IAP2 Australasia’s Advocacy Initiatives: An Exciting Update

August 2023

We’re very pleased to share some exciting developments that underpin our commitment to advocating for communities to be authentically engaged in decisions that affect them; and for engagement to be embedded into policy and regulatory framework.

Approval of IAP2 Australasia Advocacy Strategy

We’re proud to announce that the IAP2 Australasia Advocacy Strategy has been approved by the Board. It includes:

Policy Position:

As the peak body for the community and engagement sector, IAP2 Australasia believes that engagement, when done well, improves environmental, social and governance outcomes and increases trust in the democratic process. We advocate for all communities to be authentically engaged in decisions that affect them, in alignment with the IAP2 Quality Assurance Standard for Community and Stakeholder Engagement.

Our Strategic Goal is for “Engagement to be embedded into policy and regulatory frameworks”

We will achieve this by advocating for:

Legislative change to require those affected by a decision to be involved in the decision-making process;
The development of Engagement Guidelines by Government;
Adoption of minimum engagement standards (IAP2 Quality Assurance Standard for Community and Stakeholder Engagement) across al levels of government; and
For engagement professionals to be involved in technical advisory groups to government.

The principles that we have adopted are:

Strengthen awareness of and recognition of the value of authentic engagement.
Empower our members and engagement professionals to advocate for authentic engagement.
Be true to the IAP2 Core Values and the IAP2 Quality Assurance Standard for Community and Stakeholder Engagement.
Bipartisan approach and be politically neutral.

This advocacy strategy, developed with our government relations adviser, is the roadmap to achieving our overarching strategic goal. It reflects our mission “To champion engagement that improves environmental, social and governance outcomes.

With our Australian advocacy objectives in place, we are now working on developing similar objectives for New Zealand.

Louise Crossman

Introducing Our Government Relations Adviser: Louise Crossman from Counsel House

We’re excited to introduce Louise Crossman from Counsel House, as our dedicated government relations adviser. With her wealth of experience and expertise, Louise is poised to help us navigate the intricate landscape of government relations.

New Resources to Empower You

Your journey towards advocating for engagement is now a little easier! Based on member feedback, we have released two new and what we hope will prove to be invaluable resources: IAP2A Advocacy Recommendations and Calls to Action and IAP2A Advocacy Ethos and Approach for Members. These resources are now available on our website. Dive in, explore, and use these resources to support you to drive impactful change – so that we can advocate for engagement together.

We look forward to sharing further advocacy updates with you.

Marion Short, CEO, IAP2 Australasia