Sanitation Learning Hub launched

Following the start of a new four-year programme funded by Sida, the Institute of  Development Studies (IDS) launched the Sanitation Learning Hub website on 22 June 2020.

The website is divided into into three main sections:

Practical Support 

This section presents recommended approaches and practical tools to help sanitation and hygiene practitioners do their job well. It reflects our commitment to adaptable, ‘combinable’ and context-specific learning and sanitation approaches. Each approach page has an introduction recommended resources.

Current Thinking

Resources are divided by nine essential themes in this section. Each theme has an introduction, recommended resources, and sub-themes that get into more detail.

• Behaviour change
• Climate change
• Challenging contexts
• Gender
• Health
• Hygiene
• Leave No One Behind
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning
• Sustainability and safely-managed sanitation

Connect, Share, Learn

The desire to bring together sanitation and hygiene professionals is reflected here. You can find blogs, news, events in the sector and more information about workshops, including stories from participants of past workshops. You can also submit a blog in this section.

Watch this video introduction to the new website.

The latest updates to USAID’s Globalwaters.org & Global Waters on Medium

Below are some of the latest updates to USAID’s Globalwaters.org website and Global Waters on Medium

Blog Posts 

• Water @ Wilson: 50 Years of Water, Conflict, and Cooperation – December 19, 2018
• Realizing the Scoop on Poop in Ethiopia’s Lowland Regions – December 14, 2018
• Examining USAID Efforts to Strengthen India’s Urban Water and Sanitation Sector Governance and Finance – December 5, 2018

Global Waters on Medium

• Global Waters Stories – November 2018 (Happy World Toilet Day!) – November 19, 2018.
• From Satellite to Village, Turning Data into Action – November 15, 2018
• “The River Belongs to the People” – Sustainable Water Partnership Team Leader Gordon Mumbo brings a lifetime of experience to the Mara River Basin – November 13, 2018
• Keeping the Water Flowing: One village in Nepal is working to implement a shared vision of the future – November 8, 2018

Resources

• USAID WASH in the News
• India Fire-D Project Ex-Post Evaluation – 2018
• SWS Network Analysis and Systems Assessment For Sustainability in the Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Sector in Cambodia – 2018
• Finding New Solutions to Strengthen Local Systems and Improve WASH Service Delivery and Sustainability – 2018

Water Currents

• Water Currents: Water Utilities – December 2018
• Water Currents: World Toilet Day 2018 – November 2018

 

Public Finance for WASH: update

Public Finance for WASH has moved: we’ve changed our URL! We’re now at https://www.publicfinanceforwash.org/

Public finance and domestic resource mobilisation are absolutely critical for reaching SDG 6. At Public Finance for WASH, a partnership initiative between IRC and WSUP, we remain focused on documenting equitable public finance models in the WASH sphere, aiming to provide a knowledge resource that can help the sector to identify transferable solutions. From the WSUP side, this is being supported by various research projects relating to public finance, under our Urban Sanitation Research Initiative: for example, check out our recent Policy Brief reporting a study of the willingness of Kenyan water utility customers to pay a little bit extra on their water bill to support slum sanitation. From the IRC side, we continue working to document, train and advocate at global and country level, to ensure that more money is disbursed for direct support and the enabling environment, while at the same time aiming for more efficiency in public administration and performance measurement in the WASH public sector.

If you want to work with us in any way, get in touch: pf4wash[at] gmail [dot] com!

Launch of the USAID Global Waters website

Introducing Globalwaters.org , a global knowledge resource for partners, USAID staff, and the broader community working in the international development water sector.

Supported by the USAID Water Office, this site aims to connect people to the right resources and ideas to help solve global water and sanitation challenges, as USAID and its partners work toward a healthier and more secure future for all. 

Please check out the site and read our companion article that provides an overview of the website’s features.

We welcome your feedback .

We are always looking for new material to post on Globalwaters.org and would be happy to promote your water-related content, including events, blogs, reports, toolkits, and webinars. Feel free to reach out and suggest new material .

IRC WASH Toolkit

IRC has compiled a growing repository of tools and guidance for strengthening water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) service delivery.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of universal access to WASH by 2030 requires a systems approach, This means tackling all dimensions such as monitoring systems to see whether services are delivered; financing frameworks that define who pays for what and how; and procurement mechanisms for infrastructure development.

The toolkit is organised around the two related goals of delivering services and delivering change.

The toolkit covers both water supply and sanitation. Sanitation and hygiene-specific tools have been grouped under the sanitation and behaviour change blocks.

Included are best practices, case studies and approaches developed and tested in IRC’s work with governments, NGOs and other partners in over 20 countries.

The tools come from big, multi-country initiatives, such as WASHCost, Triple-S and WASHTech, as well as more focused pieces of work, such as our partnership with the government of Ethiopia to develop guidelines for self-supply.

We are in the early stages of development, so for now the toolkit is a beta product. We encourage you to use and build on our work. We do, however, request you to acknowledge the source and share your experience with us. We also welcome your feedback as we continue to expand and refine the toolkit. Please send your comments, questions and experiences to info@ircwash.org.

