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Support robust Humanitarian WASH advocacy

Having no direct authority on the WASH partners and more generally on the response actors, advocacy is the main tool of the WASH Sector Coordinator when it comes to addressing issues identified through the monitoring and gap analysis.

Set up an advocacy strategy

It is important for the The WASH coordination platform to define must elaborate an advocacy strategy endorsed by the SAG, in which priority advocacy themes are defined, based on local context and WASH strategic objectiveobjectives. It is important to avoid partners to feel that advocacy is the mere responsibility of the WASH Coordination Platform. Partners can also foster a sense of collective responsibility with partners for advocacy. Once the advocacy strategy and messages have been agreed, partners can play an important role , and undertake advocacy action themselves in relaying advocacy messages at country, regional or global level, provided that they are agreed by other partner and the coordination platform. The advocacy strategy can be a separate chapter in the WASH Cluster Strategic Operational Framework.

Undertake operational advocacy actions 

Once operational gaps have been analysed and identified (slow response, lack of access etc.) the , they must be addressed. The WASH coordination platform is in general usually not in a position to directly address them, having no operational capacity, few staff or budget available. However, it It should rather inform adequate decision making persons of the identified issues through operational advocacy actions (raise issues in cluster meeting, one-to-one meeting with partners, email communication, etc.), and follow up on their resolution. Having no direct authority on the partners, advocacy is the main tool of the WASH sector coordinator when it comes to address issues reported during monitoring. If advocacy at sub-national level is not sufficientsuccessful, WASH sector coordinator can also contact engage with partner's capital office, HQ, or donors.

Apart from partners, WASH WASH sector coordinator can should also seek to build strong partnership with WASH-relevant ministries and other public institution, and with donors, and to be in a position to address advocacy action actions directly to them when neededrelevant. 

Identify concerns, and contribute to high level messaging and actions

Apart from operational concerns that can often be solved in the field, other issues will require to be brought at higher level, mostly to the HC/HCT, or to the Global WASH Cluster. These issues can be related to non respect of humanitarian principles, or important quality shortfall that can lead to reputational risk or representing a risk for human life.  

Many issues in the response are Some response issues can be caused by factors external to WASH partners: low availability of skilled national personnel or locally available quality material, security issues preventing field access or monitoring, non-respect of humanitarian principles by some actors etc. While WASH partners can overcome some of them by adapting their implementation strategies, many others can be solved only by high level actors such as OCHA's Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) and the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), who are in direct contact with higher high level of governmental officials, military authorities, UN peacekeepers and donors. Usually WCC is The WASH sector coordinator is usually not in direct contact with the HC and the HCT, but can report pressing issues to the inter-cluster coordinator and/or the UNICEF country representative, who can group concerns from various clusters and address forward them to higher level. The global Global WASH cluster Cluster is also a platform where important issues can be reported by both WASH sector coordinators and partners, and discussed and address by partners' HQ WASH managers Advisors.