Appendix: Advocacy Papers

Towards a Communication Culture in the Water and Sanitation Sector

The Water and Sanitation Sector has an ambitious aim; striving to offer every community, in every country on earth, at least the possibility of safe water and sanitation. This immense human challenge is not simply technological. It demands a change in the orientation of the whole sector.

The Decade which ended in 1990 brought safe water and sanitation to 2.1 billion people, but ended with the job less than half done. Faced with increasing populations, higher levels of pollution, and resources which are stagnant or falling, the sector now has the task of bringing these benefits to another 2.9 billion people. Achieving success on this scale means changing the way that people think and act. The sector must develop new ways of working so that policy makers, the water and sanitation sector and users work towards common goals.

An important component of these new methods is a commitment to communicate. Communication in its broadest sense begins with listening and learning. It involves looking at situations from the viewpoint of other people. It means understanding obstacles to change. It means presenting relevant and practical options, and it means telling people what the effect is of the choices they make. This is true in the international arena when seeking funds or political commitment, and it is true when installing a pump in a community.

Communication is the golden thread that draws together the sector with policy makers, officials who carry out policy, natural allies in health, agriculture and other sectors, and the community itself. It ensures that policy makers and communities alike are committed to projects and their success. It makes partnerships possible and prevents expensive mistakes. Communication is not a substitute for technical expertise, but allows that expertise to be applied more effectively, by helping to change human attitude and behaviour. When the problem is creating a new understanding in human beings, communication is the right tool for the job. Communication in this broad sense means:

  • mobilising key sectors of society, the policy makers, government officials, non-government agencies, the media and others in support of the sector and its broad objectives;
  • creating dialogue with men and women in the community to find out what they believe, want, and are able to sustain; and involving them in finding a range of solutions, from which they can choose;
  • working with allied sectors, notably health, agriculture and environment, so that each understands the other, and so that complementary efforts are co-ordinated;
  • ensuring that sector people learn what works and what does not.

Responsibility for changing the agenda, so that communication is put first, lies with the sector itself. The more that this communication culture penetrates the sector, the better will its people become advocates for its work internationally, mobilisers of policy makers within developing countries, allies of sectors with complementary aims, and trusted partners of the community.

Does Communication really make a difference?

Survey Identifies Perception Gap

The Indian Market Research Bureau surveyed 7,900 water users and talked to those implementing a safe water programme. Four out of five had access to a handpump, but only a third used it as their main supply.

Some pumps were too far from home. Users judged pump water by look, smell and taste, and sometime chose polluted water instead. A quarter believed they would see germs in impure water and fewer than one in five understood the link with diarrhoea and cholera.

Two thirds of women judged water by whether it 'cooked well', a concept alien to those planning and installing wells. Implementors underestimated how far communities were willing to contribute towards installation or maintenance of pumps.

Understanding how the community thinks is a key communication requirement and in India has led policy makers to change their own thinking about how to plan and implement water programmes.

There is strong evidence inside and outside the sector that communication brings results. The global effort to immunise children against common killer diseases is one of the most successful communication efforts the world has ever seen. In many poor countries immunisation rates now rival those of the affluent west. The campaign for universal immunisation did not succeed by focusing on technical aspects of syringes and vaccines. It mobilised communities, policy makers, the media and every level of society to prevent children dying needlessly. Efficient service delivery was essential, but first the campaign had to make communities want and demand vaccines for their children. The water and sanitation sector has the same agenda, and can use the same means.

Inside the sector there are also solid examples where communication transformed a programme. Guinea worm disease affected 10m people across the world, but until an international campaign gained momentum, barely one case in 20 was known. Now eradication of the disease in Nigeria and Ghana is likely by the end of 1995.

  • At international level former US President Jimmy Carter acted as ambassador for the campaign, opening doors to ministers and other key figures.
  • At national level political leaders played a crucial role. In Ghana, the Head of State visited 21 endemic villages to launch the campaign. In Nigeria, the Vice President told local government to allocate 10% of health budgets to eradication.
  • At community level advocacy was translated into action. In Nigeria and Ghana a village by village search identified more than 800,000 cases in a year, and village health workers made monthly reports. Health education was tackled on a wide front, with radio jingles, school lessons and village meetings.

