Workshop in-depth Lobby for employers' organizations in West Africa

From October 12 to 16  2009,  Bram Van Overbeeke attended a seminar organised by DECP and ITC/ILO on Lobbying in depth. Employers' organisations from Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Guinee Conakry, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Tchad and Togo took part in what was a lively and useful seminar. Frequent exercises, including role-playing and training on camera, were clearly appreciated by participants, who were eager to learn but also to share their views and experience.

The seminar focused on how to establish both a long-term and a short-term lobbying agenda for employers' organisations, how to commit members in shaping that agenda, how to build alliances in lobbying, how to conduct research, in particular using the internet, the use of electronic questionnaires and state of the art communication techniques. Three specific workshops were held on resp.,  how to do research, in particular how to effectively conduct opinion polls among one's members, and secondly how to present and communicate one's message using the media (radio, TV) and thirdly on how to actually draft a realistic national lobbying plan.