The second regional workshop in Asia took place from 23 to 27 of November 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The workshop has been very successful in terms of further strengthening the mutual cooperation and collaboration among the regional projects. The process and methodologies used in conducting the workshop, solely aimed at recognizing and inspiring Consortium partners to share their best practices and lessons learnt with each other. In Consortium projects, cross-learning of best practices and innovations stand at the heart and all projects enthusiastically participated and shared those in respective sessions.

The workshop was also very successful in clarifying various issues and challenges that projects were facing, such as; measuring water quality at point of use, monitoring hand washing at households, school latrine standards and WASH service sustainability, etc. The technical sessions provided common solutions and understanding on the mentioned issues. It was agreed that field-based staff responsible for project implementation will be trained to adhere to the agreed methods and procedures. Additionally, joint action plans were developed for the year 2016 at intra- and inter-country levels.

The second regional workshop in Francophone Africa was held from 12 to 15 October 2015 in Sokode, Togo. It was an opportunity for all projects of the group to come together to share experiences, learn from each other and improve the quality of their interventions. Through presentations, movies, group work and a field visit, 26 participants from 6 different countries (Mali, Niger, Togo, Benin, Madagascar, Switzerland) have shared their experiences and knowledge.

The overall objective of the meeting was to promote knowledge sharing. The specific objectives were to:

• Share best practices and lessons learned in order to improve the implementation of projects and scale up successful approaches.
• Address specific topics, technical issues and challenges faced by projects and find appropriate solutions.
• Plan joint activities (training courses, workshops, publications, etc.) including advocacy and the development of political dialogue.
• Present, discuss and improve the expertise on the Consortium procedures and tools.

The "Poster Session" allowed each project to present the approaches, results, lessons learned and good practices. Experiences with innovative approaches and technologies such as the ecological garden, the involvement of private investors in the management of water networks, sanitation marketing and the adaptation of pastoral wells were shared.

During the activity "Advice Market / World Café", the project teams addressed problems like "How to maintain a village open defecation free (ODF)?" or "How to sustain the "Wata" equipment functional and how to promote the use of chlorine?". Among others, the establishments of water committees and trainings for motivated technicians were discussed.

The field visit allowed the participants to get to know the work done by the Red Cross and on the last day, the participants reflected on the future collaboration between the project teams. Exchange visits were planed and a road map for the next year was developed.

The Regional Workshop for Eastern and Southern Africa was held from 21-24 September 2015 in Pemba, Mozambique and brought together Consortium partners from Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Sudan. The main objectives of the workshop were to:

1. Share good practices and lessons learnt in order to improve project practices and scale up successful approaches;
2. Address (common) specific topics, technical questions and project challenges and find solutions (e.g. water quality testing, financial sustainability of water schemes, hygiene promotion);
3. Plan joint activities (e.g. trainings, workshops, and publications) including advocacy and policy development;
4. Present, discuss and enhance know-how about the Consortium procedures and tools (i.e. planning, implementation, monitoring & reporting and evaluation).

The workshop was a mix of interactive activities and presentations by the facilitators and participants, which resulted in active participation and lively discussions between the 21 participants. During a World Café session each project team was asked to identify the three main technical and/or knowledge gabs in their respective project. They then "received" visits from two different "consultancy teams" (other project teams), who would give advice on the questions asked. In an other session, success factors and bottlenecks to good and efficient hygiene promotion were discussed. Recommendations, such as to guarantee continued training/follow-up and to involve teachers and local leaders/government from the start were mentioned and discussed.

Water quality testing was another specific topic addressed during the workshop. One of the key findings on two presented case studies from Ethiopia was, that even though safe water was provided at the source, the water quality testing showed high levels of contamination of the water at point of use. This session not only had the objective of discussing why water quality testing at household level/at the point of use should be done, but also how it could be done.  The main testing methods were explained and also demonstrated, and the workshop participants tested water samples by themselves.

During a field visit day, the hole group visited the HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation ORATTA project in Metoro and met relevant stakeholders of the small town water system and sanitation and hygiene promotion activities. They visited latrines, talked with the community about the use of their latrines and asked questions regarding financial sustainability to the private operator, who runs the water system.