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.
How different or similar are the activities and outcomes of the Resource Centres Networks (RCNs) that IRC is collaborating with on strengthening sector learning? What the resource centres from Ghana, Nepal, Uganda and Burkina Faso have in common is that All resource centres are carrying out... Read more...
The term 'sector learning' has been coined and promoted by IRC as a key element in improving the ability of WASH sector actors to provide sustainable services to all. It is an elusive concept with multiple meanings and layers or perhaps no meaning at all (some say that s ector learning does not... Read more...
IRC has supported WASH Resource Centre Networks in 5 countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Honduras, Uganda and Nepal) since 2003. In April 2011, we came together as a group to share our reflections about sector learning, theories of change and visions for the WASH sector. Read more...
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...
I've been thinking about that we actually mean by development, and came across this really good presentation on Slideshare which, I think, sums up the main issues and approaches commonly used to define development. 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...
Knowledge management (KM) originates from the business sector (see Sveiby link below). The quest for more efficiency and effectiveness use of resources and the recognition that all knowledge - being the fourth production factor besides land, money and labour - resides in peoples' heads, lead to... 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...
Managing and sustaining change in a complex and unpredictable environment requires very different approaches and tools to those required to produce deliverables that can be well-defined in advance. 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...
Change at sector level, requires change by constellations of individuals and institutions. Learning alliances are an approach to change that brings together representatives from government, civil society, research institutions and the private sector to do joint research, find solutions and take... 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...
The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector is facing serious challenges: 2 billion people are without sanitation and 800 million lack water services. And when services are provided, most are unreliable, of poor quality and prone to failure. In South Asia alone, 570,000 children die every year... 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...
Recently for a number of professional and personal reasons I decided to revisit an old intellectual ‘love’: Appreciative Inquiry ( AI) In the past I experimented with this method in developing a somewhat static knowledge center into a proactive learning and facilitation center, and I remember well... Read more...
Documenting change is a vitally important activity for learning from and improving upon the work carried out in development initiatives. Read more...