Stories from the East Africa region
Stories and activities in the East Africa Region in which IRC and its partners are involved.
Community score card helps Bombo community improve their water service
19 Jul 12
The Bombo community together with the private water service provider and the Town Council developed a joint action plan towards improving water services in Bombo Town Council. The action plan shared roles and responsibilities to water service providers, town council officials, water board members, community leaders and community members. These roles are assigned to work towards ensuring that every community has access to improved and adequate potable water. The action plan was developed in an interface meeting of the community and service providers during the community score card exercise carried by NETWAS Uganda out in Bombo Town Council, a small town; 25 kilometres north of Kampala - the capital of Uganda.
Understanding change in WASH; Process Documentation Workshop Uganda, September 2011
30 Sep 11
The WASH Process Documentation Workshop held in Kampala, Uganda in September 2011, was successful in encouraging participants to become more enthusiastic about process documentation and its benefits. Process Documentation provides a systematic way to capture what happens in a process of change, and how it happens. It can help to understand why change is taking place or not, and thus allows adjustments of approaches along the process path.
Rwanda: two unhygienic roadside Ecosan latrine blocks
12 Aug 11
Later on 22 July 2011 we visit two ecological toilet blocks on the Kigali highway that turn out to be not hygienic at all.
Rwanda: Community hygiene story from Rwangala village
12 Aug 11
When we enter the Rwangala village to find out how the Community Hygiene Club works in practice we see a large group of women in white WaterAid T-shirts wave goodbye to a leaving bus with participants from the AfricaSan 3 Conference in July 2011.
Rwanda: school toilet realities from the field
09 Aug 11
On the Friday 22 July 2011 field visit in Rwanda we are looking at two plastic, injection moulded Mobilet toilet blocks with five seats each for boys and girls at the Kicukiro Technical Training Centre funded by South Korea, just outside Kigali. The toilets have been supplied in May 2010 by the private company AquaSan at US$ 11,000 for the complete installation under contract from the Ministry of Education.
Promoting social accountability in Kenya's water sector
08 Aug 11
IRC partnered with the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program, and the German Agency for International Cooperation to help build the capacity of the Water Action Group members in Kenya. Because of this the Water Action Groups helped resolve 97% of more than 400 complaints by the end of a 2-year pilot project in December 2010.
Rwanda in the fast lane, sanitation field visit confirms
05 Aug 11
"From the ruins of years of war and genocide, Rwanda has moved to improve household access to hygienic sanitation facilities faster than in any country in Sub-Saharan Africa".
“We from the North, we write, in Africa they talk”
03 Aug 10
“We from the North, we write. In Africa they talk”, says IRC’s Jo Smet on his return to The Netherlands after completing more than four years working for IRC in Uganda.
Photo story: Water and sanitation improvements at Atono school in Kenya
21 Jul 10
Mr Daniel Odhiambo is head-master of the Atono school in Nyanza, one of only four schools in Kenya with urinals for girls. This school was selected by SWASH+ to receive this intervention and the infrastructure was paid for by the SWASH+ program and is evaluated by the SWASH team.
SWASH+ (www.swashplus.org) is a five-year applied research programme to identify, develop and test innovative approaches to school-based water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Implementing partners are CARE, Emory University, Water.org, SWASH+ and it is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Netwas Kenya and IRC also visited this school as part of a UNICEF Kenya study of 43 schools in four districts: Coast (Mombasa); Nyanza (Rachuonyo & Kisumu); Rift Valley (Kajiado); and North Eastern (Garissa). The aim of the study was to find out if the national Kenyan Ministry of Health's standard ratio of 1 latrine to 25 girls and 1 toilet to 30 boys can be downgraded if the pupils also have access to urinals, and if so, what would be the new ratio.
EASAN Workshop Case Studies
31 May 10
Tracking Progress in East Africa on its International Commitments for Sanitation
At the second Eastern Africa Regional Sanitation Conference and Learning Forum (2-4 March 2010) in Kampala, IRC organised a workshop on sharing practical experience and learning how to do better in sanitation. Case studies from the learning session are available in this folder.
The EASAN Conference was organised by WaterAid, WSP-A, UNICEF, and the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW). It provided a forum for countries in the Eastern Africa region to share progress and experiences on the implementation of the eThekwini declaration, Sharm el Sheikh and the declaration and commitments of the first East Africa Conference. Participants made an urgent call for a more cohesive effort towards achieving regional and global sanitation targets.
The conference produced a regional monitoring report detailing progress and recommendations. Please visit the website of ANEW Africa for more details and for the conference report: http://www.anewafrica.net/news/article.php?article=16
