How multinational civil society organisations and non‐governmental organisations lobby policy for human rights in Africa

• Date: 01 May 2020
• Published date: 01 May 2020
• Author: Israel Bionyi Nyoh
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1903

PRACTITIONER PAPER

How multinational civil society organisations and

non‐governmental organisations lobby policy for human

rights in Africa

Israel Bionyi Nyoh

Department of Media and Communication,

University of Leicester College of Arts

Humanities and Law, Leicester, UK

Correspondence

Israel Bionyi Nyoh, Department of Media and

Communication, University of Leicester

College of Arts Humanities and Law, Leicester

LE1 9HN, UK.

Email: bionyi@outlook.com; ibn1@student.le.

ac.uk

In recent years, the number of international non‐governmental organisations (INGOs)

and international civil society organisations (ICSOs) trying to influence policy

processes in Africa has increased considerably. These players increasingly play an

important role in socio‐political and life of many African countries. To achieve certain

political results, INGOs and ICSOs often lobby governments, using a variety of tech-

niques. Though lobbying as a public relations (PR) technique is widely discussed in

academic spheres, the debate on the relationship between transnational advocacy

and lobbying as a PR practice is still marginal. This paper explores how INGOs

and ICSOs lobby governments in Africa and examines via a case the effectiveness

of activist lobbying in the continent.

1|INTRODUCTION

There is no doubt evidence‐based research and informed communica-

tions are important tools for policy influencing. But in the domain of

public affairs and lobbying, policy influencing can be difficult,

especially where political systems are fragile and unstable. With the

spike in policy‐influencing programmes on human rights as non‐

governmental organisation (NGO) numbers increase in the world

(Davies, 2016), there is a growing debate about evidence of influence

on decision‐making processes and how to measure it (Schwab, 2013).

When the United Kingdom adopted the United Nations' (UN) tar-

get to spend 0.7% of gross domestic product on foreign aid in 2015,

the outcome was attributed to lobby efforts of a number of U.K.‐

based transnational charities. Christian Aid, Bond, Oxfam, and a host

of others received praise for their advocacy for the change in policy.

In April, the same year, the Guardian (Clarke and Hanif, 2015) asked

the question how NGOs could lobby governments effectively. Aca-

demic interest on NGOs' lobbying policy increased significantly over

the past few decades. Three reasons can attempt to explain that. First,

NGO actors have become increasingly influential in national and inter-

national decision‐making processes (Rietig, 2011, pp. 4–11; IISD,

2013). Second, lobbying became popular, professionalised over the

years, and NGOs sought this public relations (PR) approach to influ-

ence and change policies (De Figueiredo & Richter, 2014; Parvin,

2007). Third, as NGOs increasingly engage in the practice of lobbying,

research suggests policymakers began perceiving them as “honest bro-

kers.”In his comprehensive survey on lobbying community in the

United Kingdom, Parvin (2007, pp. 21–29) finds that Members of par-

liament (MPs) in the United Kingdom were likely to trust arguments

from charities than businesses or interest groups. Further, Parvin's sur-

vey finds the lobbying approach of NGOs relatively effective to per-

suade MPs as compared to other lobby groups.

Though lobbying raised academic interest over the last three

decades, a potent area marginally debated in PR literature is the

relationship between transnational human rights activism and lobbying

as a PR practice. This paper attempts to answer the Guardian UK's

question but focuses on how human rights NGO actions can lead to

change in policy. It examines lobby communications systems as a tech-

nical capacity and analyses discourse to demonstrate how NGO

actions bring about public policy change.

2|IS LOBBYING PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND CSO

NGO?

Regarding human rights, NGOs or/and CSOs do most of the lobbying

or/and public affairs (Mulcahy, 2015; Matthew & Chêne, 2017). But

the terminologies often spark debates and controversies among

scholars. Because their definitions often overlap, vary among

Received: 13 November 2018 Accepted: 16 November 2018

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1903

J Public Affairs. 2019;e1903.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1903

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of6

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https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1903