Mobilising for policy change: networking and advocacy at national level

Publication date: Wednesday 28 September 2005

Dorotea Wilson, Red de Mujeres, Nicaragua
Elva Terceros, Centre for Legal Studies and Social Research (CEJIS), Bolivia

Nicaragua is plagued by chronic insecurity resulting from ongoing economic and social poverty. Augmented by domestic and community violence, family structures have been worn away, further destabilizing the nation and disproportionately burdening women.

In the face of this adversity, women activists in Nicaragua have a long history of participating in national struggles against the oppression they are subjected to, both nationally and in the household. Their main challenge is to identify viable alternatives to the choices that are predominantly determined by national political forces, whilst operating within an economic paradigm harbouring inequality and the disenfranchisement of women.

Bolstered by organisations like the national Red de Mujeres, the Women’s Network seeks to build capacity amongst civil society organisations, so that projects can sustain themselves, which, in the long term, can help to achieve permanent economic and social changes.

Similarly, Bolivia’s economy embodies inequality and disenfranchisement. A major factor contributing to the economic crisis is the majority stake of transnational companies in the country’s natural resources (especially gas and hydrocarbons), whose profits go largely unnoticed by the country’s poor.

The Bolivian context is politically sensitive and has provoked attention by donors through their Embassies. In times of crisis this has resulted in direct interventions of donor governments in the strategies harnessed by co-financing agencies. Certainly such external influences directly impact on social action by movements in civil society.

An alternative strategy to such direct intervention is the establishment of a ‘social pact’ between donors, governments and local partners. This entails the fair representation of women, youth, unions and other civil society groups, and engages different stakeholders in direct dialogue with governments, avoiding disturbance of the public space by bureaucratic forces. Rather than getting stuck in old patterns and in the history of the ‘developing state’, seeking innovation and new concepts provides more potential for the development of a country, harnessing its strengths – in this case, a strong civil society.

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