Background on STREAMS
The Streams of Knowledge (also called STREAMS) global coalition of water and sanitation resource centres was launched during the World Water Forum in 2000. It is legally registered in The Philippines where its global secretariat is based. The Coalition is an umbrella organisation that enhances the visibility and effectiveness of resource centres and raises funds to make their services accessible. Its mission is to help to close gaps on unmet needs by achieving equitable access to information, focusing knowledge where it can help to build capacity and promoting action learning whereby people and organisations benefit from their own experiences.
Overview - STREAMS
The STREAMS coalition is a Southern led initiative that emerged during the STREAMS project, an action research on resource centre concepts and experiences. This IRC led project involved many partner organisations in different continents. Presently, IRC is an active member of the Coalition and is also involved in the European regional STREAMS alliance. Other regional alliances exist in Asia, East and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa, and in Latin America. IRC ran the STREAMS secretariat in its early days, but the coalition has recently established its own secretariat in the Philippines, in the offices of the Philippine Centre for Water and Sanitation (PCWS).
