Advocacy Intersections

The latest issue of Intersections: MCC Theory and Practice Quarterly is fully devoted to discussing advocacy. Nine different writers explore the nuances and dilemmas of advocacy within their context as MCC workers in Latin America, Israel/Palestine and the DR Congo.

Nathan Howard, the SEED Facilitator in MCC Colombia, sets the tone for the issue in the introduction:

Advocacy is too often reduced to engagement with legislators and other political officials, with a primary focus on those in norther power centers such as Ottawa and, especially, Washington D.C. To be sure, such engagement is an indispensable part of a multifaceted advocacy approach. Yet we need to conceive of advocacy, and approaches to systemic change, in a broader and more complex manner if we are to acknowledge the dispersed nature of power, including the power excercised by communities in the global south as they organize to address local policies and processes that represent barriers to justice and social change.

This issue of Intersections seeks to present a richer understanding of advocacy. We should not think of advocacy simply in terms of political engagement in the global north, but also in terms of: communities in the global south mobilizing to engage local, regional and national government officials in their contexts; solidarity among communities and organizations from the global south; Indigenous groups learning from each other’s post-colonial struggles; and more. This broadened understanding of advocacy, we suggest, productively challenges assumptions we often implicitly hold that northern states–especially the United States–are history’s primary actors and shifts our focus to the energy and agency within communities in the global south. MCC’s partners across the global south often urge MCC to undertake political advocacy in Canada and the United States. Yet these same partners are also typically immersed in communities that are actively mobilizing at the local level to advocacy for change.

Check of the full issue here for further insightful analysis and discussion of MCC and advocacy.