News

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Thirty-two participants from 8 countries working in 13 different projects and 8 organizations met to exchange, discuss and learn from each other on the topic of Water Integrity and Blue Schools. For the Water Integrity sessions, two experts from the Multi-Country Water Integrity Program provided specific input and the projects presented their experiences.

It has been a rich, inspiring and fruitful learning for all. Let's put the learnings in practice in our projects and - hopefully - meet again next year!

Good Water Integrity Practices documented by the project teams are:

POSTER: La Cartographie: Un Outil de Bonne Gouvernance, de Proximité et d'Equité en WASH; Presented by Fastenopfer / Taratra Madagascar

POSTER: Le "Club des Mères" Assure la Qualité de l'Eau au Quotidien; Presented by Croix-Rouge Togolaise / Croix-Rouge Suisse

POSTER: Le Point Focal Eau et Assainissement; Presented by SWISSAID Niger

POSTER: Transparence et Participation pour Améliorer la Redevabilité du Service de l'Eau; Presented by Terre des hommes Guinée

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The End of Phase 2 Report higlights the main achievements and lessons learnt of the Swiss Water & Sanitation Consortium during the period July 2014 to December 2017. The report emphasizes achievements at outcome level, presents selected lessons learnt and describes the strategy on how to continue to work as a Consortium.

Additional information and success stories are published on the Consortium website under Results, News and Publications.

The full report is here: End of phase 2 Report

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2017_Madagascar_Puits_befamoty

Sous le haut patronage de
son Excellence l’Ambassadeur de Suisse
et de
Son Excellence le Ministre de l’Eau, de l’Energie et des Hydrocarbures
Les membres du Swiss Water & Sanitation Consortium à Madagascar
Action de Carême Suisse
HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation
en partenariat avec l’Organisation TARATRA
vous invitent à honorer de votre présence le partage des acquis de leurs projets RANO AINA et RATSANTANANA
le vendredi, 20 avril 2018
à l’Hôtel PANORAMA de 9 heures à midi trente.

Programme « Partage des acquis » du Swiss Water & Sanitation Consortium à Madagascar

Trouvez plus de détail sur le succes et le contenu de l'évènement dans le communiqué média.

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Workshop participants coming from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal and Switzerland

 

Day 1 - Opening and getting acquainted with Water Integrity

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The Asia Regional workshop has started on 3rd April at Pokhara, Nepal which will continue until 6th April. The main theme of the workshop is "Water Integrity". The objectives of the workshop is to maintain collaboration among all consortium partners organization with knowledge sharing among the different project teams in the WASH and small scale irrigation sector. Furthermore, it is also to main external visibility of the consortium and to keep up exchange and maintain trust and relationship between and among all members. A total of 30 participants from six organizations including resource persons and donor representatives from six countries are participating in the event.

Major highlights of the day…..
  1. The flash back Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium phase II was very impressive. It augurs well for the future continuation. The modality and issues are presented.
  2. Integrity is the key issue rather than resources for sustainability of WASH intervention.
  3. "Multi-stakeholder Led Total Integrity (MLTI)" approach has been created by the participants to tackle the lack of coordination among policy makers, relevant departments and other sector stakeholders as one selected integrity challenge.
  4. Integrity is not limited only to WASH sector rather it can be practiced in any thematic area and project.

 

Day 2 - How are Water Integrity elements transferred into project's practice?

Good Practice Posters

All the participating organizations and project teams had the opportunity to present their good practices regarding water integrity or highlight water integrity aspects within their project implementation process. All posters were discussed in detail and feedback for improvements of good practices provided by the other participants.

Furthermore, all organizations and project teams prepared concrete action plans on how to put water integrity elements in action after returning back home.