Both Nigeria and Ghana reported a drop in incidence of over 30% between 1989 and 1990, and in one district in Ghana there was a 77% reduction in the disease after the installation of 150 wells. The eradication programme is one of the success stories of the decade.

Making Partnerships and Convincing Allies

The sector has to convince all sections of society that changes are desirable and achievable and that each section has a vital role to play. Before society can be mobilised it must be convinced. The New Delhi Statement, drawn up in 1990, and subsequently endorsed by 71 Heads of State at the World Summit for Children, and by the UN General Assembly, said: "Political commitment is essential and must be accompanied by intensive efforts to raise awareness through communication and mobilisation of all sections of society."

  • Political leaders and policy makers need to be convinced to put the water sector high on their agendas;
  • Fund givers need to be convinced that the sector has a convincing strategy which will make effective and efficient use of money;
  • Social, religious and traditional leaders need to see how the aim of providing safe water and sanitation fits with their own welfare aims for communities;
  • The mass media needs to be shown that this is an exciting and relevant story which should be near the forefront of its coverage;
  • Other sectors, including health, environment and agriculture, need to be convinced of the need to collaborate;
  • Communities need to be convinced that they can have confidence in the sector.

The sector needs a plan to mobilise groups and individuals. Sector people need to know:

Who is going to be approached?

How will they be approached?

What will they be asked to do?

How long will their support be needed?

Each target group needs its own plan. Making partnerships with communities needs long term commitment and repeated approaches, while there may be only one opportunity to convince a political leader to give the sector the same profile as health or education. Examples of necessary approaches are:

  • Convincing political leaders to establish a national task force, or to widen the brief of an existing body;
  • Seminars for senior civil servants to discuss legislative or administrative change, and field visits to show the reality behind the discussions;
  • Discussions with religious leaders to show how the aims of the sector fits with their religious teachings;
  • Briefings and field visits for journalists to help them gather accurate and persuasive information;
  • Community surveys to discover what people know and believe about the water supplies they use;
  • Approaches to other sectors who are trying to mobilise sectors of society in related fields to ensure that messages support each other.

These approaches require the development of high quality communication training, as outlined on the next page. Successful communication also includes feeding back results so that each success strengthens and confirms the message that the sector has been giving.

Building the Capacity of the Sector and its Allies

People who work in the water and sanitation sector are proud of their existing skills, but are often unsure how they can put this new communication approach into practice. They are used to practical methods of working, and want to know how this new method is applied. They need skills, for example, to help them:

  • Approach and convince political leaders;
  • Listen to women and men at community level;
  • Approach the health or planning sector, to bridge any gap between them that could be damaging work.

These skills can be acquired in the same way as the existing skills of the sector - through training and practice. A comprehensive training programme should be drawn up for sector staff and the partners who are being mobilised to work with them.

The first step is to identify who needs to be trained, and what new skills they will need. The sector must also identify who is available to provide the training. Most universities and national training centres have communication departments, and other sectors may have experience in communication training. However, it is important that the training is practical, interesting and relevant to the sector.

If the purpose of training is to help staff to develop skills for a participatory approach to communities, the best way to achieve this is to make the training itself interactive and participatory. Guidelines on how to set up and conduct such training exists and is available to people in the sector.

The sector needs to offer quality high quality training to its own people in communication, and also needs to build the capacity of its new allies. The communication activities on the previous page will be improved where the training on sector issues is offered to civil servants, religious leaders, journalists, community leaders and others. Real partnerships can of course only be fully developed in the real world, but they can be prepared and practised at seminars and courses.

Capacity building should follow the same path as the mobilising strategy drawn up by the sector. Political leaders may not need or want lengthy seminars, but will probably value tailor-made briefings which will arm them with the knowledge they need to convince their colleagues.

New knowledge and approaches need reinforcing. Training needs to be followed up so that those who are implementing new skills can discuss and overcome problems.

The immediate nature and sheer scale of the task facing the sector means that there is pressure to 'get on with it' so that communication and mobilisation can be speeded up. However, the scope and quality of training will determine the improvement in the capacity of the sector.

Preparing communication courses and materials, and providing the resources for developing skills is an essential pre-requisite for success.

