Summary: Following the successful partnership with WaterAid on their EU Advocacy Strategy, Q3 Strategy were further commissioned to support WaterAid with their internal strategic planning process. The Q3 Strategy team supported WaterAid to develop cross-departmental 1-year work plans outlining activities, outputs and outcomes that would enable WaterAid to take the first steps towards achieving their 3-year milestones and 10-year strategic aims. This required developing 4 coordinated workplans, one for each of WaterAid’s 10-year aims on (1) Universal Access, (2) Health, (3) Climate Resilience, and (4) Finance. Additionally, Q3 Strategy was commissioned to further support WaterAid’s advocacy work in Germany by providing strategic council on rapidly tailoring UK advocacy documents and press releases for the German government. 

Approach: The Q3 team worked closely with senior members of the GPAC team to provide strategic support in developing team-specific strategic milestones and outcomes that would support the overarching, organization-wide global aims. Then, the Q3 team met with members across the GPAC team to compile a comprehensive and detailed outline of the activities individual team members would undertake in the coming years. Utilizing this information, the Q3 team, working through an iterative process with the WaterAid team, developed four strategic workplans aligning with the four global aims and positioning all activities to support the relevant strategic milestones and outcomes, ensuring a streamlined and logical approach to the team’s work for the coming year. Alongside this planning process, additional support was provided to the Germany representative to adapt UK advocacy documents and asks for a German audience. This support included responding rapidly to new situations and changing priorities.

Outcomes: The Q3 team was able to provide high-level oversight across four separate planning documents so that a consistent and efficient approach to planning ensured that activities were not duplicated but linkages and cross-cutting elements were acknowledged. This allowed the WaterAid team to be able to plan and prioritise activities based on anticipated capacity and resources. The additional support to the Germany representative also ensured synergies between the advocacy asks and messaging of the UK and wider international affairs team, and the Germany team.