Authors: Govinda, Avash, Resham, Laxman, Deepak, Yogesh

Documented Good Practices of Consortium member organizations & partners:

POSTER: Promoting Water Integrity in Nepal and VIDEO: Rawatgaun Water Lifting Project Dang; Presented by Nepal Red Cross Society / Swiss Red Cross

POSTER: Step-wise approach for Improved Integrity and Sustainability in WASH; Presented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation Nepal (WARM-P)

POSTER: Promotion of School WASH in the earthquake hit district in Nepal; Presented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation Nepal & Caritas Switzerland Nepal

POSTER: Organization Capacacity Assessment Tool (OCAT) ; Presented by Terre des hommes Nepal

POSTER: Ecological Sanitation (Eccosan); Presented by Terre des hommes India

 

Day 3 - Field visit to Deurali Drinking Water Supply Scheme

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One hour drive from the main city of Pokhara the team reached Deurali which is in Rupa Rural Municipality. The team reached the site to observe a drinking water supply system constructed with support from HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation 15 years ago.

After arriving at the location, the group first went for a site visit where the water collection tank were placed. Following this, the water users committee led the visiting team to their office. The chairperson of the committee explained the various aspects of the water supply scheme including the history, background, on-going progresses and future plans for extension. While doing so, he also shed light on the various aspects of transparency, accountability, participation and anti-corruption.

Observations
  • Technically sound project which is well operated and is a progressive. It has been evolving as required to meet the needs.
  • Well-coordinated committee and has been active to reach out to possible available support to upgrade the water supply system as well as initiating community based activities which includes awareness raising on health and sanitation.
  • The roles and responsibilities of different community group is well-defined and different committee have performed different tasks. It’s ensured more participation and accountability.
  • The committee has been active in sustainable use of the water supply system. They have provisions to train local women in management of trainings. Also, for major repairs they have provision of a dedicated technical person to support.
  • Practice of users’ satisfaction survey annually has been a good tool for complaint and response mechanism.
  • Users’ committee leadership has performed very well during each of their tenure. Such trend in strong leadership has been one contributing factor to the sustainability of the water supply scheme.

Effect of availability of clean drinking water to other important areas such as improvement in human health, increase in school attendance of girls etc. were well publicized for reference.

Authors: Kamalendu, Kham, Anupama, Bijesh, Shrinkhala, Hemanta

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The 2017 Water and Health Conference: Where Science Meets Policy, organized by The Water Institute at University of North Carolina, takes place from 16 - 20 October 2017 and considers drinking water supply, sanitation, hygiene and water resources in both the developing and developed worlds with a strong public health emphasis.

Two consortium representatives are attending and presenting  work on Blue Schools and Behaviour Change (RANAS). Please join us for the following events:

Workshop: How You Can Improve Your Behavior Change Interventions by Inferring which Behavioral Factors They Address
Eawag, Helvetas
Mountain Laurel, 16 October, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Oral presentation: Blue Schools: Linking WaSH in Schools with Other SDG 6 Targets
Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium
Redbud Room, 16 October, 4pm. You can find the handout for the presentation here.

For more details, please refer to the full conference program and the conference webpage.

 

Of interest for our Menstrual Hygiene Specialists:

Virtual Conference on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Schools

The 6th Annual Virtual Conference on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Schools, co-hosted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and UNICEF, provides an opportunity to share the latest research and programming from around the world. The virtual conference is expected to bring together online over 1,000 participants.

For the first time ever, the virtual conference will be streaming live from Water and Health. Virtual attendees are asked to register at https://www.mhmvirtualconference.com/

 

Kategorie: News am von .

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This year’s Stockholm World Water Week will take place from 27th August – 1 September. This conference for experts, practitioners, decision-makers and business innovators from a range of sectors and countries is to network, exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions to the most pressing water-related challenges of today.

The Swiss Water & Sanitation Consortium will participate at the booth of the Swiss Water Partnership (SWP) and the NGO tent. We will present what we do and share information on our promising approaches and experiences. We present first results of the Blue School Kit we are currently developing. It brings together our experiences from more than 200 schools in 7 countries.

