Social entrepreneur´s profile:

Lobbying for our Lives

Governments must come together to stop the Coronavirus crisis together by coordinating their actions to protect not only lives but also livelihoods. Ashoka Fellow Alberto Alemanno and his organization The Good Lobby are helping citizens to monitor their governments – through a major campaign – as they limit their liberties and face excruciating trade offs.

Social Entrepreneur: Alberto Alemanno

Organization: The Good Lobby

Field: Solutions for the economic and political effects of the pandemic

Needs for social innovation to have more impact: Marketing and communicationsBusiness development and fundraising. 

Before and after Corona: From citizen lobbying on European issues to petitioning the EU to work together against COVID-19. 

The mission of the social enterprise before Corona:

In Ashoka Fellow Alberto Alemanno’s vision, lobbying should go mainstream and become just another hobby like playing football or going to the park with friends.  

His organization The Good Lobby empowers citizens to turn away from passively consuming to actively shaping public policy. The Good Lobby enables people to become citizen lobbyists. They do this by equipping citizens with key civic and legal skills through a citizen lobbying toolbox, by providing inspiration from real cases of citizen-led initiatives, and by matching them with expert volunteers to support the lobbying needs of civil society organisations. 

Alberto created The Good Lobby, based in Europe’s political capital Brussels as well as Milan and Bilbao. It is an organisation that empowers citizens to become citizen lobbyists, by building capacities on how to actively participate in influencing the decision-making processes of EU and national policy makers.  

Additionally, The Good Lobby accompanies and incubates some of the most promising citizen driven projects by providing them with advocacy and legal capacity.  

What changed with Corona?

It may be tempting to think that civic participation is not a top priority during a global pandemic—you would be wrong. Countries are enacting measures in order to contain COVID-19 that, during normal times, would be unimaginably oppressive. On the other end of the spectrum, coordinating bodies such as the EU may not be doing enough! It is up to citizens to voice their opinion to their representatives and lobby civil society to do the right thing.  

The (biggest) challenge: Motivating governments to consider long-term consequences of their actions

As EU member states attempt to control the spread of COVID-19, countries have instituted varying levels of containment measures. For example, one country may have harsher measures than another country. There is no Europe-wide standard for implementing protocols, which leaves member-states up to their own best judgement for what would be appropriate. But that’s not all the Good Lobby is doing, as there are other challenges on the horizon: Additionally, civic or social organizations with systemic approaches to issues are facing funding shortfalls due to funders prioritizing direct service for the COVID-19 crisis. While civic participation may, at first glance, seem to pale in comparison to the urgency of directly addressing the crisis, systemic approaches are also strongly needed.  

The solution: Legal aid to social organizations and lobbying the EU

The Good Lobby‘s response to Covid19 is twofold.  

On one handit offers dedicated legal and advocacy support to entities and individuals affected by Covid-19 via its skill sharing matchmaking service. Pro bono skill sharing is key to act as a safety net for civil society. Through this, the Good Lobby is supporting social enterprises, NGOs, and social entrepreneurs facing legal issues caused by the COVID-19 crisis. It supportthese organizations by connecting them to lawyers  and advocacy experts offering pro-bono support on various topics. 

On the other handit runs a campaign asking the 27 EU ministers of Health to coordinate their responses to Covid-19. To date, they have scaled up their campaign by writing to the 27 ministers of Health and ran a Tweet Bomb. The next steps will be decided upon the reception of Health ministers‘ responses and ongoing developments.

The personal biggest worry and hope:

Ashoka: How are you dealing with the situation and what is your biggest personal worry?

Alberto: “The risk of a COVID-centric world is to lose perspective of many structural issues, such as access to power. Philanthropies are more interested – once more – in service delivery than advocacy.”

Ashoka: What is inspiring you and giving you hope that we can overcome this crisis?

Alberto: The energy that is about to be unleashed out of civil society after weeks of home-confinement and the many opportunities ahead. Social change is set to go mainstream.