Port of Spain, August 27, 2020 – Civil society has a key role in advocating for good environmental governance and sustainable development priorities in the Caribbean which will help to ensure a green, resilient and just COVID-19 recovery for the region.

Support for this advocacy effort is now available with the release of the new toolkit ‘An advocacy toolkit for Caribbean civil society organisations’ by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI).

The toolkit provides practical guidance on tools, techniques and best practices for designing and conducting effective advocacy at the local, national, regional or international level. Mini case studies capture examples of civil society advocacy that will inspire actions by others.

The toolkit was used to train over 30 civil society participants from 11 Caribbean countries in a virtual online short course over June and July 2020 held by CANARI. Participants benefited from networking and peer exchanges among participants and facilitators and came away with increased knowledge and understanding of the core steps involved in building an advocacy strategy, including defining clear advocacy goals, target audiences and developing and tailoring clear messaging. They also gained practical knowledge on how to develop realistic action plans to support implementation. They plan to use their strengthened advocacy capacity to call on governments to strengthen environmental governance, protect biodiversity and build climate change resilience, among other issues.

The toolkit and virtual short course were supported under two projects being implemented by CANARI: CSOs For Good Governance: Enhancing Civil Society’s contribution to governance and development processes in Trinidad & Tobago (CSOs4GoodGov) and Powering Innovations in Civil Society and Enterprises for Sustainability in the Caribbean (PISCES), which are both funded by the European Union.

The toolkit can be downloaded in full here: https://canari.org/wp- content/uploads/2020/08/CANARI_CSO-advocacy-toolkit.pdf