Similarities Between Political Advocates And Lobbyists

The purpose of this discussion is to define and compare political advocates and lobbyists and explain how the World Health Organization (WHO) advocates for healthcare policy. A political advocate is an individual that pleads a cause for others or a certain population to strive to achieve a larger goal for the greater good (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, O’Grady, 2016). I like to think of advocacy as the umbrella term for recommending and/or supporting a cause. Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, O’Grady (2106) explains that lobbyists are individuals who practice a form of advocacy to represent issues of a specific group or organization with the assistance of lawmakers to influence government. Lobbyists practice advocacy, but anyone can advocate for others. The

While lobbyists practice advocacy, advocates do not lobby, furthermore, lobbyists are paid professionals. (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, O’Grady, 2016). Advocating for another individual is not a paid profession, although it may be part of a larger job description, such as for a registered nurse to advocate for patients. Being an advocate for one’s self, another person, or an organization can be accomplished by anyone, however being a lobbyist entails much more knowledge and effort. Lobbyists who practice and represent for 20% of their time engaging in lobbying activities must be registered through Congress, report their activities, and their purpose is to bring awareness to legislators regarding the effects that policies will have on others, or certain aspects that need to be reviewed for a change (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, and O’Grady, 2016). While, lobbying can be practiced for business reasons on different levels, advocating can be practiced for just about anyone in a vast array of situations. For instance, Waterhouse (2013) explains that lobbying has often been related to protesting or riots, and associated with influencing policymakers for self-serving reasons, and lacks objectivity, and therefore lobbyists now must register and report their activities to congress to provide support and promote objective perceptions. In the end, advocating and lobbying hold similar principles of promoting

The WHO practices epidemiology to establish the most prevalent health concerns across the world, they collaborate with other global and national healthcare organizations to combat these health disparities, and assists those most in need, and they advocate the most essentials needs in healthcare to promote healthcare for all (World Health Organization, 2018). Recently, the WHO launched a global advocacy campaign to promote quality women’s and girls’ healthcare initiatives and bring awareness for equity in reproductive health. The World Health Organization (2018) explains that they have held 137 inter-parliamentary union assembly which is established around advocating improvements for health and well-being to key decision makers. Lastly, they are the voice of those in need globally, in other words, they advocate for the rights, needs, and critical health concerns globally to bring awareness and make changes for the better (World health Organization,