guest blog :: IRC

Partnership to advance resiliency in the Ethiopian lowlands

Published on: 05/12/2018

USAID programmes collaborate to improve rural water supplies for pastoralist communities in drought-prone regions.

Financing the sector in challenging countries

Published on: 28/09/2018

Fixing the leaks to attract commercial investment for sustainable urban water services in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

When does money get results?

Published on: 27/08/2018

This blog looks at the experience of using 'Payment-by-Results' in Tanzania's water sector, and how adaptive programming is key to bridging the gap.

Sanitation and health: what do we want to know?

Published on: 01/08/2018

Experts meet to discuss reaching a consensus on what the evidence tells us.

Taps and toilets aren't enough: designing WASH programmes that strengthen the system

Published on: 02/07/2018

WaterAid has developed a set of participatory tools that help identify and overcome system barriers.

Abeba’s passion for change helps her sell sanitation solutions to communities

Published on: 16/06/2018

Half of the sales agents in the USAID Transform WASH project in Ethiopia are women.

Household water treatment and storage in Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, Northern Ghana

Published on: 28/05/2018

Does using a household water filter help in improving water quality and reduce incidence of diarrhoea?

Keeping the importance of menstrual hygiene alive!

Published on: 14/05/2018

We have come a long way, but educating schoolgirls and women remains essential.

Why innovations in the WASH sector rarely scale up?

Published on: 23/03/2018

Lessons for government, the private sector, NGOs and donors.

Can India afford to spend less on rural sanitation?

Published on: 21/03/2018

Budget cuts could prevent the country becoming open defecation free by 2019.

Giving data a soul: a case study on use of water point data in Uganda

Published on: 08/03/2018

Behind all water, sanitation and hygiene data is a story. Very, often these stories are hidden behind cold statistics that enable us to count and tick boxes.

How to use Human Centered Design (HCD) to build prototypes for WASH

Published on: 23/02/2018

It's the final day of the design summit, and we're all a bit weary but energized to see the fruits of all this labor. When we started our 10-day journey with MIT, it felt to me like a long time to spend in a workshop. But as the summit progressed, I realized that we could easily spend a month...

One workshop to cover everything we ever complained about

Published on: 13/02/2018

Key lessons to develop a Country-Led Monitoring (CLM) programme for rural water and sanitation in Liberia.

Technological innovations are on exponential curves; but are WASH measurement methods stuck in time?

Published on: 07/02/2018

Innovations can revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development - if we rise responsibly to the challenge of measuring their impact.

Coming with a fresh perspective: understanding experiences of water security in Afar, Ethiopia.

Published on: 06/02/2018

My new role at Cranfield University this year is to drive forward a novel and very exciting project known as WEEP (Water-security in Ethiopia and the emotional response of pastoralists). WEEP has immense potential to 'break new ground' in understanding the everyday and ongoing challenges of water...

Moving from information gathering and idea generation to concept selection

Published on: 05/02/2018

Day 6 at the USAID Transform WASH Design Summit began like every day, with Morning Circle. This is a moment to set the mood, reflect, have a bit of fun, and make announcements about the day. The group is large with 35 participants plus Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Design Lab...

Let's design our own solutions! Not FOR the community but WITH the community

Published on: 02/02/2018

When we set out to transform the WASH sector in Ethiopia, I knew it would be a fascinating journey. But, our Transform WASH Design Summit, organized by PSI/Ethiopia and led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) D-Lab here in Hawassa, took us to an entirely new place.

Hit the road(map)

Published on: 25/01/2018

A new global guidance document on the District-Wide Approach.

Taking lessons from Mother Nature

Published on: 22/12/2017

"If you do not yield to anyone's advice, the world will teach you the lessons it wants you to learn," my mother always said. Often, this was a cautionary tale and it usually came after realizing that no matter what she said or did, you would not yield to her advice. Somehow, this is the same...