Connecting the Thread of Global Work to Local Work

A split colour background with a wavy line. The bottom navy section has the title “Connecting the Thread of Global Work to Local Work.” A pink wavy line is below the title and a blue blue wavy line is left of the title into the top white section.

Advocacy and activism can exist in many ways. There are many social, environmental, and economical issues that you can resonate with or need to change. There are also many scales where action can take place. It is usually referenced by local, national, and international scales due to the different powers and decision-making that exists on those structures. 

Knowing how many opportunities for change and action can be overwhelming. However, taking action is the most important part of doing advocacy and activism. No matter how small it can be perceived, it can have a huge impact on people that you touch. Considering how most people get into advocacy and activism, it would not be surprising if you choose to take a more local approach or connect to something close to you. 

Your “why” for doing advocacy work is typically jump started by a personal connection which is influenced by who you are, where you are, and who you choose to be. You either live an experience, witness an experience that you see to be unfair and want to take action to make it better. Having something that stays with you to remind you of why you want to do this work is crucial to the sustainability of doing the work. Whether you do it because it is where you live or you contribute or create change in other physical or digital areas because you feel that it needs to change stems to what feels connected to you. 

That connection is critical. It drives you to keep going. However, it does not diminish the importance of connecting the threads of local, national, and global movements. 

Local work can be built to be important to national demands for global concepts of human rights and sustainability. 

Global work can inspire national and local people to do the work to meet a standard. 

Same as national initiatives can set the standard for what is considered an approach to human rights and sustainability. 

All of these scales are interconnected and are moving pieces to the work. For most situations, local is the one that is the most action based on the work, national is the most setting legislation and policies of the work, and global is the most at setting standards and connecting on a global scale for monitoring, evaluating, and learning. 

So, how do we connect global concepts to local work?

Learning on a global scale can take many approaches from actively participating in the United Nations all the way to local organizations connecting people and organizations to continue the conversations happening on an international scale. There are many types of action, learnings, and lessons that can be included in your work to make it more inclusive, sustainable, and just. 

With commitments on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and human rights, conversations are consistently taking place on all levels both in-person and online. Taking the initiative to learn what is happening in the focus you work in can help the cause. What new approaches can we use with the resources and capacity you have? What policies have our governments considered yet? What gaps may be missing that we have not considered yet? There can be answers when collaborating and learning from others. 

Collaboration of resources and skills are opportunities as well. Governments have programs to not only provide skills and resources to other countries, but also connect their citizens and organizations to collaborate and compile resources to improve capacity on the work outside of their country. Even those types of projects focus on specific local commitments due to the ability to make an impact. 

Focusing on local work can make it easier to track and report impact since there is a smaller pool of people compared to national and international scales. Staying local means that there is a better understanding of the unique challenges an area or community would have and the important stakeholders to consider in the implementation and evaluation of the work. If you feel connected and resonated with the community, the change would evoke a stronger feeling and be easier to witness. Advocacy and activism work is ongoing and ever-changing. Even when your focus is local, the thread between the scales never goes away. We need to consider the overall human rights, climate protection, and quality of life when doing this type of work.

Amanda