On Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th March 2014, a conference was held at the Human Rights House in Zagreb, organized by the BaBe association from Zagreb, Mladi u EU from Šibenik and Legalina from Gračac. Training on public policy advocacy for 21 representatives of civil society organizations from Knin, Šibenik, Gračac and other places in Šibenik-Knin and Zadar counties. The training was led by communications expert Milan Koštro.
The training held is the first activity of the IPA project "We act locally, but clearly, competently and loudly" which BaBe is implementing together with local partners Youth in the EU and Legalina starting in February 2014. The main goal of the project is to raise the level of knowledge and skills of local civil society organizations in public advocacy and influencing policies in order to establish sustainable and quality decision-making processes that enable easier employment and social inclusion of unemployed young people, women and people with disabilities. In addition to a series of educational workshops, the central activity is the organization of a media campaign and a Creative Ideas Fair, where successful and innovative entrepreneurial ventures of creative citizens from all over Croatia will be presented.
The purpose of the held training was to familiarize members of local associations with the problems and main obstacles in realizing the rights of three vulnerable groups: young people, women and people with disabilities.
The interactive workshop contributed to planning activities for quality addressing of appropriate public policies and their advocacy. Workshop participants gained applicable knowledge on creating and implementing advocacy campaigns in order to contribute to positive changes and sustainable social inclusion of youth, women and persons with disabilities through increasing their capacities for (self)employment.
The training lasted two days, and the working method was interactive and participatory, with an emphasis on connecting the participants' previous professional experiences with new concepts and methods. Through interactive presentations, plenary discussions and group exercises based on examples from relevant public policies, the workshop covered the following topics:
1. Determination of public policies
2. The role of civil society organizations in the creation and implementation of public policies
3. Status, problems and obstacles in the implementation of three public policies
4. Public policy advocacy
5. Basic rules of successful communication
6. Advocacy directed at government
7. Society-focused advocacy
Ms. Anka Slonjšak - Ombudsperson for Persons with Disabilities, Karlo Kralj from the Croatian Youth Network, and Marijana Antunović from BaBa presented the main problems and obstacles to the realization of the rights of the 3 most vulnerable groups on the labor market: persons with disabilities, youth and women.
Representatives of the organizations "Youth in the EU", "Legalina", "Women of the Kosovo Valley", "Association of People with Cerebral Palsy", "Prospero", "Our Hearth", Ecological Associations "Krka", "Sveti Bartolomej", "Čarobni svijet", "Una", "HUK", "Eko Zrmanja", "Lika" and others who participated in this training will also participate in the two-day continuation of the training in May 2014.
More detailed information about the work modules can be found in the attached PowerPoint presentation at the end of the text.
