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Published on: 21/11/2022

Join the Free Online Course Costing sustainable water services

The WASH Systems Academy is so proud and excited to announce the launch of the Costing sustainable water services course.

This 4-hour course explains how to use the Excel tool “Life-Cycle Costing of water services” developed by Water For People and IRC. This tool supports sustainable financial planning and management of water services.

This course has been developed for anyone wanting to know how to use the tool to identify the costs and financing gap of water services in a specific area, often a district or municipality. The course has been made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of the PRO-WASH award and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US Government.

Course objectives: Costing sustainable water services explains how to use the "Life-Cycle Costing of water services" tool developed by Water For People and IRC. The tool supports sustainable financial planning and management of water services.

By the end of this course, one will have a good understanding of how to use the Excel tool "Life-Cycle Costing of water services" and will know:

  • the basic concepts of the Life-Cycle Cost Approach and District WASH Master Planning for water services
  • how to use the Excel tool "Life-Cycle Costing of water services" for identifying required expenditures for infrastructure investments, operation and maintenance and the expenditures for direct support to the service providers.
  • how to analyse the financial gap between your required expenditures and available sources of finance for achieving the targets of your water and sanitation master plan
  • how colleagues in the sector have been applying the Excel tool "Life-Cycle Costing of water services".

Course content: The course is designed as a standalone course, although it is recommended that participants are familiar with the concepts of water, sanitation and hygiene systems strengthening and the Life-Cycle Cost Approach (LCCA). The course includes video tutorials and is divided into two parts:

  • The first three sessions provide a recap of the underlying basic concepts of LCCA, an overview of the tool and the preparation requirements for using the tool with a focus on data requirements and assumptions to be made.
  • The second part (i.e., sessions 4 to 6) are the tutorials on how to use the Excel tool "Life-Cycle Costing of water services" and carry out a financial gap analysis and apply this to your water and sanitation service planning.
  • The final session 7 provides examples (testimonials) of practical applications of the tool, including information about variations and extensions on the tool that are available.

This course includes animations, graphics, videos, documentation, and multiple-choice tests. There is also the opportunity to connect with other WASH sector professionals through online forum discussions. The majority of this course is also available offline. You can download the complete session texts, including all the exercises, via the course resources tab. This allows you to follow part of the course offline. However, you will need to connect to the online platform to participate in the forum discussions, upload the materials you create and complete the multiple-choice tests and quizzes.

LCCA overview from excel tool

Session overview: This course consists of 7 sessions and needs to be completed in consecutive order (from sessions 1 to 7). The subjects of the individual sessions are:

  • Session 1
    WASH systems strengthening and the importance of understanding costs
  • Session 2
    Introducing the Excel tool "Life-Cycle Costing of water services"
  • Session 3
    Preparing yourself for using the Excel tool
  • Session 4
    Infrastructure expenditures (i.e., Capital Expenditure, Capital Maintenance Expenditure and Operational and minor Maintenance Expenditure)
  • Session 5
    Direct Support expenditures
  • Session 6
    Financial gap analysis
  • Session 7
    The tool in action

Length: On average, the course takes a minimum of 4 hours to complete.

En quoi cet outil a-t-il-été utile?

Take a look at the following materials:

The WASH Systems Academy

The WASH Systems Academy is a collaborative online learning platform dedicated to building capacities to strengthen water, sanitation, and hygiene services.  It is a global and multi-lingual platform that strives to make courses accessible and relevant. We synthesize the latest thinking on system strengthening for water, sanitation, and hygiene (commonly abbreviated as WASH) services and support it with concrete practical examples and tools from around the world. It now has over 4500 users from 120 countries. It is available on www.washsystemsacademy.org

This course has been made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of the PRO-WASH award and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US Government.

Costing course  

 

 

 

 

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