When an inside track is no longer a reliable option for securing policy change, advocates in similarly-hostile political environments have found success by building power outside government, through diverse networks that rally concerned constituencies around a shared agenda. The art of network-building and management, especially in situations where constituencies are rural (and not fully aligned with regards to ideology), is emergent and best advanced by learning from the lived experiences of those who have done this successfully. In this webinar, NetChange Consulting proposes to convey the best practices from their existing base of network-led advocacy case studies and will conduct new research to explore successful environmental advocacy network-building initiatives with diverse rural stakeholders. They will put special focus on three environmental advocacy network-building approaches that engaged diverse constituencies, including rural populations, as part of their base and helped build enough collective power to secure policy change at some level: Lock the Gate Alliance (Australia), Tar Sands Network (Canada) – focus on Indigenous engagement, Keystone XL campaign (U.S.) – focus on Bold Nebraska.
Additional Tools for this webinar:
Networked Organizing Campaign Grid Worksheet