Written Curriculum and Training Materials in 13 languages

During months 1 – 10, staff from the Institute of Government and Politics at the University of Tartu (UT) and energy experts from the Tartu Regional Energy Agency (TREA), ConplusUltra, EMU and environmental experts from WWF Bulgaria and Hungary will work together to develop the Advocacy Training Curriculum. The curriculum will be based in part upon advocacy methods used by the World Wild Life Fund and training models that have already been developed, including the Env.net Advocacy Toolkit , which was developed via a project funded by the European Environmental Bureau. The curriculum will consist of the following components: • Problem Identification and Goal Setting – Training participants will learn how to conduct research and consult with secondary stakeholders to better understand the current situation, the most significant problems and identify goals for solving them. These should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely – so that success in reaching them can be evaluated. • Identifying Target Audiences and developing Advocacy Strategies – Trainees will learn to analyze and select which audiences they need to target. They will also learn of the different advocacy strategies should be taken with various audiences. This includes: o Elected Officials– The focus is on understanding the policy cycles at work (at the local, regional or national levels as appropriate) processes at work so that advocates can get their issues onto the agenda, which can lead to inclusion in legislation and eventually adoption (or repeal) of laws. o Public Administrators – Although systems vary to some degree from nation to nation, in general, great deal of discretionary power resides with public administrators. Advocacy tactics with this group could include participation in administrative meetings/public hearings and/or mobilization of citizens or media campaigns to apply outside pressure. Advocacy efforts can also include serving a watchdog role in monitoring government behavior. o Corporations – Advocacy towards corporations is typically related to efforts to change corporate/industry behavior and might include direct interaction with the firm(s), media campaigns or citizen mobilization. o Citizens – Advocacy with citizens typically occurs on two levels. Internal stakeholders of an organization, its members, staff, volunteers, donors, clients supporters etc. require specific forms of communication to get and keep them engaged in the work of the organization. For citizens outside of the organization, usually some level of segmentation is valuable, in which the specific attitudes and concerns of the group can be addressed by the organization. • Creating Messages – Participants will learn to tailor messages to specific targeted audiences. For example, messages to companies might focus on business opportunities that energy efficiency can offer, whereas for policy makers the message could be about the possibilities of lowering the operating costs of government. Of particular importance for this project will be helping advocates to translate the sometimes complicated technical jargon related to energy efficiency into language that can be easily understood by stakeholders at all levels (scientists, policy makers, citizens etc.) • Identifying resources and potential/actual opponents – Similar to a SWOT analysis, successful advocates are capable of identifying the technical, financial and other resources that are available or needed. Stakeholders in this project will also learn to identify partners who can be supportive as well as opponents who might work against advocacy efforts. Important to this is being able to develop strategies for filling weaknesses, obtaining needed resources or creating rebuttals to the claims or arguments made by opponents. • Selecting Messengers – For many messages, who delivers it can be as important as the content of the message itself. In addition to identifying ap