Advocacy Trends – Western Balkans
The Regional Advocacy Workshop for the Western Balkans was held in Ohrid, North Macedonia, from October 18th to 20th, 2021.
The workshop started with an opening session explaining the importance of developing a future story for effective advocacy. Following the presentation on “A Future Story for Your Advocacy” by Jonathan Ellis
participants showed real engagement by posing a series of questions, reflecting the consequences of adopting such a methodology for their advocacy strategy.
The session on “Advocating in a Polarized Context”
shared by Valbona Karakaçi generated a robust conversation, encouraging participants to approach their issues from the political and power sharing perspectives.
Discussions of the second day of the workshop were built around changing minds
and the importance of empathizing with advocacy targets.
Finally, participants were introduced with “Principles for Digital Development”
and their application in digital advocacy. The network decided to deepen the learning about this theme during 2022.
The workshop showed that an authentic culture of a learning community for advocacy could be developed, strengthening capacity and confidence for advocacy across the region.