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The Conferences

The element of the project that has attracted greatest interest has been the electronic conferences. The original plan was to organise four conferences in 1999. The time taken to organise effective e-conferences and the decision not to overload participants with a non-stop series of discussions has meant that two conferences were completed in 1999 and two in 2000.

Much effort was put into getting the planning and organisation process right. With the other partners, a 'model' of all the steps needed to plan, organise, and evaluate an e-conference was agreed and used in all the cases so far. The essential elements are: the plan itself, an agenda with distinct phases and outputs, clear start and end dates, a facilitator/moderator, a background paper, a summary of the discussions, an evaluation process and report, targeted promotion, and last, but not least, a 'hot' topic.

Probably because it was first, the initial conference was the most difficult to set up, plan and report on. The second was much smoother and plans for the third and fourth have been straightforward. A distinct learning process can be observed.

If we look at the conferences, the same principal elements can be seen: background paper, moderated discussion, summary report, and evaluation report. Each has a reference or archive on the Internet where all the documents and discussions can be retrieved. In each conference, we have sought to do something different or new, either in the way it was organised and presented, or in mobilising partners and participation.

Main highlights

The following section reviews each conference, highlighting the main elements of each.

  • The demand responsive approach in rural water and sanitation, May 17-July 2, 1999. The first discussion was moderated by staff from the World Bank and followed (intellectually) from a major World Bank conference on the topic in 1998. It generated lively discussions and benefited from the perception that this was a 'hot' topic. In this first conference, the partners of the partners, especially those in Bangladesh, Colombia and Ghana were active, circulating contributions locally by fax, organising informal local sessions to review the discussions and to co-ordinate contributions. An effort was made to link, via a Peace Corps assisted 'telecentre', to local practitioners in a remote region of Ghana.
  • Strategic approaches to urban sanitation provision, October 11-November 10, 1999. The content of the second discussion was organised by GARNET in association with staff from GHK Research and Training, a consultancy group. It was associated with the final stages of a Department for International Development (DFID) funded research project in this area and provided an opportunity for the findings to be discussed and validated. The e-mail list itself was shared with an existing facility run by the Global Environmental Sanitation Initiative (GESI), strengthening links with a key stakeholder in the sector. The additional 'feature' of this conference was the organisation, by WaterAid, GARNET, and the World Bank, of formal face-to-face workshops in Bangladesh and India where the issues were discussed and contributions were sent to the discussion list. Additionally, learning from the first conference, both WaterAid and IRC were better able to 'internalise' the discussions organising regular in-house discussions. The result was seen in greater and focused participation in the conference.
  • Small towns water and sanitation, January 31-March 10, 2000. The content of the third discussion was being moderated by staff from the World Bank. The new 'feature' of this discussion was a special effort, in association with CINARA in Colombia, to run a linked parallel Spanish language discussion. This helped overcome the language barrier and stimulate greater lessons learning and sharing from countries in Latin America.
  • Knowledge sharing and capacity building in the water and sanitation sector, March-April 2000. The fourth discussion was being co-ordinated at IRC where, as with strategic sanitation, a link has been made to a major ongoing research project on capacity building and knowledge exchange in the sector. Higlights from this were shared with partners at th Stream of Knoweldged stand at the Second World Water Forum in March 2000.