The project “Documenting advocacy practices involving local stakeholders with the process of trade and globalisation in four Indian States” aims to share the GRANITE model with civil society organisations and other stakeholders in India and other countries, particularly in poor countries, which are facing challenges of globalisation. It intends to empower the local stakeholders on issues of globalisation and trade and also to assess the impact of such advocacy efforts. The larger impact that the project is envisaging is that of upfronting the case for civil society’s involvement by the state actors while adopting policies at the local level and in those having direct link with the process of globalisation. This project is supported by Oxfam Novib, The Netherlands.

Background

CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment (CUTS-CITEE) is implementing a project titled, “Grassroots Reachout & Networking in India on Trade & Economics” (GRANITE). It is implemented in eight states, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharastra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Its aim is to build the capacity of local civil society organisations on issues relating to globalisation and WTO (with particular emphasis on agriculture and textiles, including handloom) and advocate with local stakeholders on globalisation and related issues.

The GRANITE project is supported by Royal Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi and Oxfam Novib, The Netherlands. CUTS-CITEE is implementing this project in partnership with state-based civil society organisations and as a mother unit.

The key to the success of the GRANITE project is advocacy by the GRANITE partners with local stakeholders in respective states. Such advocacy primarily uses specific tools such as outreach meetings, newsletters, representation to government officials, writing in the media and by involving local level policy-makers and other stakeholders in organising state-level workshops, media workshops, etc.

Under the aegis of Oxfam International’s KIC initiative (Knowledge Infrastructure with and between Counterparts, which is an initiative of Oxfam International and steered by Oxfam Novib, The Netherlands ), in working towards its objective of bringing people with similar interests as regards globalisation and its impacts, case studies on the GRANITE experience will be done in four states where the GRANITE project is being implemented. These states are Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They are chosen from four different parts of India – i.e. respectively from South, West, North and East. CUTS-CITEE by involving individual researchers and in association with GRANITE partners will conduct these case studies on skills and tools for advocacy with local stakeholders.

Objectives

The immediate objective of this project is to document advocacy practices with local level stakeholders (government officials, farmers, farmer organisations, NGOs, media persons) on issues relating to globalisation and trade.

The long-term objective is to document useful tools for advocacy by looking at what works and don’t work i.e. to ascertain how and why what advocacy tools work better on the ground.

Methodology

The core of the project is field research to prepare the case studies, i.e. to document advocacy practices with local level stakeholders on issues relating to globalisation and trade. Qualitative survey of a select set of stakeholders will be done for the purpose of writing these case studies. For the purpose of the case study, two sets of questionnaire will be prepared targeting GRANITE partners and other beneficiaries of the project.