After two and a half years at WaterAid and one and a half years as End Water Poverty global coordinator, Alana Potter will be stepping down from her role at the end of August to pursue an exciting new opportunity with Human Rights Watch supporting their research and advocacy on human rights and human rights violations.
Outgoing EWP global coordinator Alana Potter speaking at the All Systems Connect symposium (May 2023).
Under Alana’s visionary stewardship, End Water Poverty has evolved as a global coalition and strengthened and deepened the relationships of solidarity, collaboration, and support between our members, partners, and allies around the world. Alana has been a  passionate champion of the community-led, contextually sensitive advocacy strategies that our members employ in their struggle to challenge human rights abuses and hold state and private institutions accountable. She has shown courage in disrupting inequitable systems of power and kept social justice at the centre of the coalition’s strategy.
Alana has expanded our understanding of water rights claiming strategies and how they relate to civic space by bringing in new thinking on the repression of civic space and human rights defender protections. She led global advocacy to put water rights-holders in front, and to decolonise aid by directing resources to grassroots groups who are best placed to decide their own strategies and tactics. She designed and led the #HearingTheUnheardHRWS campaign, together with multiple allies and partners, which shares first person testimony from marginalised groups globally, highlighting their agency and voices, and confronting the stigma and discrimination that keeps them marginalised.
While we seek a new coordinator, WaterAid’s Campaigns Director Claire Seaward will act as End Water Poverty’s interim global coordinator when Alana leaves.
End Water Poverty’s Steering Committee Chairperson Ojobo Ode Atuku said: “On behalf of End Water Poverty’s Steering Committee, I wish to thank Alana for her excellent work and enormous contribution to water justice. We wish her everything of the best in her new role. I would also like to assure our members, partners and allies that we remain committed to amplifying the voices and demands of civil society and communities; connecting human rights advocates globally; facilitating the exchange of experience to strengthen strategies and solidarity; and supporting our members to advocate for the rights to water, sanitation and a healthy environment to be legally recognised and practically implemented.”
Keep on eye out for our next call for mini-grants to members to support diverse, context-specific actions through the #ClaimYourWaterRights campaign, which will be announced in September this year.