Advocacy in the Spotlight Edition 2 - July 2022
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Welcome to the second edition of Advocacy in the Spotlight where we showcase contemporary advocacy across a diverse range of sectors. We hope these examples will show the importance of advocacy and inspire you to advocate on behalf of your cause or passion.
We invite you to share your experiences and innovations with us to share with others at PHAI@curtin.edu.au
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Advocacy is the active support of a cause. The word ‘advocate’ has been used since ancient times and comes from the Latin word ‘advocare’ meaning ‘to be called to stand beside’.
Advocacy involves persuasion. It aims to influence perceptions around an issue and encourages people to care about that issue. Advocacy is about coalitions who share and disseminate the same message.
It’s about having a voice and standing beside those who do not. Advocacy entails being at the table when decisions are being made. It involves recognising who and what your opposition is and overcoming resistance.
Advocacy is challenging and aims to seek policy change.
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Inquiry into the most effective ways for Western Australia to address food insecurity for children and young people affected by poverty
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Submissions close midnight, 15 July 2022.
Details can be found here.
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New Zealand Politician Lobbies for Healthy Food and Drink in Kiwi Schools
A petition calling for all schools in New Zealand to ditch sugary drinks and create a healthy food environment was presented to Parliament by MP Dr Elizabeth Kerekere, on June 22, 2022. The petition comes in response to proposed Government changes for primary schools to be sugar free. Yet, there has been no requirement for secondary schools to be held to the same standard. The group behind it - Health Coalition Aotearoa - also want new rules requiring schools to supply only healthy food. Have a listen to Prof Boyd Swinburne discuss the petition here:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018846858/petition-renews-call-for-sugary-drinks-ban-from-nz-schools
Our Future Screams for Reef-safe Sunscreen - A Student Advocacy Campaign
Have you ever wondered what the Great Barrier Reef will look like at the end of this century if sea temperatures continue to rise? Over the past two decades, the Great Barrier Reef has experienced an increasing number of bleaching events, with the latest research showing that 91% of the reef from the Torres Strait to east of Gladstone, off the coast of Queensland, was impacted. In The Cayman Islands, a student-led environmental advocacy group, Protect Our Future, has launched a new campaign to promote the use of reef-safe sunscreen brands. Sunscreen chemicals, such as oxybenzone and octinoxate, are known to contain nanoparticles that disrupt the growth cycles of reef corals, cause coral bleaching, and lower their defenses against diseases such as stony coral tissue loss disease. Protect Our Future is pushing for a ban on products that are not safe for reefs and to have similar regulations Hawaii, Key West, Bonaire, Mexico, Palau, Aruba and the US Virgin Islands. All these countries have banned sunscreen that is not reef-safe and are now beginning to see the positive consequence of healthier reefs.
Let Us Give Campaign
Did you know that in Australia gay & bi+ men, trans women and non-binary people who have sex with men, are required to be sexually abstinent for three months before donating blood, even though the vast majority do not have HIV? The Let Us Give campaign was launched on June 14, 2022 to coincide with World Blood Donor Day. The campaign is auspiced by LGBTQIA+ advocacy group Just.Equal Australia who say that an extra 25000 litres of blood would be available to save lives if the Red Cross Lifeblood Service abandoned the current abstinence period and assessed each donor for their individual sexual risk. Just.Equal launched a petition encouraging supporters to write to Lifeblood and to the new Federal Health Minister.
Tobacco-free Kids Latest Advocacy
In June 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed regulations that would establish a maximum nicotine level for cigarettes and other tobacco products. If successful, this would be one of the most significant efforts to reduce smoking in American history, dealing a seismic blow to the tobacco industry. This policy change comes after research in 2018 projected that by 2100, if the regulations were adopted, more than 33 million people would avoid becoming regular smokers and there would be about 8 million fewer tobacco-related deaths. The Tobacco-Free Kids Advocacy Group back these regulations stating it would truly be a game-changing proposal that would see a decline in smoking and save millions of lives from cancer and other tobacco-related diseases.
If you would like hints on how to develop an Advocacy campaign, head to the Public Health Advocacy Institutes Advocacy in Action Toolkit which is free to access here.
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