1) Advocacy for cancer prevention aims to influence change and increase opportunities for implementing and improving cancer prevention programs. 2) Cervical cancer prevention will only be effective at a large scale through public health programs. The primary advocacy targets are politicians who can approve health budgets and priorities. 3) Politicians are influenced by various groups including medical societies, patient groups, experts, and the general public. Stakeholder analysis is essential to identify those who can support advocacy goals.

1. Principles of
Advocacy for
Cancer Prevention
Philip Davies
ECCA Director General
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2. Advocacy
• What is the purpose of advocacy?
• To influence change
• What is the purpose of advocacy for
cancer prevention?
• To increase opportunities for the
implementation or improvement of cancer
prevention programs

3. Cervical Cancer Prevention
• Will only be effective if delivered
through large-scale population-based
public health programs
• Primary advocacy targets are politicians
with health responsibilities
• Key government decision-makers
• Set key health priorities
• Approve budgets for departments of
health and for special health projects

4. What Influences Politicians?
Personal interest Lobby groups –
Votes – • Medical societies
• General public • Commercial
• Media organisations
Experts – Civil society –
• MoH / DoH • Patient groups
A Politician
• Insurance orgs. Dr Ana Jorge
• Health groups
• Academics • Women’s groups
• Scientists Clear messages • Community leaders
• Clinicians Clear plan of action Other groups &
International Clear political people depending
organisations benefits on the country

5. What Influences Politicians?
• Many organisations and people will
influence the decision-making process
• Stakeholder analysis is therefore essential
to identify all those with an interest in the
issue
• Stakeholders can then be divided into:
• Advocacy partners
• Advocacy targets

6. Advocacy Process
Stakeholder Agree Agree Mobilise
Identification Advocacy Objectives, Partners
& Partner Targets Messages & Launch
Recruitment & Actions Advocacy
Actions
• Media • Politicians
• Professional • DoH / MoH
Partner or
Societies • Insurance
advocacy target
• Civil society companies
will be depend
• Scientists • General
on the country
• Clinicians public &
and the issue
• International specific
organisations population
• Companies subgroups

7. Partner Recruitment
• All relevant groups must be involved in
setting the objectives, messages & actions:
• So they understand how their interests will be
best served by cooperative action
• To ensure each group has ownership of the
project and responsibility for the outcomes
• To prevent dissent and avoid splinter groups
When the stakeholders speak with one voice – it is
extremely powerful. But politicians will not get into the
middle of a fight between different stakeholders.

8. Messages
• Short, clear and understandable
• Written by experts in health communication, not by
subject experts
• Tailored to the target audience and the setting
• Vocabulary and sentence structure – very simple
• Short, simple sentences, no complex terms
• Amount of information – less is more
• Too much information will confuse people or they will
not read it at all
• Use multiple levels of complexity
• Attention grabbers – 2 or 3 short statements
• Introductory – brochures that can be read <5 min
• Comprehensive – website

9. Messages
• Use multiple communication channels
• Use multiple channels for each target audience so
people receive information from different sources to
reinforce messages
• Choose channels to suit target audience, paying
particular attention to reaching marginalised groups
• Mass media (TV, radio, women’s and youth
magazines, internet, social media, etc.)
• Consistency between channels
• Repetition of consistent information enhances learning
• Repetition of inconsistent information leads to
confusion & confusion leads to inaction

10. Mobilization & Community Action
• Community-based actions are a key part of
advocacy
• Provides another channel to communicate with the
general public
• Provides the media with material to broadcast and
increases outreach
• Attracts new recruits to the campaign
• Boosts morale and camaraderie among the advocacy
partners, volunteers, etc.

11. Champions & Peer Group Advocates
• People do not want to hear about cancer
• Champions & PGAs can:
• Attract attention to the issue
• Enhance message credibility and learning
• Overcome prejudice and taboos
• They can also go off-message and ruin a
campaign in a very high-profile fashion
• Champions & PGAs should be:
• Selected carefully
• Trained and monitored

12. Campaign Branding
The Breast Cancer
= Campaign

13. Campaign Branding
• A single, widely
recognised, understood
and trusted symbol for
the Breast Cancer
= Campaign
• A single public face for a
campaign that is run by
a large and diverse
group of organisations
from many different
countries and cultures

14. Why is the Pink Ribbon so Successful?
•Because it has achieved:
• Instantaneous recognition across countries and
cultures
• People understand what it stands for
• People have learned to TRUST it!
•Therefore, all the groups that run events under
the Pink Ribbon can more easily:
• Get the attention of the general public (recognition)
• Have people believe their key messages and follow
their advice (trust)

15. Now we need to do the same thing for
Cervical Cancer
Pearl of Wisdom Objective: a symbol that
is instantly recognised &
trusted by the general
public to help:
• Get the attention of the
general public
• Build trust
• Increase message
acceptance & learning
I.e. improve the
effectiveness of our
campaigns

16. Thank you for your attention
The ECCA, your partner to fight Cervical Cancer in Europe
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