How can advocacy and action competence be used to influence decision-makers and reduce global and local health inequities?
Apply advocacy and action competence to plan action that influences decision-makers and reduces global and local health inequities
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Health Studies Unit 4 content on advocacy and action competence. Covers what advocacy is, how to plan effective advocacy action, and how action competence turns health knowledge into change that reduces inequity.
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What this dot point is asking
WACE expects you to plan and justify action, not just define advocacy. A strong answer identifies the issue and the determinants behind it, names the decision-maker who can change them, describes a specific advocacy action, and explains why it would reduce inequity. Marks reward a targeted, justified plan tied to the stimulus.
What advocacy is
Advocacy means using your voice and influence to make health a priority and to change the conditions that damage it. It includes raising awareness, lobbying decision-makers, running campaigns, presenting evidence to those in power, and mobilising community support. As an Ottawa Charter strategy, advocacy sits alongside enable and mediate, and it is especially important for reducing inequity because it targets the policies and structures where disadvantage is built in.
Advocacy can operate at different levels. Local advocacy might push a council for safer cycling infrastructure or a school for a healthier canteen policy. National advocacy might campaign for stronger food labelling or advertising restrictions. Global advocacy might press governments and agencies to fund the Sustainable Development Goals or regulate harmful industries across borders. The principle is the same at every level: influence those with the power to change the determinants.
Action competence
Action competence is the capacity to act on health knowledge in an informed and justified way. It combines knowing about an issue, knowing how to influence it, believing you can make a difference, and being willing to act. A person with action competence does not just understand a health problem; they can identify what needs to change, choose an appropriate action, and carry it out. Building action competence is a goal of the inquiry process, because investigation should lead to evidence-based action rather than ending at a conclusion.
Planning effective advocacy action
Effective advocacy is targeted and evidence-based. The steps are: define the issue and the inequity clearly, identify the determinants driving it, identify the decision-maker with the power to change those determinants, choose an action that reaches that decision-maker (a campaign, a submission, a petition, a meeting, a media piece), and support it with reliable evidence. The action should be justified by explaining why it targets the right cause and the right audience, and why it is likely to produce change. Advocacy that is loud but aimed at the wrong target, or unsupported by evidence, tends to fail.
Linking action to inequity
The test of advocacy in this course is whether it reduces inequity. Action that shifts policy, funding or environments in favour of disadvantaged groups addresses the structural roots of unequal health. Connecting the planned action back to the determinants and to the group most affected is what turns a general campaign into a credible equity strategy, and it is what examiners look for.
How this maps to the exam
Expect a stimulus describing a health inequity at local, national or global level. Identify the determinants and the decision-maker who can change them, plan a specific advocacy action, and justify why it would reduce the inequity. Link the action to action competence and to the Ottawa Charter strategy advocate.