The BRAC WASH programme in Bangladesh has produced a new handwashing promotion video. It shows slides of handwashing promotion sessions for different groups (children, adolescent girls, women, men), as well as for schools, village WASH committees and mosques (imams).
The video was released on 5 May to coincide with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual global campaign to promote better hand hygiene in health care.
Posted in Campaigns and Events, Hygiene Promotion, South Asia
Tagged Bangladesh, BRAC, BRAC WASH II programme, handwashing, videos
Everywhere in the world, even the poorest families try to beautify their houses. Then why are low-cost latrines often so ugly, ask IRC’s Christine Sijbesma and Erick Baetings.
Outside gay paints, inside
grey slab in Bangladesh
Christine: Ever since I have been working in the lower cost end of toilet designs I have wondered why most of them are so ugly. I have worked in rural sanitation in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and in urban sanitation in South East Asia since the 1970s. Everywhere I have seen how the poorest families also strive to beautify their living environment. In East Africa families paint decorative bands on huts and rake their yards, in India women make beautiful patterns in the sand in front of their katcha houses with coloured powder, and in Indonesian city kampung families tile their front stoops in gay colours and keep potted plants in tins.
Posted in East Asia & Pacific, Sanitary Facilities, South Asia
Tagged BRAC WASH II programme, latrines, SHAW programme
In a new video, Mayadevi and Kaman (Nepal), Toan and Thinh (VietNam) and Tshering, Drukda, Tashi and Deschen (Bhutan) share stories about women’s participation, leadership and their changing roles in promoting sanitation and hygiene in Nepal, Bhutan and Viet Nam.
The video is from SNV’s Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All Programme (SSH4A), which has been implemented by local governments and partners in 17 districts across Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia since 2008. It aims to provide one million people with access to improved hygiene and sanitation facilities by the end of 2015. As the approach aims at addressing access to sanitation for all, addressing gender issues and inequalities is key.
SSH4A is a partnership between SNV, the Governments of the Netherlands, Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia in Asia and the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre with support from AusAID and DFID.
Learn more about SSH4A at www.snvworld.org/node/3779 and www.irc.nl/ssh4a
In Bangladesh, IRC is supporting BRAC to measure behavioural change in the BRAC WASH II programme. Christine Sijbesma of IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and Mahjabeen Ahmed of the BRAC share their thoughts and experiences with monitoring sanitation and hygiene behaviour of women in the programme in a recent blog post [1].
The QIS monitoring system that is being used gives special attention to gender and sanitation. First because many of the indicators differentiate between women and men. Secondly because data collection for each sample is duplicated by a male and a female monitoring team. Interestingly, preliminary results show that virtually all the male and female monitoring teams members gave the same scores for the gender indicators.
[1] Bangladeshi women catch up on sanitation, IRC, 08 March 2013
“What is good about the monitoring system that we are using is that it is participatory so that respondents also get knowledge”, says Senior Sector Specialist Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Mahjabeen Ahmed of the BRAC WASH II Programme. Ms Ahmed is one of the 5,000 programme workers who are supporting BRAC WASH II in Bangladesh. From 11 to 15 March 2013 she was in The Hague, The Netherlands, for a programme workshop.
Babar Kabir is the Senior Director at BRAC and programme director of the BRAC WASH programme. He talks to IRC's Joep Verhagen about this huge programme, the importance of the Village WASH Committee, and emerging sanitation innovations.
Could you briefly describe the BRAC WASH programme?
BRAC WASH II aims for a sustained change —a measurable leap – in personal/family hygiene, sanitation and water safety for all.
Posted in Hygiene Promotion, Sanitary Facilities, South Asia
Tagged Babar Kabir, BRAC, BRAC WASH II programme
Over the last few weeks and months, people at BRAC in Bangladesh and at IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in The Netherlands have been working really, really hard to prepare for our first Monitoring and Learning workshop that will happen at the end of February. Exciting, and frankly, a bit daunting to complete the full circle of planning, implementation, monitoring and learning, and adaptation for the BRAC WASH programme that covers half of Bangladesh and seeks to provide sustainable sanitation and hygiene services to almost 55 million people.
Consultant-led sanitation marketing surveys typically take months to produce a thick report with largely impractical recommendations.
The IRC International Water and Sanitation is developing a field tool that delivers, within just one week, a one-page overview matching sanitation supply and demand.
The tool, a sanitation marketing dashboard, was tested in two unions in one of the upazilas (sub-districts) covered by the BRAC WASH II programme.
Preliminary results revealed for instance that the quality of construction and hygiene promotion needed improvement.
An updated version of the tool will be used in six to nine representative upazilas in the BRAC WASH II programme.
For more information contact: Erick Baetings or Ingeborg Krukkert at IRC.
IRC-BRAC WASH II
Sanitation Demand and Supply Study
Source: Erick Baetings, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre
IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre announces a renewed research call for:
Low-cost sanitation technologies for areas with high water tables
This call is part of the BRAC WASH II programme in which EUR 1.5 million will be used for innovative research, tendered to consortia of leading European and Bangladeshi research organisations.
The planned duration of the research project will be 18 months.
The anticipated cost of the project is EUR 325,000. In addition there is EUR 50,000 available for piloting. (Separate budget needs to be included for this).
Download the BRAC Call Applicants Guide
Download the Application form
Application forms should be sent to bracactionresearch@irc.nl
The deadline for submission of full proposal application forms is: 18 February 2013.
Future research calls will focus on low-cost water supply technologies; Geo-referenced database for monitoring; menstrual hygiene management; and saline intrusion.
Please do not send requests for information or applications to the Sanitation Updates blog.
IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre announces a renewed research call for:
Faecal sludge secondary treatment technologies for challenging settings
This call is part of the BRAC WASH II programme in which EUR 1.5 million will be used for innovative research, tendered to consortia of leading European and Bangladeshi research organisations.
The planned duration of the faecal sludge research project will be 18 months.
The anticipated cost of the project is EUR 325,000. In addition there is EUR 50,000 available for piloting. (Separate budget needs to be included for this).
To download the guidelines and application form go to: www.irc.nl/page/73136
The deadline for submission of full proposal application forms is: 11 January 2013.
Future research calls will focus on low-cost water supply technologies; Geo-referenced database for monitoring; menstrual hygiene management; and saline intrusion.
Please do not send requests for information or applications to the Sanitation Updates blog.
IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is happy to announce two research calls in the field of sanitation:
These calls are part of the BRAC WASH II programme in which EUR 1.5 million will be used for innovative research, tendered to consortia of leading European and Bangladeshi research organisations. The other action research calls will focus on low-cost water supply technologies; Geo-referenced database for monitoring; menstrual hygiene management; and saline intrusion.
1. Guidelines for research call on low-cost sanitation technologies for areas with high groundwater tables
2. Guidelines for secondary treatment options for faecal sludge
Extended deadline for submission of full proposal application forms: 31 August 2012
Please do not send requests for information or applications to the Sanitation Updates blog.
SuSanA Duncan Mara’s Sanitation Blog SuSanA Forum
