Alana Potter

Alana is the Head of Research and Advocacy at the Equality Collective, a community-based law clinic in the Eastern Cape. Alana’s first 10 years in the water sector were at the Mvula Trust where she provided policy and strategic support to provincial offices and to national government to advance local government-led rural water and sanitation in the newly democratic South Africa. Over the next 10 years, she led IRC’s Africa Regional programme, working with public, private and civil society actors in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to strengthen water, sanitation and governance and accountability systems. As Director of Research and Advocacy at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), she led a research and advocacy team that undertook legal, policy and social research and advocacy to amplify the socio-economic rights realisation agendas of marginalised people and groups. At End Water Poverty, hosted by WaterAid, she led a global civil society coalition of more than 150 civil society organisations in 80 countries that employed a range of intersecting strategies to realise their rights to safe water and sanitation and a safe environment. Until May 2024 year, she led research training at Human Rights Watch, equipping researchers to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for violations of humanitarian and international law.

Alana’s advisory experience includes serving on the AMCOW International Task Force; the UN Water Expert Group; the Africa Water Justice Network’s interim steering committee; the Water Integrity Network’s Supervisory Board; Accountability for Water’s global advisory group; Sanitation and Water for All’s grants committee; the steering committee for the Public Interest Law Gathering (2017-2020); the ICESCR CSO Coalition, and others.