The Battles We Pick
What can we learn about making social and political change from talking to professional change-makers? This work takes a combination of persistence, shrewdness, and luck. On the Battles We Pick podcast, skilled advocates and organizers talk about how they deal with the various challenges they confront.
Theme music by generous permission of recording artist Stephen.
The Battles We Pick
Amnesty International advocate Adotei Akwei on the inside game, outside game, and movement-building
Adotei Akwei is a seasoned and accomplished advocate who has worked for the American Committee on Africa, Human Rights First, CARE USA, and spent over 25 years with Amnesty International USA. Currently he is Amnesty's Chief Membership Collaborations Officer. That role with the organization represents a shift—one he sought out—toward movement- / power-building after many years of inside-game advocacy on human rights in Africa.
The relationship between those two halves of the change-making profession is a core topic of the podcast, and we talked about the need to appreciate the differences between them as well as the ways they complement one another. Adotei talked about the minimum requirements that, for him, justify picking a policy change battle. And he highlighted some of the important forms of progress that go along with policy change "wins"—some of them just as significant, or even longer-lasting, than the substance of the policy outcome itself.
In discussing Adotei's organization and it's history, he explained the importance of Amnesty USA taking stock of the justice and equity issues both in our own country as well as within the organization itself. Because credibility and legitimacy are absolutely vital across the board from individual advocates to groups doing the work to international diplomacy, such a reckoning will be essential for further progress.
