Advocacy

The purpose of the advocacy component of GRANITE II is to seek changes at grassroots, state, national and international levels, which are necessary to ensure better economic literacy in India and to enhance positive linkages between good economic governance in India and human development.

There will be 24 outreach meetings with 1200 targeted beneficiaries per year. A draft research paper will be finalised after taking inputs from participants of the outreach meetings. Thus, there will be 3600 targeted beneficiaries over a period of three years.

Following the finalization of the draft research paper, it will be used for advocacy at the state level of the eight states under examination and at the national level, addressing both executive and legislative levels. Project partners in each state will have an informal Policy Forum on economic issues, inviting representatives of the different policy-making levels, including government officials and politicians. A draft research paper will be circulated at this forum for discussions and further fine-tuning.

Further advocacy efforts will be conducted in 2008 when the next National Foreign Trade Policy of India will be drafted. Taking into account the conducted research and consultations with project partners and other experts and stakeholders, CUTS CITEE will prepare a document on why nation-wide consultations are required while formulating national foreign trade policies. This document will be submitted to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Besides advocating for this nation-wide consultation, elements of pro-poor changes required for making this policy more pro-development will be highlighted.