Open Forum has been striving to influence public policies concerning these programmes to make them friendlier to the participatory approach being used by community based organisations (CBOs) NGOs and Govt. agencies. It tries to create policy environment conducive to sustainable community based management of development issues. Its policy advocacy activities stem from familiarity with ground realities generated in the process of implementing projects, timely feedback from the field & the experience of its partner organizations to bring about the policy changes.

Open Forum follows following strategy for policy influencing:

•	Persuading Government about to set up consultative forums such as working groups and committees and organize workshops, training programmes on focused issues that bring together govt. officers, NGOs, academicians & farmers' representatives.
•	Demonstrating through its own field units and other government organisations the importance of participatory approach.
•	Identifying issues and undertaking research studies that brings out policy dimensions.
•	Sensitizing Government functionaries through capacity building interventions.
•	Initiating & participating in networks to bring about changes in Government policies & procedures.

The Policy Advocacy Programme has been actively involved in capacity building of various stakeholders contributing to the growth and development of development sector in India for about a decade. Open Forum has acted successfully as a catalyst in the formation of working groups and committees which draw their membership from variety of sources for development issues. These forums provide an opportunity to the NGOS & academicians to interact with policy matters. Open Forum also functions as an informal secretariat for these committees, suggesting items for agendas, preparing draft minutes, suggesting and conducting follow up actions. Open Forum’s policy advocacy activities are more intense at the state level. Open Forum recently initiated campaigns for a legal and fiscal environment for the Indian voluntary sector in the national and state levels. Certain provisions of laws governing voluntary organizations (VOs) like the Societies Registration Act of 1860, the Indian Trusts Act (1882), the Charitable and Religious Trust Act (1920), Section 25 of the Indian Companies Act (1950), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act of 1976 (FCRA) and by similar legislations of the states have become obsolete or redundant. These laws impede rather than enable the work of VOs. There is a greater need for the promotion of voluntarism than for its regulation. Open Forum, in consultation with other voluntary organizations, calls for the assessment and amendment of these laws in order to secure policies that enlarge rather than restrict the space for voluntary action in India. It is pushing for the adoption of a National Policy for the Voluntary Sector. This alternative policy seeks to simplify VOs access to funds and the process of VO registration, and to make VOs more involved in designing, managing and monitoring development programmes.