Connecting with the Community

Many communities have learned how to survive in difficult circumstances, and the water and sanitation sector should respect the knowledge and beliefs that have allowed them to do so. When outsiders comes to the community with plans and agenda for change, they must first be prepared to listen and learn.

  • What is it that people already know, do and believe?
  • What is that they want?
  • Who are the main users of water and the main decision makers about sanitation?
  • Who are the key people within a community who influence its actions?

This involves an approach that is acceptable to both men and women. In many communities the men play a leadership role in discussions with outside people and in decision taking. However, in most parts of the world it is the women who fetch, carry and use the water, and who teach the children where to drink, where to go to the toilet and how to wash. Community participation is very much more effective when it involves key people from both groups in taking decisions.

This process takes time but pays dividends. Communities need to trust those making an approach before they will be willing to share the whole of their thinking. It may be that a previous initiative from the sector, or from a sector that is seen by the community as being similar, failed, and that this has made the community distrustful. This trust will take time to regain. Communication is essential to those who are trying to build cost recovery into a programme, or who are developing hygiene education messages. In these two areas there have been many false starts. Only a sector which understands what a community knows, believes and practices can hope to succeed.

Where costs recovery has become a priority, it is for the community to make a realistic estimate of what it can afford to sustain. It is for the sector to offer options for solutions, including real choices at different costs. If behaviour change is the objective, then the target audience needs to be defined and understood, and the message needs to be precisely drawn.

Materials, whether posters or leaflets, must be carefully prepared and tested before being introduced. Mass or traditional media can be enlisted to support a new approach or to help change community thinking, but first it is important to be clear about which media are popular within a community and which have influence with those people whose behaviour has been targeted. In most cases a TV drama or a traditional play will succeed in delivering a message more effectively than a leaflet from a sanitation official. Detailed guidelines are available on preparing messages for use in a community. Monitoring the success of work within a community is also important and has a double benefit. It protects against failure, by allowing the community and the sector to correct programmes that are going wrong. It also reinforces success, by providing materials that can be fed back to those who are supporting a community effort.

Convincing the Sector and Convincing the World

A key objective for the rest of the 90s is to change the way that the water and sanitation sector is perceived nationally and internationally, to secure its proper share of resources and attention. To achieve this, the sector has to change its image from an industry mainly concerned with hardware, to a movement concerned with people and their health, children and their growth, women and their welfare, families and their enrichment. The sector must show that its main concern is meeting human need and solving human problems.

This was one of the lessons which flowed from the successes and weaknesses of the Water and Sanitation Decade, and which must now become part of the knowledge of the whole sector. Sector people must show that community orientation has reached every part of their work, so that they become leading advocates for its promotion. In this way they take responsibility for convincing policy makers of the importance of the sector to their plans, and for convincing communities of the need to share the responsibility for water and sanitation decisions.

Of themselves, pumps, pipes, boreholes, and latrines have a limited appeal outside the sector. However, health and the eradication of disease are of universal interest, and the water and sanitation sector is involved as deeply as the health sector in achieving these aims. When people learn that a community has removed a health risk, or that women no longer have to walk ten kilometres to fill their water buckets, or that an urban community has begun to agitate to remove the smell and filth of inadequate sewers, then they understand more clearly the human dimension of the sector's work.

As this approach becomes part of the everyday knowledge of sector people and influences their day to day work, then they can become advocates for the sector in the outside world. If the sector is to arm its people to do this work it must monitor its work closely.

A Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council joint report* with the World Health Organisation and UNICEF concluded: Due to inadequate advocacy and promotion of the sector in the past, the unserved population continues to grow. Therefore to reach 'universal access' advocacy will have to be aggressively pursued to attract a larger share of national and external resources to the sector in future. Effective sector monitoring can play a vital role in advocacy by providing updated relevant information.

When it is seen by politicians and civil servants, and by those who hold the purse strings for development, that the sector is reaching out to the community, and to other related sectors such as health and environment, then the prospects for water and sanitation will be transformed.

This will lead, for the first time, to the possibility of bringing safe water and sanitation within the reach of every family on the planet.

* Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Monitoring Report 1990. Produced Nov 92 by the WHO, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, and UNICEF.