Advocacy in Action - International AIDS Society

Skills-building activity
Objective: By the end of this session participants will be able to
explain the purpose and format of a position paper and a briefing note
Advocacy in Action Card 2 Preparing a briefing note/position paper
Preparation time: 2 hours
Resources: Copies of ‘How to...’ Handout
Instructions
Timing: 1 hour 30 minutes
1 Introduce the topic and explain the objective of the activity to the participants.
2 Ask participants to explain what a briefing note and position paper are, and their
purpose. Clarify if necessary.
3 Ask the participants to work in small groups (maximum five people).
• Ask some groups to write a briefing note for the chair of their board or governing body, to
assist them in speaking at an HIV/AIDS policy conference.
• Ask other groups to write a position paper calling for the implementation of an existing
policy which is related to HIV/AIDS work.
Make sure participants have a specific issue and target. Give the participants a copy of
the ‘How to...’ section of the card to help them.
4 Ask the groups to write their documents by starting with brief bullet points for structure
and filling in the details at a later stage.
5 Ask one group to present their position paper and one to present their briefing note.
6 Lead a discussion based on the following questions:
? How could these documents be improved?
? How clear is the difference between a briefing note and a position paper?
? How can you involve the people affected by the issue in contributing to your briefing
note or position paper?
? What have you learned from this activity?
Encourage participants to discuss any experiences of writing and using briefing notes
and position papers.
Facilitators’ notes
! Try to prevent the participants getting into a debate about the difference between a
briefing note and a position paper. What they are called does not matter as much as
participants being able to brief someone effectively and write their position clearly.
! You can save time by identifying in advance the advocacy issue for each group, and the
target decision-maker – for example, promotion of voluntary counselling and testing,
targeting the head of provincial health services.
! Instructions for the group writing a position paper are designed to show that we can
advocate for the implementation of policies, as well as the introduction of policies and
changes to policies. Ask the position paper group to pretend they agree with the policy,
or find a policy you think they will support. If this is not appropriate, ask them to write a
position paper challenging an existing policy.
! You may want to ask some pairs to do a different activity – preparing some advice (see
‘Try to...’ and ‘Try not to... tips) for writing a position paper or briefing note.
! Explain to the participants that the process of developing a briefing note or position
paper can help an organisation to clarify its point of view on an issue internally. Briefing
notes and position papers are also a good way of ensuring consistency on issues
through the organisation and over time. They are a useful means of documentation and
provide a historical record of an organisation’s position on issues.