Innovation key in 40 years learning and sharing of IRC and partners

Bridging the knowledge gap for improved water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and joint learning and sharing knowledge on innovative topics by IRC and partners have been the red thread in 40 years of IRC. Together we have influenced sector policy on innovative topics. Combining global and local knowledge and skills since 1968 as a WHO international reference centre we also published thousands of newsletter articles, hundreds of books, manuals and videos. Some of them were translated in local languages for use in local WASH programmes. We assisted more than 50 local partners and international networks develop into autonomous organisations.

In 2007 and 2008 our cost recovery and finance work, our partner network, our knowledge on effective approaches and our web site helped bringing in the largest ever project for IRC and four partners. The 10 million-euro WASHCost action research project started on 1 February 2008 and will finish in 2012. It will collect and collate information relating to the real disaggregated costs in the life-cycle of water, sanitation and hygiene service delivery to poor people in rural and peri-urban areas.

Which trends in four decades?

What trends have we seen in our work linked to developments in the water and sanitation sectors? The focus per decade:

• 1968-1979: mainly on technology development (standpipes and slow sand filtration);
• 1980-1990: from technology to community participation;
• 1990-2000: from community participation to community management of rural water supply; sanitation slowly coming on the agenda;
• 2000-2008: much more integrated approach to water, sanitation, and hygiene; more focus on sustainability and poverty reduction; stronger learning for change focus.

Below we highlight a small selection of IRC activities in each decade: addressing (thematic) focus of IRC, modality of working and IRC’s organisational set-up.

1968-1979 focus: mainly technology (standpipes and slow sand filtration)

Modality of working: documentation and starting off with first field development and demonstration projects

Organizational set-up: IRC started with two staff members as part of and based in the National Drinking Water Institute. At the end of 1979 it had 17 staff members; and establishment of first international partnerships.

Highlights best illustrating our work in this decade:

1970 First IRC newsletter produced and disseminated.

1973 -1976 Directors of 31 Collaborating Institutions meeting in Bilthoven, the Netherlands deciding priorities for IRC assistance: Health aspects of water reusePublic Standpost Water Supply, Handpumps programmes, Slow sand filtration.

This was fololwed by the Slow Sand Filtration development and demonstration project in India, Thailand, Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan, Sudan and Colombia.

1974-1978 Public Standpost Water Supply (PSWS) development and demonstration programme, with local partners in Thailand, Indonesia, Malawi and Zambia.

Lessons from these projects were taken on board in the decade to follow.

1980-1990 focus: From technology to community participation; sanitation slowly coming on the agenda

Modality of working: documentation and publications; training courses first appear on our menu of services.

Organizational set-up: The Dutch Government turned IRC into a foundation with a growing staff, so that it could play a more independent role in the International Decade of Water Supply and Sanitation (1981-1990), called for by the UN General Assembly.

Highlights best illustrating our activities in this decade:

1981 First best seller: IRC’s Small Communities Water Supply book (TP 18 more than 13,000 copies sold) and used by many academic institutions and field agencies such the US-based Peace Corps.

1983 First Intermediate Thesaurus on Community Water Supply and Sanitation for Developing Countries, IRC/WRC UK, followed by an updated version in 1987 INTERWATER Thesaurus for Community Water Supply and Sanitation, in English, French and Spanish, supported by the International Development Research Centre (Canada)

1986 First briefing and short course: Management for Sustainability in Water Supply and Sanitation.

1990-2000 focus: From community participation to community management of rural water supply

Modality of working: strengthening international partnerships both globally (e.g. with WSSCC) as in-country (e.g. through Manage project). Documentation and dissemination

Organizational set-up: IRC as NGO invited member of the External Support Agencies Collaborative Council followed by founding member of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). First external evaluation in 1995 shaped first business plan and more structural partnership development.

Highlights best illustrating this decade:

1991-1997 IRC manages Information Management working group, as well as the

international working group on Information, Education and Communication (IEC) of the WSSCC. This group developed and tested various advocacy and communication tools.

1994 - 1998 Participatory Action Research (PAR) project on community water management, in 22 communities in six countries, with local partners in Cameroon, Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya, Nepal and Pakistan This project was the main thematic focus, illustrated the way of working with local resource centres, and had a strong documentation and dissemination component.

1998 until now: The electronic Source Water and Sanitation News emerges features bulletin and news on paper, e-mail and Internet in English French and Spanish, with the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, GWA, Cap-Net, CREPA (West Aftica) and CINARA (Colombia) joining IRC.

2000-2008 focus: Much more integrated approach to water, sanitation, and hygiene; more focus on sustainability and poverty reduction

Embedded in water resources management; move away from community level to the local government level.

Modality: becoming more of a think-tank, through a larger number of medium-sized projects, all with a specific focus, often following an action-research and learning approach, stronger partnerships with resource centres.

Organizational set-up: becoming fully autonomous since 2007, and more focused on “the market” to obtain funds.

Highlights best illustrating this decade:

2001 - 2007 Second, five-year WELL Resource Centre Network on water, sanitation and environmental contract, in which IRC, WEDC and LSHTM have been working with eight partners in the developing world. This was linked with IRC’s additionally funded Resource Centre Development Programme with partners in 19 countries. From some of these partners Junior Professional Officers from 2001 – 2006 joined an exchange programme for young water and sanitation sector professionals in the Netherlands and their counterparts in developing countries

Lessons learnt from these programmes are now included in the way we work in the current business plan.

2006 IRC gets autonomy through an Act of the Dutch Parliament.

2003 – 2007 IRC partner in the Euro-Med Participatory Water Resources Scenarios (EMPOWERS), is a multi-country (Egypt, Jordan, West Bank/Gaza) action research and development project led by Care International UK. The project was a clear example of partners and us moving away ed away from community to district level, trying to follow an integrated approach.

Thematic groups established in recent years with international and national allies working on thematic innovations for sustainability and poverty reduction include:

• Scaling Up Rural Water Services - Sustainability through Support for Community Management.
• The Multiple Use Systems (MUS) project as part of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, a multi-institutional, research-based initiative that aims to increase water productivity for agriculture in order to improve livelihoods and leave more water for other users and the environment.
• Financing and cost recovery for poverty reduction, a platform of individuals (and the organisations they represent) with a shared interest in this key issue in the water and sanitation sectors.
• IRC is also a founder member of the Water Integrity Network, as part of its programme that supports improved transparency and accountability to reduce sector corruption. Activities include advocacy, action research, dissemination of publications, events, training and advice.