Your portal to support your work on the human rights to water and sanitation with local government

Making Rights Real

Making Rights Real (MRR) is an approach that enables civil society organisations to engage local government officials on systemic challenges to the realisation of water and sanitation services for all, using human rights.

The Making Rights Real approach consists of:

A 3-piece set of materials for use by civil society organisations with local government officials to engage in a conversation on how to overcome systemic challenges to the realisation of services for all.

A suggested process to support civil society organisations in structuring the engagement with local government officials.

The Challenge

Services for everyone are only possible if we focus on addressing the inequalities that remain in water and sanitation services.

Local government is one of the most important levels of government for realising the human rights to water and sanitation, but officials often face many challenges.

Human rights remain an abstract concept in WASH sector practice that is difficult to integrate into work on the ground.

The Solution

With the Making Rights Real approach, civil society organisations can motivate local government officials to address inequalities, using human rights.

The Making Rights Real approach helps civil society organisations to engage with local government officials to identify solutions to the systemic challenges they face, using human rights.

The Making Rights Real approach gives organisations a pragmatic way of integrating human rights into their WASH programmes.

Experiences with Making Rights Real

Six months after starting to use Making Rights Real, we have increased local government officials’ understanding of the practical uses of human rights, leading to improved water quality, better access to WASH in schools and for people with disabilities.

Subsidies for the 'hardcore poor' are available in the local government system, but this is not properly utilised due to lack of planning, awareness and target setting. Therefore, an inclusive appraoch to water and sanitation services is more challenging. The Making Rights Real approach can inspire local government officials to start acting on inclusion, utilising their own budget.

Without being experts on human rights, the Making Rights Real approach makes all stakeholders put in a conscious effort to ensure the right to sanitation for all.

Making Rights Real makes the human rights to water and sanitation useable for WASH practitioners

The Making Rights Real approach can be used by anyone who works with local government on improving water and sanitation services.

The approach has been developed together by experts on human rights, WASH and communication with the aim of making human rights useable in practice almost anywhere. Making Rights Real translates human rights concepts in such a way that they become relevant in local government processes that are common in many countries. This enables WASH practitioners who work with local government to apply Making Rights Real to their local context.

Making Rights Real can be used following the six simple steps of the suggested process, or practitioners can adapt the way they use it to suit their specific programme.

You have questions?

Contact Hannah, MRR Lead for support on how to use Making Rights Real

Contact Hannah

About Making Rights Real

With Making Rights Real, we aim to support civil society organisations to engage local government officials on systemic challenges to the realisation of water and sanitation services for all, using human rights.

Making Rights Real was developed by a consortium of organisations based on the conviction that without local government, services for all will not be possible, and that human rights can empower local government officials to solve many systemic challenges they face themselves.

Together, we support organisations in working with Making Rights Real and work to continually improve the approach on the basis of experiences with implementation.

The human rights to water and sanitation

All countries agree that water and sanitation are human rights. But where do these rights come from? And how are they defined?

The human rights to water and sanitation have been recognised by all countries of the world and they are often mentioned at the United Nations, in high level political documents, constitutions or other legal sources.

This information is often very abstract and hard to understand for WASH practitioners. We have collected the most important information on the human rights to water and sanitation and have recommended resources if you want to go into more detail.

Your portal to support your work on the human rights to water and sanitation with local government

Making Rights Real

The Challenge

The Solution

Experiences with Making Rights Real

Making Rights Real makes the human rights to water and sanitation useable for WASH practitioners

You have questions?

About Making Rights Real

The human rights to water and sanitation

The MRR approach

Contact

© All rights reserved

Made with in Hamburg

STOCKHOLM WWW SESSION

"Mobilising national and
local government for the human rights to WASH"

Your portal to support your work on the human rights to water and sanitation with local government

Making Rights Real

The Challenge

The Solution

Experiences with Making Rights Real

Making Rights Real makes the human rights to water and sanitation useable for WASH practitioners

You have questions?

About Making Rights Real

The human rights to water and sanitation

The MRR approach

Contact

© All rights reserved

Made with <img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="❤" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/svg/2764.svg"> in Hamburg

STOCKHOLM WWW SESSION

"Mobilising national and local government for the human rights to WASH"

Made with in Hamburg

"Mobilising national and
local government for the human rights to WASH"