Opinions and voices for change
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On April 20, Ministers of Water and Sanitation from around the world will meet with their Ministers of Finance in Washington D.C. as part of the Sanitation and Water (SWA) for All High Level Meeting. There, they will discuss sector goals and progress, and it goes without saying that the recent... Read more...
Although I was present at the birth of the ‘invocacy’ notion and thus know what it is about, I still like the emphasis on the importance of engagement and joint processes of learning and change. Read more...
The traditional NGO advocacy model focuses on creating pressure for change through ‘awareness raising’ activities. The idea is that if people are aware of the need for change, it will happen. But does this approach really work? And more specifically, is it an effective path to influencing the... Read more...
My name is Deirdre Casella. I am a Programme Officer and have worked in various capacities at IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre since December 1999. My current focus is coordinating the monitoring and learning work of the Triple-S project. In Triple-S we aim to ‘proceed with good intent... Read more...
This week the Joint Monitoring Program of the United Nations announced that the MDG for water supply has been reached, most likely already somewhere in 2010. 5 years ahead of the deadline the percentage of the World’s population without access to safe water supplies has been halved. This is no mean... Read more...
Three years of creating change in Triple-S. Not a nice linear process but trying things out, getting better at it and finding words to describe what we do. And so it is time to step back and put it on paper. What is it this theory of change of Triple-S? Is it a theory or isn't it? Read more...
Top item on an overloaded agenda at the moment is the upcoming mid-term assessment of our Triple-S (link) project. As we prepare a terms of reference for the exercise we’ve been engaging with a number of external thinkers to help us create something that can meet the dual objectives of judging... Read more...
Over the last year and a half we have been doing a lot of work with various international donors and other development partners like NGOs who support investments in rural water in developing countries. Read more...
A question from the floor at a Rockefeller Foundation meeting raised some interesting thoughts about MUS vs MDGs. Read more...
It is the end/start of the year (depending on the moment at which you read this), so time to look at where one stands. The Joint Monitoring Programme of the United Nations has also done that for the state of the nations of the World with respect to drinking water supplies with this* publication... Read more...
I have argued at times for the need for post-construction support to rural water supply, and so have various publications from IRC and others over the past decade. However, there has been critique to this, stating that there is little evidence that shows that such help helps improving rural water... Read more...
Could lack of definition be undermining the impact of effective but costly support? Read more...
One of the pillars of the new Dutch development policy is to promote private sector involvement as a motor for economic growth. Read more...
If it is possible to move in a few years from an iPod to an iPhone or and iPad, why are we in the water sector still struggling with the handpump? When can we expect the iPump 2.0? Did Steve Jobs die too early to invent this? As the naked truth about poor levels of functionality of hand pumps... Read more...
The latest trend in Dutch politics is to label anything of parties of another political colour as hobbyism. Read more...
In Ghana, three-quarters of the population lack decent sanitation. Poor sanitation is the cause of many life-threatening diseases, including diarrhoea, and the lives of many children could be saved if latrines were installed in their homes. What factors affect whether families in Ghana have... Read more...