Opinions and voices for change
Navigate the blogs from our experts, water, sanitation and hygiene sector colleagues and guests. Narrow down your search by using the filters.
Over the past year, there has been quite a bit of buzz in the WASH sector on the sustainability clause that DGIS seeks to include in its contacts with implementers. The pros and cons of this have been widely debated . A key component of the clauses is to have sustainability checks as a way to... Read more...
Tunisian sector experts launch a new coordination mechanism for flagship Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative. Read more...
World Water Day's theme this year is water cooperation, a complex but achievable ambition. IRC's work on Learning Alliances provides some useful pointers on what (and how long) it takes. Read more...
Reflections on the Fourth WASH Sustainability Forum how effective the forum was, from inside the beltway. Read more...
Harold Lockwood explores some of the themes and messages likely to emerge from next week's sustainability forum in Washington DC. Read more...
Data collection is easier and cheaper than ever. But gathering sound evidence – and using it for positive and lasting change–takes time and collaborative efforts. Read more...
Anyone who works in the water sector cannot have missed the consultations and debates on the post-2015 goals for water and sanitation. Read more...
Last week's IRCnergy week looked at the exciting development of a multi-country sustainability monitoring system for water and sanitation services. Read more...
Learning from our mistakes is critical for improving water and sanitation services. Read more...
Recently I have been on a continent-hopping tour through a different range of meetings and events, from which I have seen a pattern emerging, or at least a series of questions in my own mind, as I carry out my work in the WASH sector at an international level. Read more...
Learning and adaptive management are critical elements in a cycle of continuous improvement, which is needed to provide water and sanitation services in an ever-changing environment. Read more...
The challenge is that too often Process Documentation is limited to simple documentation (in all ways) of events. Process Documentation as a method has the potential to achieve much more than that. Indeed Process Documentation offers the potential to identify (in a social or participatory way) the... Read more...
Learning is critical to development, so development practitioners need to reflect on how to nurture learning processes. Read more...
Learning is not optional or just a box to tick off. Knowing what works, what doesn't, for whom and in which contexts is crucial to improve water, sanitation and hygiene interventions for services that last. But using lessons learned requires linking learning to purpose, with a joint vision and... Read more...
Research and learning are set to become important elements in national planning and monitoring of sanitation and water services. That is, at least, the aim of the Research and Learning (R&L) constituency of the Sanitation and Water for All global partnership (SWA). The R&L constituency will... Read more...
IRC’s roots are in knowledge management, capacity building and advocacy. Since our founding in 1968, our focus and ambition have evolved from generating knowledge and making it accessible to the sector, towards playing an active role in the facilitation of learning and systemic change in the... Read more...
The WASH sector is in consensus labelled as a complex system. Interventions need to cope with wicked problems and solutions strive for adaptive management as exit strategy. The bulk of the WASH projects deliver on the short-term. In three year Hygiene projects populations / schools / communities... Read more...
Two weeks ago, the “management and support” working group of the RWSN had its first meeting. This meeting focused specifically on management models and support arrangements for piped water supply in small towns. Read more...
Next week more than 200 practitioners and policy makers from government, civil society, private sector and donors will come together for the annual Joint Water and Environment Sector Review in Uganda to review progress and set-backs during the past year and discuss and decide on priorities for the... Read more...
The assumption information is 'only' required to 'flow' turned out to be false! First information has to be made... Read more...