Hygiene practices, awareness & behaviour change

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Group_picture_Aguasan_2017

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.

 

circular-economy

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.

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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