Advocacy Tool Kits

This page contains a number of useful advocacy resources.

Find tools and information to strengthen skills and know-how and to build capacity to influence policy and to promote the right to water and sanitation.

The Right to Water, the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Millennium Development Goals

Three chapters are compiled from pre existing advocacy resources, final texts and from international meetings and web resources on water and sanitation.

Download here

The Advocacy Sourcebook

Why is advocacy work critical in the water supply and sanitation sector? Find out why in WaterAid's newly published advocacy sourcebook which also introduces the reader to helpful tools for planning and developing advocacy strategies and making advocacy work happen.

Capacity development for policy advocacy
This working paper presents a summary of current thinking on issues of capacity building for Northern and Southern organisations involved in using research-based evidence in policy processes, and provides some examples of current practice.

NGO capacity analysis toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help CSOs to identify their
capacity-building needs, plan technical support
interventions, and monitor and evaluate the impact of
capacity building.

Monitoring government policies: A toolkit for civil
society organizations in Africa (pdf)
Launched by CAFOD, Christian Aid and Trocaire, this
resource contains 28 tools to assist civil society
organizations in efforts to understand what difference
government policies are really making.

Citizen's Guide to Monitoring Governmental
Expenditures

The International Budget Project (IBP) guide documents
pioneering methodologies used by civil society organizations around the developing world to hold their governments to account for the use of public resources.

Meeting the MDG drinking water and sanitation
target: the urban and rural challenge of the decade
Prepared by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, this resource is intended as a "reality check" for individual countries and the international community on how far we have come, and where we need to focus next, to achieve the 2015 goals. It can be used to measure links to watsan and health and is a good education tool for advocacy.

The EMPOWERS approach to water governance
Guidelines, methods and tools for use in processes of
planning and dialogue within and between local and
intermediate levels. It describes a practical and logical
framework of activities based on the involvement of those who use and manage water. The guidelines advocate a process of collaboration through dialogue, to bring about a change in the way water sector professionals and water users work with each other.

International Rivers Network: Dams, Rivers and
Rights:An Action Guide for Communities Affected
by Dams

A new report from this respected NGO network provides
general information about dams and their impacts, and
gives concrete ideas about how to challenge dams.
It is written for a low-literacy audience.

Multi-stakeholder platforms for integrated water
management
The book aims to get to a better understanding of some
key defining characteristics of multi-stakeholder platforms
(MSPs).

Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground

The politics and history of water use in development, and practical ideas for taking control of our relationship to water, including rainwater harvesting, using household grey water to create lush gardens, and how to build a composting toilet.

Sharing lessons learned to conserve Africa's Zambezi River May 2007
The Nature Conservancy and the African Wildlife Foundation have announced a partnership to protect and manage the Zambezi River. They hope that sharing effective practices from river systems around the world will contribute to the formulation of an appropriate integrated water resources management strategy for this 1,500 mile long river.

African Development Bank primer

FAN, ANEW and WaterAid have jointly produced a primer on the African Development Bank (AfDB) which will serve as a comprehensive information resource to enable African civil society to better understand AfDB’s WSS policies and financing mechanisms.

Intergovernmental negotiations and decision-making at the United Nations: A Guide

This civil society guide to the UN aims to help thousands of NGOs to better understand the UN System, its processes and its opportunities for advocacy and collaboration.