Please join the Consortium for the following events:

  • Blue Schools 2.0: Closing the cycle to reach SDG6
    WASH in institutions is an integral part of Sustainable Development Goal #6.  In addition to the methods developed by the Wash in Schools (WINS) community of practice, the Blue School concept is a promising approach to raise children’s awareness about the link between water, waste, food and the environment.  Blue Schools has included a school garden to show relationships between food production and an efficient management of water; and the Blue Schools 2.0 version adds focus on waste, watershed and land management practices and also aims to inform and inspire children about professions in the water sector. Come join the Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium’s presentation to learn more about Blue Schools!Wed 30 Sept,  13:30 – 15:00
    Swiss Water Partnership booth Nr. 6 (same location as last year)
  • Innovation tentThis year, the SWP has been allowed to set up an IKEA better shelter tent additionally to the official booth. Based on a collaboration between Swiss Fresh Water and the IKEA Foundation, a water kiosk will be on display and  the space is open to other innovations from our SWP members. The Consortium will be present with a role-up illustrating the added value of working as a Consortium.

You will find the full program here.

Come and join us!

Kategorie: News am von .

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The 33rd AGUASAN Workshop on the topic “Circular economy – transforming waste into resources” took place in Spiez, Switzerland from June 26 to 30, 2017. The main focus was analyzing successful and failed approaches for transitioning from linear to circular water and sanitation models.

Circular economy has great potential to drive the Water and Sanitation 2030 Agenda forward because it aligns directly with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.3 of improving water quality and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally and SDG 6.4 of substantially increasing water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensuring sustainable withdrawals.

 

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Fig. 1: Graph Circular Economy
 

 

The Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium was present with five representatives from four different organizations: Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, Swiss Red Cross, Caritas Switzerland and Terre des hommes. The following contributions were made:

  • The Swiss Red Cross presented a poster on menstrual hygiene management in Nepal (poster will follow)
  • Caritas Switzerland presented a poster on Blue Schools in Bangladesh: a promising way to teach reduce, reuse and recycle: Poster_Blue_Schools_Aguasan_Workshop_Caritas_Bangladesh_2017
  • Terre des hommes and Caritas jointly facilitated a clinical case on Blue School 2.0. During several group working sessions, a solution was developed on how to transition from a linear Blue School to a circular Blue School and how to teach circular economy through a learning-by-doing approach in school.  The results of the discussions were presented as flip charts/ diagrams, as shown below:Circular Flows Blue SchoolsFig 2. Circular Flows in a Blue School

Circular Business Model Blue SchoolsFig 3. Circular business model for Blue Schools

Success Criteria Blue SchoolsFig 4. Success criteria for Blue Schools

Links:

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Opening of the Water Team Days in Bern

 

The SDC Water Team Days 2017 took place in Bern on 22-23 June 2017.  The SDC Water Team Days are one of the most important face to face meetings in the water domain in Switzerland. About 65 practitioners from the SDC, partners and guests are coming together to share, discuss and learn about recent developments in water and development cooperation. A special focus of this year's event were the SDGs and SDG monitoring. The Swiss Water & Sanitation Consortium was present at the Water Team Days 2017 and contributed two Market Place sessions to the following topics:

    • Strengthening the Environmental Component of Blue Schools 2.0: Consortium partners Terre des hommes, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and Caritas Switzerland presented and discussed the concept for Blue Schools 2.0. This is of particular interest as the Blue School concept is fully in-line with SDG 6, complementing usual WASH in school activities with a school  garden as practical place to show relationships between food production, an efficient management of water and a demonstrative place for watershed and land management practices. During the last years, the Blue School concept has been piloted and tested in various countries by different Consortium partners. Based on their experiences, the Consortium is currently developing the Blue School 2.0 with a special focus on strengthening the environmental component of Blue Schools. The ongoing work on developing Blue Schools 2.0 was shared and discussed with the participants.
    • Integrity Management Toolbox for small water supply systems: The Water Integrity Network (WIN) and Caritas Switzerland presented how the Integrity management Toolbox for Small Water Supply Systems has assisted pilot communities and local governments in Kenya in addressing governance and management challenges of community managed rural water supply. Lessons learnt were shared and ideas on how the toolbox can be used in other countries were discussed.

Links:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium is looking for a Consultant to assist in preparing an approach and tools for “Blue Schools & the Water Cycle in My Environment”

Place of assignment: Nairobi, Kenya and “home office” | Duration of assignment: 21 Days | Dates of assignment: July-September 2017 | Language: English (knowledge of French beneficial)

Application Deadline: 4 June 2017 at 17:00 GMT

Background: The Blue School concept is a promising approach to improve and raise awareness about the link between water, waste, food and environment among children.  It has been pioneered by the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance and further developed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and partners. The Blue School concept complements the usual WASH in Schools (WINS) activities with a school garden as practical place to show relationships between food production and an efficient management of water; and a demonstrative place for watershed and land management practices.

