WaterAid
Building Global Representation Integrity Through Inclusion-led Communications
We equitably co-created a communications policy and toolkit to create a clear and consistent approach to portraying the communities WaterAid works with in a dignified and respectful way.
The Challenge
As a global organisation working across diverse geographies and communities, WaterAid’s communications carry significant responsibility. Language and imagery tell stories and shape power, perception, and trust.
The global marketing and communications team wanted to ensure their approach to representation was dignified, equitable, and consistent worldwide, without imposing a centralised worldview that erased local nuance. The challenge was to create clarity that travelled - while still respecting cultural context.
Our Role
We partnered with WaterAid to embed Inclusion-led Relevance into global communications, helping the organisation move from good intent to shared confidence in how communities are portrayed.
Rather than creating policy in isolation, our role was to design a co-creation process with markets, ensuring the outcome reflected lived realities and could be adopted with credibility across regions.
What We Delivered
Following an Unpack → Untangle → Unlock approach:
Process and practice assessment
We worked with local teams and content creators to review existing communications processes—identifying where representation risk, inconsistency, or outdated assumptions were showing up.Equitable co-creation workshops
Six stakeholder workshops brought together global and local perspectives, surfacing tensions, trade-offs, and opportunities around representation, power, and storytelling.Representation in Communications Policy
A market-leading global policy was co-created—setting clear principles and practical guidance for language, imagery, and narrative framing. Crucially, it was built with markets, not imposed on them.Global capability rollout
Training webinars were delivered to over 100 colleagues worldwide, building shared understanding and confidence in how to apply the policy in real-world communications.
The Impact
Stronger organisational confidence in how communities are represented globally
Greater consistency across markets without flattening local nuance
Reduced risk of harmful or extractive storytelling
A more considered, equitable approach to marketing and communications embedded into everyday practice
Representation shifted from a subjective judgement to a shared, principled standard - protecting both communities and organisational credibility.
What Makes this Case Relevant?
This work demonstrates how Inclusion-led Relevance can operate across borders—helping global organisations balance consistency with cultural integrity.
It shows that when representation is treated as a strategic capability rather than a compliance exercise, organisations can tell more honest stories, build deeper trust, and act with confidence in complex cultural contexts.