From BANwiki

[edit] Welcome to the Business Advocacy Network

There is much encouragement these days for governments to improve the enabling environment and particularly the regulatory framework on the basis that this will lead to increased growth in economic activity – and thus to more wealth generation, more job creation and more poverty alleviation. There is encouragement, too, to increase private public dialogue and private sector advocacy in the belief that this will assist in improving the enabling environment – though this is predicated on the belief that governments act rationally in their policy making and that they can be swayed by compelling evidence. Many governments now stress that they are only interested in making ‘evidence based policy’, though sometimes it looks more like they are looking for ‘policy based evidence’.

Business membership organisations (BMO) engage in advocacy to influence those making public policy. Public private dialogue is a pre-requisite for effective advocacy. It implies regular contact between the public and private sectors, to ensure that each party understands the other and that neither is taken by surprise when issues arise. Private sector advocacy describes attempts by the private sector to influence public policy in an effort to improve the business environment. Dialogue implies consensus; advocacy implies a more adversarial relationship. The ideal position is public and private working together in a spirit of partnership, recognising that there will not always be a meeting of minds.

The aim of this website is to enable people active in private sector advocacy to share resources that can be used to develop advocacy and institional competence. On this wiki, you will find factsheets, training materials, session plans, power point presentations, research papers and links to useful sites. Please sign up and please contribute - if we all contribute then we will all benefit from our collective insights. Once you have registered, you can go to your own 'page' and, if you wish, say a little about yourself. At the very least, please provide your e-mail address so that other users can get in touch.