Influencing others

Due to the scale of the world's water and sanitation problems we recognise that meeting the need involves more than simply implementing water supply and sanitation projects.

Citizens' Action

That is why we are working to empower communities through Citizens' Action, an approach designed to help poor people gain access to the water and sanitation services to which they are entitled. Through a sustainable, rights-based approach, WaterAid believes that poor people themselves should be able to hold governments and service providers to account through negotiation based on data that they collect themselves.

Advocacy

WaterAid campaigners hand a petition to 10 Downing Street.

Credit: WaterAid / Steve Bainbridge

Influencing others on important policy issues also plays a key role in helping the poor gain access to safe water and sanitation facilities. To maximise our impact, we influence other organisations, both through our country programmes and at the international level.

A highly professional and integrated approach has given us an authoritative voice in the water sector. We use this voice to support campaigns, build networks and develop alliances with other international bodies dedicated to the interests of poor people. Through this work we are keeping safe water and sanitation at the forefront of national and international development agendas.

By using our experience, research and good practice we are able to influence district and national governments and feed in to wider development policies. In this way we generate waves of change far beyond the physical boundaries of our work.

Find out more about our advocacy work

Download the Advocacy issue sheet ( PDF 411Kb)