Stefani Aleksandrova and Ivaylo Madzharov are two of the Advocacy Academy participants in the program’s first ever cohort. Young, talented and extremely committed to make a positive difference in Bulgaria, not only that they successfully graduated the Advocacy Academy of AUBG and BESCO, financially supported by CIPE, but also have immediately put in practice the new skills and knowledge obtained during the Advocacy Academy program in their just launched in September 2024 joined project, called “Academy for Leadership and Advocacy for Young Women”.
The project is funded by Foundation “BG Fund for Women” with funds granted by the European Commission, and will be implemented in the period of 10 months, in partnership between three different NGOs, including: the Alliance for Sustainable Regional Development (SRD4BG) as the leading organization in the project implementation, of which Stefani is a co-founder and Chair of the Executive Board, the Association Active Politics, where Ivaylo is the founder and CEO, and a third partner, called “Mentor the Young”.
The new initiative aims to build the capacity of young women in Bulgaria (age 18-29), living in the north- central region of the country, in the area of leadership, advocacy and civic engagement, and to provide support in overcoming challenges which this specific group of women regularly face in their personal and professional life (e.g. discrimination, bullying, lack of personal and career development opportunities, etc.).
The participation in the first of its kind Advocacy Academy in Bulgaria has helped both Stefani and Ivaylo in their journey throughout the drafting and development process of the project, as well as will be extremely useful during its upcoming implementation. When asked about which part of the Advocacy Academy program was most useful, Ivaylo stressed the module about coalition building and stakeholder mapping, making the best out of the collective power and knowledge, united by a common goal.
He was extremely impressed by the profile of the civil servant participants in the program and the interactions with them completely shifted his views about the personnel working at government institutions in the country. Ivaylo explained that in his views there are many highly qualified people, working in ministries, who however are often subject to negative lobbying and, based on the lack of overall understanding and mechanisms for practicing positive advocacy in Bulgaria, they often prefer to remain silent or disengaged from important reform processes. There seem to be no measures to support and protect people not to do the bare minimum.
In terms of pure new knowledge obtained, Stefani noted that for her the practical experience gained from the Advocacy Academy program was the most useful, especially in helping her to clearly differentiate the concepts of advocacy from the ones of pure lobbying and corruption. She succeeded to get closer to the operations modality of the public administration, to understand better how businesses and NGOs interact, and to know where the lines get blurred. In Bulgaria various subject matters often tend to be seen in two extremes, without noticing the nuances and looking for the middle ground. Therefore, knowing the instruments needed and available for achieving a certain purpose, is critical.
For both Ivaylo and Stefani, the non-formal discussions, the breaks in between the academic classes and the side events were the deal breakers in the Academy. Such informal gatherings will now continue taking place as part of the alumni network of the program, allowing for participants to amplify the impact already achieved through further enlarging their network, starting new meaningful projects, working together on various advocacy campaigns while leveraging the skills and tools they learnt at the Advocacy Academy.
Together, Stefani and Ivaylo, support the idea for the Advocacy Academy to further focus on regional and local levels in its future editions. Often groundbreaking initiatives start from the local and regional levels, allowing to fill in the conceptual gap and to motivate young people to be more active, participate at local council’s meetings, thus making their voice heart. One does not need to be a leader or minister to be a change maker. By creating mini societies of change at local levels, they will inevitably grow at national levels, united by the same mission of better future for all, contributing to long-term sustainability and larger impact.
Stefani has tried for years to realize the project “Academy for Leadership and Advocacy for Young Women” as she strongly believes in its purpose and is excited to have invited two more NGOs working for and with young people, to support its implementation. Participating in the Advocacy Academy considerably helped Stefani to restructure the proposal and make it better fit for the final purpose of attracting the financial support required for its implementation.
As for the next steps, Ivaylo and Stefani will continue using the instruments and tools learnt at the Advocacy Academy for the development of the curriculum for the project. They know that challenges might come, and it will not be easy, but they are confident that whatever bottlenecks they face, the rest of the participants at the Advocacy Academy will be there to support them. It is easy to break, but difficult to build. The first cohort of the Advocacy Academy program clearly showed their motivation, persistence and decisiveness to build, despite the difficult conditions and multiple challenges on the way to establishing the first professional community of advocates in Bulgaria.
As a final word to future advocates and cohorts of the Advocacy Academy, Ivo advised:
“Learn, implement and share, do not be afraid to ask for help!”
On the other hand, Stefani shared that it is the participant’s responsibility to make the best out of the program.
“Advocacy Academy is more like a sandstone, and it is entirely up to each one of us what we will make out of it, while having fun in the process. The Advocacy Academy is among the very few programs where we have skillful, motivated and positive people, who can make a change, as leaders in their own communities.”
Good luck to Stefani and Ivaylo in their new endeavor, while we will all stay tuned for more groundbreaking initiatives, changing Bulgaria for the better.
