IRC team trains senior BRAC field staff in managing a five-year WASH programme

BRAC, the largest NGO in the world requested IRC to organise a training programme for its senior field staff in Bangladesh; mostly district managers who manage a project staff of around 1,500 people and an area with around 2.5 million people. The training programme specifically focused on supporting BRAC staff with the implementation of their new water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme, rather than increasing their knowledge and understanding about water, sanitation and hygiene.

Four IRC staff members with assistance of various local experts facilitated sessions in two weeks at the end of February 2007 relating to project management on a range of topics:

- water supply and community management;

- school sanitation and hygiene education;

- sanitation and hygiene;

- community management water supply and technologies.

Euro 57 million programme

BRAC’s five-year WASH programme has been developed with support from IRC.

The € 57 million programme has the following three main objectives:

• Provide sustainable and integrated WASH services in the rural areas of Bangladesh.
• Induce safe hygienic behaviour to break the contamination cycle of unsanitary latrines, contaminated water, and unsafe hygienic behaviour.
• Ensure sustainability and scaling-up WASH services.

In total, the programme seeks to promote safe hygienic behaviour to 36 million people, use of sanitary latrines by 17 million people, and access to safe water for 8 million people.

Poverty alleviation

BRAC started in 1972 as an almost entirely donor funded, small-scale relief and rehabilitation project to help Bangladesh overcome the devastation and trauma of the Liberation War. Today, BRAC has emerged as an independent, virtually self-financed organisation in sustainable human development. It is the largest NGO in the world employing 97,192 people, with the twin objectives of poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor. Through experiential learning, BRAC today provides and protects livelihoods of around 100 million people in Bangladesh.