5.2.1 Identify policy brokers or champions

A popular discussion in the literature recently has centered on the role of people who are referred to as policy entrepreneurs, brokers, or champions.¹ Such individuals are said to be “people who are willing to invest their resources in pushing their pet proposals or problems, are responsible not only for prompting important people to pay attention, but also for coupling both problems and solutions to politics.”² Their advocacy role can entail a number of things: from taking the ideas forward, translating and spreading them, to networking and going all the way in selling the ideas to decision makers.³ They serve as key messengers in clinching the deal to make proposals generated from policy research influential.

When looking for such champions, you are usually seeking high-level individuals who are easily able to reach decisionmakers, opinion leaders, and managers. A good example of high-level individuals playing the role of champion comes from a Canadian-supported research project in the developing world where a small group of MPs brought the ideas from the research to parliamentary debate.⁴ Such individuals or groups are said to act in an entrepreneurial manner in that they recognize a piece of analysis that advances their own values and agenda and use the resources at their disposal to move the process. Through this initiative, their reputation is also further enhanced.

When it comes to brokers or messengers, you are commonly looking for someone who already has the access and reputation in that they are well-established and have a strong network to draw on, and depending on the role you would like the messenger to play, they commonly need to have some or all of the communication and interpersonal skills outlined above. The further qualities you are looking for in a policy broker are:

• knowledge and interest in the substance of your policy issue
• a willingness to commit time to the role they are being asked to play.

In addition to skills, commitment, and reputation, the person also has to be the right fit for your campaign, coalition, or organization. They will be the person who is representing your position to decisionmakers and opinion leaders, so you must try to make sure that they are both willing and able to deliver the intended message and also represent your position in the manner that you wish. You must also try to ensure that their own interests do not dominate the goals of the advocacy effort. Working closely with the broker throughout their engagement is crucial: this is not a one-off process of handing your work over to them and disengaging from the advocacy communication process. Finally, you should also consider the strategic risks of having this person represent the campaign or your organization: in some instances, the short-term gain for the campaign may not outweigh the potential longer-term damage to your reputation of being associated with the “wrong” person.

Hence, the question of choice of you or someone else such as a policy broker as messenger is not usually an either-or scenario. Nevertheless, these reflections give a strong guide as to the kinds of people or organizations that can act on your behalf, whether in specific roles or as the sole face of your campaigns. Choosing a messenger will always bring some sort of compromise, but you need to keep all of these considerations in mind before moving ahead in deciding who to engage as the face of your advocacy and for what role.

Two of our cases used a broker as the messenger for strategic reasons; the Kazakh case due to legitimacy reasons, and the Macedonian case to enable access because this advisor was close to the minister.

Two important lessons can be drawn from these cases:

- It is advantageous to find policy brokers within or closely connected to the government sector.
Policy brokers are often NGO people or consultants outside the government circle, but the two cases above highlight that such champions can also be found in government, often in an advisory role. In the Kazakh case, the researcher successfully and strategically identified the right broker, a ministerial advisor who was the opinion leader in One Stop Shops, and therefore she knew he would be receptive to the research and proposals she was putting forward on this issue and bring them directly into the right decision-making circle. In such a closed system, the researcher also realized that her proposals would only be acceptable if she found a supporter and champion within government. In the Macedonian case, the new advisor was actively seeking fresh ideas to bring to his minister, again demonstrating how willingness and openness are indispensable as factors in selecting the right person to act as broker. Due to the researcher’s long-standing professional and personal relationship with the advisor, the process of winning over the advisor as supporter for her proposals was relatively easy. This insider and direct pathway to power facilitates a straightforward advocacy communication process that can occur in a relatively short period of time.

• Brokers are generally not knights in shining armor coming to save the day, but play a vital role in a specific stage of the campaign.
  Both examples illustrate that brokers tend to play more specific roles of making a specific connection or selling an idea to a particular audience rather than taking over and becoming the face of a whole campaign. The Macedonian example is a good illustration of different messengers used for different waves of an advocacy campaign, that is, the role of the broker was to complete the softening up process of selling the idea of a Patients’ Bill of Rights to the minister. Once the minister committed to the idea, Studiorum, as the organization that conducted the research, took over as messenger and was engaged on the working group to negotiate the details and see through the implementation of the legislation. This example also leads to the question of whether individuals with such a broad skill set really exist⁶ to act as messenger or broker for all facets of a campaign.