The toolkit is available at: www.ircwash.org/wash-tools

 

The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) at the World Water Week 2016 in Stockholm

The World Water Week 2016 in Stockholm is lying ahead and the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) will be Co-Convener of several exciting events related to WASH and Sustainable Sanitation. Moreover, the 22^nd SuSanA Meeting (27^th of August) as well as several SuSanA Working Group Meetings will take place during the SWWW. Make sure to take a look at the official SWWW SuSanA Flyer (link below) to find out more about the event topics and their schedule.

Apart from the events themselves the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance will be hosting an official SuSanA Booth (Booth No. 44) where you can have interesting conversations on the topic or simply read through some of the latest SuSanA publications.

For all people that are interested but not able to join the SWWW there will be a Live Stream of the SuSanA events as well as live Twitter updates using the hashtag #22susana

If you want to register for the SuSanA events at the SWWW you can find the registration link as well as more information here: http://www.susana.org/en/events/susana-meetings/2016/505-22nd-susana-meeting-stockholm

Lastly, if you have any questions or comments you can post them on the SuSanA Forum (after registration): http://forum.susana.org/forum/categories/232-susana-meetings/18372-22nd-susana-meeting-27-august-2016-and-susana-events-at-world-water-week-in-stockholm

SuSanA_Events_SWWW2016_Flyer

 

iDE Shares Lessons Learned in Building Markets for Sanitation

iDE is proud to announce a new microsite: sanitationmarkets.ideglobal.org. This site outlines the evolution of iDE’s sanitation program in Cambodia, from preliminary market studies to the largest program of its kind in the world.

We made this site because we hope that our experiences will inform the design, implementation, and cost-effectiveness of future sanitation marketing projects.

Here are a few featured posts on the site:

Are We Moving the Needle on Latrine Coverage? Sanitation coverage increased from 29% to 45%in the seven project provinces, a jump of 16% in just over just 2.5 years.

Latrine Sales Exceed “Excellent” Target The project surpassed the topline “excellent” target of latrines sold through project-connected businesses. Update in May 2016: 228,151 latrines have been sold through project-connected business, with average monthly sales at around 5,000.

Reaching the Poor with Sanitation Overall, there has been a doubling (12% increase) in sanitation coverage among the poor since the baseline in early 2012.

Professionalized Sales Drive Latrine Uptake Achieving the public health goal of rapid latrine uptake necessitated an active role by the project in managing latrine sales activities. Professionalization of sales is a crucial investment for sanitation market development efforts to ensure that the critical activity of selling is deliberate and based on industry best practices. With the support of Whitten & Roy Partnership, the project developed a sales training approach that included systematic sales training and sales management processes and a package of supporting tools, which were developed in collaboration with 17 Triggers.

Driving Latrine Affordability With Access to Finance In partnership with IDinsight, we learned that under certain conditions, financing has the potential to increase latrine uptake fourfold at a $50 market price and decrease operating costs by 70%.

To contact iDE about a potential partnership, send an email to: WASH@ideglobal.org

Community of Practice on Sanitation and Hygiene in Developing Countries

Linkedin Community of Practice on Sanitation and Hygiene in Developing Countries – 5,745 members

• Link

Welcome to the Community of Practice on Sanitation and Hygiene. The aim of the CoP is to reinforce the global community of those working in sanitation and hygiene and create a neutral platform to share and learn together.

The group is managed by a coordinator who currently sits within the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). The coordinator works with a global team of ‘stewards’ who are dedicated and well respected sector professionals. The Stewards are responsible for the strategic decisions for the CoP and each one brings different opportunities, networks and geographical representation to the table.

SuSanA webinar monthly webinar 1: “Opportunities & challenges of achieving WASH behaviour change”

Published on Apr 28, 2016

The webinar brought together speakers who presented their perspectives on how we can improve WASH behavior change. First, we learnt about how we can do a better job of leveraging the influence of community leaders to change some of the social and cultural norms that prevent uptake of healthy WASH behaviors. The role of both formal and informal leaders was explored, as well as how to extend this collaboration beyond CLTS to incorporate it more into other WASH approaches.

Three things that make SaniPath special

Three things that make SaniPath special | Source: SaniPath blog, April 21 2016 |

The SaniPath team has created an exposure assessment tool to be used in urban low-resource areas with poor sanitation. It stands out as a resource for its accessibility, easy to understand results, and potential to influence policy making. 

1. THE SANIPATH TOOL IS EASY TO USE AND UNDERSTAND
The tool was designed with the goal that it would be able to be used independently by a variety of organizations interested in improving sanitation. It comes with a detailed manual describing the steps of the data collection and the analyses process than can be understood by anyone with a basic scientific background. Minimum requirements for use of the tool include:

• A funding source (ex: local government or international organization)
• A lab with the ability to detect E. coli and technicians to carry out the procedures in a sterile environment
• A team with experience conducting surveys
• A local group to assist with data collection and distribution

Read the complete article.