Good practice

Good practice examples

There are many good practice examples that you might find helpful, especially if you are publishing a research report looking at regulation of preparing a policy position paper for use in your advocacy. The Tourism Confederation of Tanzania commissioned a report that reviews regulation and administrative burden for firms in the tourism sector. It is an excellent example of a research document that clearly sets out the problem and the solution, starting "The administrative burdens in the Tanzanian tourism sector place a heavy cost on businesses in terms of time and money. Businesses would be more willing to pay levies if the levies were more streamlined and more transparent." It goes on to set out clearly the total burden on businesses and makes some sensible suggestions for improvement.

CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment is based in Nairobi, though the parent organisation was originally establised in India. They have a number of policy position papers on their website. One looks at the slightly esoteric issue of EU/ Indian arguments about the dumping of bed linen. It is quite densely written, but is well laid out, and could be a good model.

The US Senate's Republican Policy Committee puts together well prepared issue papers - which Senators on which Senators rely to mke decisions about voting. Obviously they cover more than just business and regulatory issues, but may offer a few ideas. Not surprisingly the US Senate's Democratic Policy Committee also prepare reports on key issues.

The conservative Heritage Foundation provides a wide range of "backgrounders", issue briefs, research reports etc all of which are excellent models of communicating information on a particular topic.

Possibly the best issue papers in Washington may be found at the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Each topic area has a drop down menu and a host of one-pagers. They are succinct and to the point.

The OECD has a sample tax policy paper available.

Practical Action has a range of policy papers. See one on agriculture.

Policy positions

There is a factsheet and a longer handbook on preparing policy positions - but authors often ask for examples of policy positions. Here are a couple of annotated examples that might help. It is important to remember that there is no one way to prepare these, but these examples may give offer some helpful ideas.
Annotated policy position example: blood transfusion

Annotated policy position example: sugar regulations

Communications strategy

Example of an advocacy communications strategy Here you will find an
example of an advocacy communications strategy
prepared by African Laughter for a business membership organisation in Kenya
Advocacy is essentially communications - aiming to influence through well argued evidence and reason - and so an advocacy plan is, at its heart, a communications or public relations plan. This very short plan provides an annotated example of an advocacy communications plan for an NGO in Kenya. Do not worry too much about the topic, or even about how the plan has been described. Focus rather on the approach and structure and in particular on the table of taregt audiences, messages and desired outcomes

Monitoring government

An important requirement for business associations is to monitor government to see what they are doing (have they implemented what they promised they would implemnent) and what they are planning to do (gathering intelligence early so that you can make representation if necessary). Some organisations seek to monitor government on a systematic basis. One organisation doing this is Odekro in Ghana.

In Kenya, there are a number of initiatives to track the Governmental process:

Tracking municipal and local performance in the US

Often the US is the place to look to find laboratories testing new ideas. Erik Pages tracks some of the more interesting examples of regional data and dashboards. The ideal is an open authority, willing to share appropriate data, and to visualise it so that people can quickly get a sense of the performance. Here are some of the sites that Erik recommends as examples of good practice: