At Results, we know from many years’ experience that making change through advocacy – speaking out in favour of a cause or moral position that you believe in – is personal. It takes time, commitment, and effort. Effective advocacy involves investing in building relationships, and speaking up for a future you want to see, even where (in fact, especially where) immediate success seems unlikely.

Whatever you call it – campaigning, activism, advocacy – people’s voices matter, not just to define the services they need and have a right to in their community, but also to express their support for people living very different lives around the world, and to share concern for their rights, often much more at risk than their own.

Right now, when the world seems to be going backwards – with democratic norms increasingly challenged, and basic human rights being flagrantly disregarded – it’s easy to feel dejected and disempowered. How can we stand up to these malignant forces? Do our voices really matter?

This is when we need Margaret Mead’s small group of concerned citizens more than ever. Mass movements and dramatic revolutions do happen, and can bring about real change – witness the civil rights movement – but what about the changes that happen behind the scenes that rarely make the headlines, but which affect millions of lives? Who will do the often unglamorous and less well-recognised work of persuading politicians, the public and the media that a change they may never have thought about before, such as vaccinating children against communicable diseases, is necessary, achievable, and the right thing to do?

Did she really say it? Either way, Mead’s (or some else’s) quote has become a mantra for grassroots activists.
credit: Edward Lynch

While the current state of the world may feel particularly bleak, it is important to remind ourselves that our ability to wield power as citizens has always faced challenges. We may have felt more confident in the early 2000s, for example, when thousands of people marched on the streets of Edinburgh and around the world to Make Poverty History. This mass movement led to billions of dollars of debt relief, helping many lower-income countries more effectively tackle their development challenges. But multilateral bodies created back then have arguably done even more to alleviate the burden on the Global South. These vehicles of international cooperation embody our common humanity – organisations such as the Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB and Malaria; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Global Partnership for Education – aim to and do make the lofty goal of ending global poverty a reality. 

But to justify these hopes, we need institutions like these to be durable, and still able to achieve their purposes even when the gear lever seems stuck in reverse. That is why we need to keep our spirits up, and celebrate their achievements through thick and thin.

What are these achievements?

Take Gavi, for example. Since 2000, this multilateral organisation has vaccinated over 1.1 billion children, stopped deadly diseases from spreading around the world, and saved almost 19 million lives. With further cuts to the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget this year, it was always going to be a big lift to persuade the UK Government to continue to fund Gavi as it has in the past.

And yet in June, the Government announced a pledge of £1.25 billion to Gavi for the next 5 years, helping up to 500 million children get vaccinated and saving up to 8 million lives. This didn’t take a mass groundswell of support, but a relatively small group of people working together – such as volunteer campaigners like Results’ grassroots advocates, supported by staff who can help direct their energy and marshall it towards achievable ends via credible strategies.

I am convinced that citizen advocacy played a significant part in that announcement. There are many pressures on Government spending, but in the run up to the replenishment, the steady stream of letters and requests for questions in Parliament to various Ministers ensured that Gavi and its lifesaving work was kept on the political agenda. 

Privately, MPs and civil servants tell us time and again of the importance of public pressure for helping get decisions over the line – decisions for which there is good evidence, but perhaps not the political will needed for it to become a government priority. They tell us this because they understand that gaining political will is a messy, contested process involving motivated individuals, the public, and building coalitions of power, in which we can all choose to play our part.

Successive UK Governments have supported the international target of spending 0.7% of our Gross national Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA) and so it came as a shock when the new Labour Government backtracked on a manifesto commitment and reduced ODA even further. We were told that public opinion was against us, and this seemed understandable in the light of the new US administration’s spectacular attack on the notion of international cooperation and the risk it posed to European defence. It’s true that public opinion needs to be convinced of the value of ‘aid’, but it’s not true that the public don’t care. They need to be told about practical things that can be done to help support countries’ efforts to end poverty, and to feel proud that the UK is playing its part.

We are often told on the streets that charity begins at home. Yes, but it doesn’t end there. In emergency after emergency around the world, the public pulls behind relief efforts and also longer-term development goals such as building health systems, with real passion and an expectation that their government will do the right thing.

Results’ role as an advocacy organisation is to help people exercise their personal and political power to achieve change, to bring an end to global poverty and inequality. A laudable but impossible target? Not so, as the Gavi example proves.

‘All you need is to be informed and believe in the power of the pen.’

My job at Results UK is to help people believe that they really can make the world a better place in specific, tangible and lasting ways, epitomising Margaret Mead’s small group of concerned citizens who come together to strategise, inspire each other, and exercise their power. Our classic methodology – writing informed, timely, personal letters and emails, supporting constituency MPs to get involved – means that you don’t have to hold a banner, get arrested, or be prepared to stand in front of a tank in order to change the world for the better. All you need is to be informed (a bit), and believe in the power of the pen.

That’s how as a Results campaigner, you can “be the change you want to see in the world”. It’s not only for Gandhi and Mandela; it’s for you and me too.

You can find our latest campaign actions here.