Here are some of the steps to take in planning a campaign for access to information:

• Identifying a constituency
• Building a coalition
• Identifying pressure points
• Using the mass media
• Using mass action
• Drafting a model access to information law
• Campaigning on a regional basis

Identifying a constituency

A 'constituency' simply means all those who are potentially concerned or interested in access to information.

It is true that access to information potentially benefits everyone and helps people to enjoy other rights. But a campaign aimed at 'everyone' is unlikely to succeed. It will be unfocused and its message will be too general to have immediate appeal to most people.

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Building a coalition

Access to information is an issue that affects so many different organisations and interests.

It will be important to identify the groups and organisations that reflect the aspirations of people who are concerned about particular issues - workers' rights, women's rights, the environment or whatever it may be.

Since you are probably in for a long campaign, you will almost certainly want to build a formal alliance of groups working on the access to information issue.

The advantages of doing this are obvious: you can draw upon the membership, the expertise and the resources of all the groups working together.

But there are also potential pitfalls: there may be policy differences or squabbles over funds, different groups may have different organisational styles, or there may just be a clash of personalities.

Coalitions are most likely to face problems if they are imposed from outside (for example by donors) or if there is no common agreement on what they are for.

They are most likely to succeed if they grow naturally out of a shared perception of the issue and agreement on what needs to be done.

Setting up a formal coalition will require some clear ground rules right from the start:

• Establishing a democratic decision-making process

• Making sure that there is transparency about financial matters

• Establish clear channels of communication so that everyone knows what is happening.

It is sensible for the coalition not to have the same aim as its member groups. This means that the mandate of the coalition should not be the same as that of any of its members. The danger is that you might threaten the livelihood and independence of coalition members. They should join because being in the coalition adds something to their work.

You also need to create a clear understanding of what being in the coalition means. What are members expected to do? Are they receiving any extra funding to do this extra work?

If you are successful and well funded, you may need to set up a secretariat. In other words, the coalition or campaign will have to employ people separately of the member organisations.

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Identifying pressure points

The most successful campaigns are not only the ones that win the widest support. They are also the ones that succeed in identifying the weaknesses of the opponents they are campaigning against or the authorities that they seek to influence.

To plan a campaign, one needs to consider what are the points where pressure will be most effective. Here are some possible examples:

• The government may have a slender parliamentary majority, giving some of the more independent-minded members of parliament a disproportionate influence. You can use them as a lever to push the government towards introducing an access to information law.
• The government may be negotiating a loan with the World Bank. Try to persuade it that introducing access to information will strengthen its hand in negotiations.
• The government has close ties with the main trade union confederation. Try to win the unions to the cause of open government and you will be half way to persuading the government to adopt an access to information law.
• The main opposition party controls the city government of the country's capital. It has said that it supports access to information. Test out that commitment by trying to persuade the city government to introduce access to information on a local level. This would be a massive step towards introducing access to information nationwide. In any case, local government is often the layer of administration that people are most in contact with in their everyday lives.

The last of these may be especially useful. Many access to information laws have come about because of changes in government, so working with the opposition can be useful in itself.

Pressure at the level of local government has often been effective in introducing an access to information law at the national level - in Japan, for example - or making its implementation more effective.

A useful tool for planning a campaigning strategy is a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for:

• Strengths

• Weaknesses

• Opportunities

• Threats.

The first two of these are internal - the strengths and weaknesses of your organisation or campaign.

The other two are external - the opportunities or threats presented by other organisations, structures or outside factors.

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Using the mass media

It goes without saying that the mass media are a useful tool in any campaign.

In a campaign for access to information there is the additional advantage that the media are more than a tool - they are also an ally.

The media will be one of the main beneficiaries of an access to information law. Make sure that you are able to win them round to the idea early in your campaign.

If the media are on your side, you should have no difficulty getting space - maybe even free advertising - to get your ideas across.

But think hard about how you want to use the media.

Just because you are likely to have easy access to the media, this doesn't mean that you should stop thinking about what audiences you want to reach and what messages you need to get across.

As well as planning your overall campaign, you also need to make a plan for your media strategy.

What is the aim of your campaign?

What are the objectives of your communications work?

Think hard about what you are trying to achieve with all your communications - not just through the mass media, but using other techniques too.

Who are your target audiences?

Think specifically about who you are speaking to. Try to put them in order of priority.

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Using mass action

A number of possible forms of action include demonstrations, petitions, rallies, street theatre and all the others may be useful tactics in the campaign.

It is also worth considering what exactly the objectives of mass action will be.

Most of the tactics listed will be aimed at influencing the government to change its policy, as well as increasing public awareness of the issue.

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Drafting a model access to information law

At a certain point, you will find it extremely useful to produce a draft of the kind of access to information law that you want to see become law.

There are a number of reasons why this will be helpful.

The most obvious one is that will give a clear focus to your campaign. 'This', you can say, 'is the law that we want to see introduced.'

But there are other useful aspects to drafting a model law:

• First, and perhaps most importantly, it can be a way of increasing involvement in your campaign. Hold consultation meetings with groups that support your aim. Ask them what they expect from a law. Hold a national conference with representatives of many different groups in society and have them draw up the law. If they have been involved in writing it, they are much more likely to be committed to campaigning for it.
• Second, having a draft law will make it much easier to deal with all the objections to access to information. If you have drafted a good law, all those arguments about cost, bureaucracy, national security, crime and the rest will be answered in a very practical way.
• Thirdly, if your campaign does succeed in getting to the point where the government submits a bill to parliament, this will be the best way of seeing whether it measures up to the best standards on access to information.

At best, producing a draft law may actually prompt the government to take action. Second best would be to have it taken up by the opposition and introduced into parliament that way.

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Campaigning on a regional basis

The move towards open government is a global trend - although it is one that is advancing very unevenly.

The reason why you are considering campaigning on access to information is because similar campaigns have already succeeded in many other countries.

So, don't limit your horizons to your own country.

Make sure that you build links between your organisations. Share information and experiences so that you can find out what works and what doesn't. You can share campaign materials - that will save time and energy too.

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