WaterAid/Marco Betti

WaterAid has produced ‘The Advocacy Sourcebook’, a guide to advocacy work in the water and sanitation sector, which outlines basic strategies for any advocacy work. It highlights the importance of planning advocacy work and outlines the steps to be considered before undertaking advocacy projects, including:

Identifying the Issues: what do you want to change?

Finding out more through analysis: analysing the issue; analysing the context and key actors; understanding the time frame

Setting objectives: these should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound (SMART)

Identifying the targets: who is the key decision maker that can make the change you are advocating for, and how can you reach them?

Identifying allies: who can work with you?

Defining the message: a summary of the change you want to bring about and by when

Choosing approaches and activities: for example, collaboration, complementary activities, direct opposition and/or indirect, generalised campaigning (source:Chapman and Fisher, 1999).

Selecting appropriate tools. Some of the most common tools used in advocacy are as follows:

Assessing what resources are needed: the need for a realistic budget

Planning for monitoring and evaluation: for example, developing indicators to assess the impact of an advocacy project

Drawing up an action plan.

For examples of human rights based approaches to advocacy please see the case studies.

For further information please download WaterAid’s Advocacy Sourcebook.