- Everything was great, the level of organization and the level of information is really high.
- Thank you for the excellent work of the trainers, for the good organization of the event and technical support.
- Thanks for the structured and high-quality information, the interactive method for understanding the topic.

The training was implemented within the "Crisis prevention and Peace building in Ukraine – Time to Act!" project, supported with German Federal Foreign Office’s funds by IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Funding programme zivik.