Education for Change

Resources

Advocacy Sourcebook
A Guide to advocacy for WSSCC co-cordinators working on the WASH campaign

The Sourcebook is divided into four sections. 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 lists some of the available resources, publications, networks and other organisations involved in advocacy work and describes some of the key policy actors and
processes in the freshwater sector.

For more information visit: http://www.wsscc.org/fileadmin/files/pdf/publication/Advocacy_Sourcebook_interactive.pdf

Water and sanitation; what will deliver the improvements required for urban areas?

Published: Oct 2003 - IIED
Series: Environment and Urbanization Briefs 08

Around 800 million urban dwellers lack the sustainable access to safe drinking water that the Millennium Development Goals prioritize, and close to 1 billion lack adequate sanitation. This
helps explain why Fifteen years of international agency support for privatization has not produced the hoped-for improvements. The increased focus on water stress as being the problem is still often ill-conceived, as inadequacies in provision for water and sanitation have little to do with inadequate freshwater supplies and much to do with inadequate water management. New directions are desperately needed to stop water and sanitation deficits growing in the increasingly urbanized societies of Africa, Asia and Latin America. There are new approaches based on
partnerships between government and communities that work on a large scale yet require modest resources. This Brief gives examples of community-designed, constructed and managed toilet blocks that serve hundreds of thousands of low-income people in Indian cities, and water points and sanitation blocks that have greatly improved provision that are not classified as “water and sanitation” projects.

For more information visit:
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=10516IIED&n=9&l=17&s=EUB

Solution Exchange

Solution Exchange is an initiative of the United Nations Agencies in India. It aims to harness the power of Communities of Practice to help attain national development goals and the Millennium
Development Goals. The knowledge, experience and energies of development practitioners are tapped to help evolve articles on status of particular sectors, obtain information on innovations,
etc towards the common objective of problem-solving. The underlyiong idea is that while “expert” knowledge is often well documented, valuable tacit knowledge gained through practitioner experience is typically lost or ignored.

Solution Exchange has been set up as a free, impartial space where professionals are welcome to share their knowledge and experience. Members represent a wide range of perspectives from government, NGOs, donors, private sector and academia.

They are organized into Communities of Practice built around the framework of the Millennium Development Goals. Through moderated e-mail groups, members interact on an ongoing basis,
building familiarity and trust, gaining in knowledge that helps them contribute more effectively – individually and collectively – to the nation’s development challenges.

Today eleven Communities are up and running: Maternal and Child Health, Water, Gender, Food & Nutrition Security, AIDS, Decentralization, Education, Work and Employment, Microfinance,
ICT for Development, and Disaster Management.

Solution Exchange provides these Communities with three basic email-based services:

• “Help” offers Community members solutions to questions they raise
• “Comment” provides decision-makers with feedback on draft policies, programmes and projects
• “Discuss” seeks insights on issues of major concern to the Community
• A “Collaborate” service to promote small-group work to take forward members’ ideas or products is to be evolved in the future

For more information visit:
http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/

State of the World’s Cities 2008/09 - Harmonious Cities

Half of humanity now lives in cities, and within two decades, nearly 60 per cent of the world’s people will be urban dwellers. Urban growth is most rapid in the developing world, where cities
gain an average of 5 million residents every month. As cities grow in size and population, harmony among the spatial, social and environmental aspects of a city and between their inhabitants
becomes of paramount importance. This harmony hinges on two key pillars: equity and sustainability.

Downloadable from http://www.unhabitat.org
ISBN: 978-92-1-132010-7 ; Pages: 224 ; Year: 2008