The International Centre for Policy Advocacy (ICPA) is a newly established non-governmental organisation which supports the development of effective advocacy skills for those who work on improving policy choices in democracies in transition. We provide capacity development to those who produce policy research (e.g. think tanks, research centres, universities) and those who wish to use evidence in their advocacy campaigns (e.g. NGOs, Associations, Watch Dogs, Governmental bodies) to ensure reseach results are communicated and used effectively in policy decision-making.

We 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.		 To support this capacity development, the ICPA team provides a combination of:
  • skill-focused training modules [106KB PDF file] on policy advocacy, policy paperwriting, policy analysis and policy research proposal writing;

  • hands-on process consultancy or mentoring with individuals and organisations in their research, writing and advocacy work;

  • sets of widely available guidebooks, practical resources and tools for independent skill development;

  • insight and case studies from research into regional advocacy practices and decision making processes.

ICPA Mission
To strengthen the role of inclusive and evidence-informed decision making in democracies in transition by supporting advocates who use policy research evidence to effectively plan their communication and engagement in the policy making process to influence decisions.

Download PDF of Policy Advocacy Guidebook NEW POLICY ADVOCACY GUIDEBOOK AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD

Making Research Evidence Matter: A Guide to Policy Advocacy in Transition Countries
(Young and Quinn, 2012)

This new guide is a practical resource for those interested in designing and conducting effective evidence-informed advocacy campaigns in challenging contexts, where the demand for applied research is low. It is a sister publication to the well-received manual “Writing Effective Public Policy Papers” (2002) by the same authors.

“The shared expertise and comparative framework of the International Centre for Policy Advocacy means that it is perfectly placed to offer insight into the policy process generally and sharpen the impact of policy papers in particular. I’m convinced that this book is set to become an essential part of the advocates’ toolkit.”
Professor Andrew Russell, Chair of Politics, University of Manchester, UK

Download a full PDF of the Policy Advocacy Guidebook here [1.4MB PDF file]
Download PDF of MetaBrief-01
 FIRST ICPA POLICY BRIEF JUST PUBLISHED

ICPA Meta Brief No.1 –
Fuss, flaws and frameworks: A case for commitment to advocacy planning.

In our first Meta Brief in the series, we argue that one of the key obstacles that holds back the influence of policy research evidence in the region has been the view of advocacy as a process of transfer of expertise, rather than one of carefully planned engagement in the persuasion and negotiation process which lead to a policy decision. To support planning of this type of engagement, we provide a practical tool called the “Advocacy Planning Framework”.

Download a PDF of the ICPA MetaBrief No. 1 here [2.6MB PDF file]

21 March 2012

This is the first version of our website to announce our new organisation and to support the release of the new advocacy guidebook. We are planning in the near future to provide:
  • more information on our training and support offerings, training team and partners;
  • many more resources to support advocates in independently planning effective campaigns and communication tools;
  • research, commentary and case examples on effective approaches to policy advocacy in the region.
Contact: Lisa Quinn - lisa@policyadvocacy.org   ¦   Eóin Young - young@policyadvocacy.org