In January 2025 Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (‘Esmée’) commissioned Resources for Change to carry out a short review to inform its Freshwater work. Rachael worked with Kath Daly and Neil Smith to complete this contract.

Esmée published its Strategic Plan in 2020. The purpose of this commission was to look at how Esmée was working in the freshwater space, what had changed in the context since the publication of the Strategic Plan, and progress with objectives over the last five years. The review was also an opportunity to seek feedback from stakeholders on the opportunities for Esmée to add value to the freshwater sector.

The review was primarily undertaken through a series of structured conversations including a scoping discussion with the Esmée team, semi-structured interviews with team members, grantees and other stakeholders and a validation workshop where findings were shared with team members. This deliberative process was underpinned by extensive desk research into the wider context, and an analysis of information supplied by Esmée on supported projects.

The review looked at changes in drivers, blockers, external context for Esmée’s freshwater goals and the impact of Esmée’s work under 4 themes:

• Policy, law and regulation
• Environmental data
• Funding and finance
• Public engagement and activism

The review also reviewed current data on the state of freshwater across the UK.

The executive summary and the full report, together with Esmee's response can be viewed on their website