While associations have long advocated for their members’ interests before governments and multilateral institutions around the world, COVID-19 has rapidly transformed association advocacy. With policymakers responding to the public health and economic crisis in real time, the important advocacy work that associations do in global capitals on behalf of their members has never been more urgent. At the same time, with most public affairs and advocacy professionals confined to their homes, associations have fundamentally altered their advocacy strategies and tactics to succeed in this fast-moving environment. Tommy Goodwin, an international association public affairs and advocacy professional finds that many associations are transforming to successfully answer theses challenge times.
High-stakes for association advocacy today and tomorrow
COVID-19 has prompted extraordinary responses from governments across the globe. As a result, associations have been strenuously advocating before lawmakers and other public-sector stakeholders to provide critical support for the individuals, professions, and industries that they represent. Depending on the country or region, this has ranged from financial relief, such as access to government funding to maintain liquidity and prevent job losses, to ensuring continuity of operations, whereby association members can remain open and contribute to ongoing COVID-19 mitigation and economic recovery efforts.
For example, the Brussels-based Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers (or EUROBAT) advocated across the European Union (EU) to make sure that European battery manufacturers could remain open. With batteries powering critical life-saving infrastructure and services—from providing back-up power for hospitals and medical equipment to powering forklifts and other cargo equipment—EUROBAT leveraged its relationships with policy makers and a social media campaign to keep its members’ manufacturing, distribution, and servicing operations up and running during the crisis.
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