Building Public Affairs Capacity for an International Sports Association

 Advocacy Training and Support

An international sports association wanted to build the public affairs capacity of its national federations from across Europe and asked us to put together a training and support package.

There has been, for a long time, a wide variation in capabilities and standards of practice among the 55 national members of the association and our programme of support would reflect the different levels of need.

The on-line inter-active training course included: What resources and skills you may need for a successful advocacy campaign; how policy is developed & what to look out for; how to spot opportunities to engage and influence; how to make your case compelling with evidence and human interest stories; what you need to do to map out the key political stakeholders and how to access them; tips on planning your engagement with clear objectives and useful performance indicators; how meeting dynamics can help you influence the outcome of a discussion and how to measure the impact of your engagement campaign.

We also compiled a comprehensive tool-kit of materials, check-lists and templates for stakeholder mapping, messaging and key performance indicators.

In addition, we delivered deep-dive webinars with the participation of General Secretaries and Presidents of some of the national association members on important issues such as Covid Recovery Measures, Codes of Conduct and Public Funding. This was an opportunity to share Best Practice between the National Associations.