Civil society has played an important role in advocacy in a number of health areas. These include:

• health rights
• public health standards
• the needs of special groups
• health system functioning.

This role becomes more pronounced as wider social movements develop around issues such as public health and the World Trade Organization provisions, campaigns for access to HIV/AIDS treatment and the relationship between health and poverty. While the health sector is not itself directly involved in advocacy, such advocacy activities can complement health goals and benefit from information, technical and other inputs.