Generating Political Will and Public Will to Gender Based Violence and Poverty and Hunger

This approach emphasizes the importance of collective action and coordinated commitment from government and key public stakeholders to address complex issues such as poverty and hunger. The Political Will and Public Will (PPW) approach recognizes that long-term, effective change in complex issue areas typically happens only if the government and key public stakeholders are pushing in the same direction. The PPW approach involves systematic assessment of both political will and public will, which are defined as follows: political will exists when a sufficient set of decision makers with a common understanding of a particular problem on the formal agenda is committed to supporting a commonly perceived, potentially effective policy solution. Public will exists when a social system has a shared recognition of a particular problem and resolves to address the situation in a particular way through sustained collective action. The PPW approach employs a holistic approach that involves collecting various forms of information before choosing the appropriate tactics and techniques for generating political will and public will and for promoting mutual accountability. This approach emphasizes the importance of broad groups of stakeholders agreeing upon aligned problem and solution definitions related to the problems of poverty and hunger. The assessment procedures treat local context and local knowledge as instrumental in achieving effective long-term change. The PPW approach involves five basic tasks that are instrumental in building political will and public will for targeted social or public policy change in a way that also produces mutual accountability. These tasks are listed roughly in order, though some repetition and combination is typically necessary. The first two tasks basically entail measurement of system characteristics, while the third and fourth involve persuasion and accountability mechanisms. Task 1 involves identifying key political and public stakeholders in the issue area, including necessary and sufficient political actors and important nongovernmental actors. This analysis must take into account the particular configuration of political institutions and evaluate the cohesion of public stakeholders. Task 2 involves determining existing problem and solution definitions by talking with stakeholders to assess how they view the issue and the extent to which they view the situation as problematic. The PPW approach offers several innovations, including the recognition that all tasks must be carried out in a coordinated way, the willingness to integrate ideas and tools from a variety of social and behavioral sciences, and the recognition of strong context dependence. The approach emphasizes the importance of broad groups of stakeholders agreeing upon aligned problem and solution definitions related to the problems of poverty and hunger. Ultimately, producing meaningful mutual accountability will be very difficult if the effort does not involve all important stakeholders and does not develop clear, shared goals. The PPW approach enhances the likelihood of mutual accountability succeeding by dealing with underlying risks, such as stakeholders having different expectations and failing to see shared interests and interdependence. The PPW approach is generalizable in that its basic methodology can be applied across contexts, but this does not mean that the tools in the toolkit are universal. To the contrary, the PPW approach emphasizes the importance of local conditions, knowledge, and understandings. The analytical tasks must be completed in order to identify which tools will be most useful given the particular set of circumstances. The PPW approach involves a comprehensive listing of stakeholders within and outside government and defines the relationships among them. This analysis will help with ascertaining whether a shortfall in support exists on the political side, the public side, or both. Further, the analysis will help identify leaders and likely routes for the spread of innovations and information, which will aid in accomplishing the remaining tasks. The PPW approach offers a flexible toolkit that can be applied across contexts to a variety of different social problems. The toolkit outlines five basic tasks that are instrumental in building political will and public will for targeted social or public policy change in a way that also produces mutual accountability. These tasks are listed roughly in order, though some repetition and combination is typically necessary. The first two tasks basically entail measurement of system characteristics, while the third and fourth involve persuasion and accountability mechanisms. The PPW approach is a critical approach to enacting social change, and its emphasis on collective action and coordinated commitment from government and key public stakeholders is essential for addressing complex issues such as poverty and hunger. The approach offers several innovations, including the recognition that all tasks must be carried out in a coordinated way, the willingness to integrate ideas and tools from a variety of social and behavioral sciences, and the recognition of strong context dependence.