The objective is to enable members of the Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium to refine the Blue School concept 2.0 in order to provide project teams with recommendations, materials, new ideas and more practical guidance on how to better implement Blue School with a focus on the environmental component; specifically:

  • A Blue School Concept 2.0 Methodological Note
  • A catalogue with context specific technologies that can be implemented in schools to demonstrate the link between water, waste, food and environment.
  • A Kit (called blue school kit) that will provide teacher/project staff/local government experts with the necessary step by step facilitation guide and materials to initiate pupils to the different components of the blue school and the link between those components, with the focus on environment.
  • A Road Map describing all the steps to undertake to transform a school into a blue school, including steps to build ownership of key stakeholders and ensure the sustainability of the activities that will be implemented.

The above points are detailed below in the PDF: Project Outline Blue Schools

Procedure and Method of Work (estimated at 21 days)

Pre-workshop desk review / networking to identify and review relevant existing materials; review the agenda with Consortium Workshop leads; preparation of drafts: (7 days) | Workshop Facilitation: 5 days (4 workshop days and one day travel) | Post workshop Activities: 9 days

Proposal: Please respect the following structure (four components) for your proposal, which is compulsory:

  1. Cover letter with signature(s)
  2. Curriculum vitae of the consultant (max. 2 pages)
  3. Short description about qualifications and competences of the consultant with reference to the TOR; including proposed methodology for identifying/selecting the technologies and approaches for demonstration (max. 2 pages)
  4. Financial proposal in Swiss Francs in EXCEL: Worksheet_BlueSchools_Consultancy 2017

Deadline: Electronic submissions to Daya Moser, Swiss Water & Sanitation Consortium Coordinator at daya.moser@waterconsortium.ch, by 4 June 2017 at 17:00 GMT.

More information can be found on the following link: Mandate_ToR_BlueSchools2.0_Consultancy 2017

Please feel free to share this announcement with your professional network.

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Helvetas Benin Blue Schools 2017

Titré: ''Les « écoles bleues » pour éduquer autrement les apprenants'' le Hebdomadaire béninois Educ'Action présente un article sur les jeu concours « Meilleurs chants et
poèmes sur le lavage des mains au savon », organisé au profit des écoles dans le cadre de la phase II du projet Eau Potable pour Ecoles et Centres de Santé (EPECS), un projet mis en oeuvre depuis 2009, financé par l’Organisation Non Gouvernementale Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation et le Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium.

Dans le cadre de cette compétition lancé en 2016, les écoles ont été invitées à produire un texte de poésie ou une chanson qui apporte des réponses aux questions sur l’utilité du lavage des mains à l’eau et au savon, les moments clés du lavage des mains à l’eau et au savon et les différentes étapes du lavage des mains. Après réception des productions, un jury composé des Conseillers pédagogiques, des Chefs de Régions pédagogiques et de l’équipe de coordination du projet EPECS, a été mis à contribution pour la lecture et la sélection des meilleures oeuvres. La seconde étape de sélection des meilleures écoles bleues du jeu concours reste la visite des écoles présélectionnées suivie de l’interprétation des chants et poèmes par les écoliers. A ce niveau, le jury a observé l’installation et l’utilisation effective des TIPY-PAP, un dispositif de lave-main mis à disposition des différentes écoles d’intervention du projet.

L’objectif principal de ce jeu concours organisé dans le cadre de la célébration de la Journée Internationale du lavage des mains, renseigne Monique Gbaguidi la coordonnatrice du projet EPECS, est d’apprécier le niveau d’observation et d’internationalisation des différents enseignements sur le lavage des mains et aussi de créer une certaine compétitivité entre les écoles bleues de la commune de Banikoara.

Pour en savoir plus, vous trouvez l'article ci-joint à la page 6 du Hebdomadaire béninois Educ'Action:

Hebdomadaire EDUC'ACTION N184 Blue Schools Benin