Useful resource materials from WaterAid (30/04/04)

Good afternoon everyone:

WaterAid is a charity dedicated to helping people living without safe water and sanitation. Working in partnership with local organisations in 15 countries in Africa and Asia to help poor communities establish sustainable water supplies and latrines close to home, WaterAid also works to influence governments' water and sanitation policies to serve the interests of vulnerable people.

They published a source book in 2001, "A guide to advocacy work in the water and sanitation sector" describing it as a resource for anyone working in the water and sanitation sector who wants to undertake advocacy work. The source book explains the different advocacy tools, provides practical examples of advocacy work, provides information on key policy actors and processes and how to influence them at international levels and to provide information on agencies, networks and institutions engaged in advocacy work in the freshwater sector.

Section 1 is an introduction to advocacy work, and considers what is advocacy, the reasons for engaging in advocacy work and some of the issues surrounding advocacy. The section closes with an outline of some common concerns about advocacy work. Section 2 focuses on how to undertake advocacy work, outlining the planning process and describing the various tools and approaches which can be used. Section 3 discusses the links between advocacy and project/programme work in the field and issues of capacity building while Section 4 presents case studies illustrating advocacy initiatives at various levels in different countries around the world. Section 5 lists some of the available resources, publications, networks and other organisations involved in advocacy work and describes some of the key policy actors in the freshwater sector.

It's available as a series of PDFs at www.wateraid.org/in_depth/policy_and_research/why_advocacy/155.asp . While you are on their site, check out their "Learn zone" - excellent background materials for teachers that covers the main issues in a concise, readable manner and they have some on-line interactive learning games aimed at 11-14 and 14-16 year olds. The Learn Zone is here www.wateraid.org.uk/uk/learn_zone/globalwise/default.asp .

Best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat

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