Planning Committee Nepal allocates money for Resource Centre Development

At a Resource Centre Network meeting in Nepal in early May 2004 the representative from the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage announced that the Planning Commission had reacted positively to a proposed budget allocation of Nrs 1500,000 (some EURO 17,500) for Resource Centre Development in the country. The department will also make two senior engineers available to support the initiative. It is also helpful that the new Rural WSS National Policy and Strategy 2004 mentions the establishment of information units at the office of the District Development Committee (DDC).

The RCD-programme in Nepal as supported by IRC is basically seen as a means to work with network members and to see how they can jointly work towards making information available at the grass root level. IRC’s Eveline Bolt provided on the spot support to the RCD-initiative, in particular with respect to network management and monitoring.

All signatories to the RCN-MoU participated in this very lively meeting. Quite some time was spent on mapping out the roles of the chair (the representative of the department), the secretariat (NEWAH) and the other network members.

Other issues discussed include:

- making the network resourceful,

- recognising each others expertise,

- how to organise validation of information using the expertise available in the network,

- starting a pilot in an (financially) ADB supported district to experience how network members having representation at the district level (mostly the department, NEWAH and Nepal Red Cross Society) can collaborate to respond to information needs of communities,

- classifying documentation holdings and making electronic databases, use the portal architecture for a network website.

NEWAH helps information sharing

Ratan Buddhatokhi who was at IRC for 15 months under the Junior Professional Officer exchange programme undertakes a lot on information sharing among NEWAH colleagues and network members by:

• passing on IRCs Source Weekly to network members,
• downloading and circulating TOPs,
• printing bits and pieces from IRC internet and putting these up on NEWAH’s notice board,
• putting up all newspaper and magazine articles that were published in the context of the WASH-media campaign,
• organise an orientation to journalists to provide them with information to write about the water and sanitation issue.

Other network members also undertake information services:

• ENPHO published an article in the WASH-quarterly newsletter on arsenic removal, which was one of the topics that had come out of the information needs assessment),
• NEWAH far western regional offices started the publication of wall papers for communities.

Uttaranchal exchange visit

Discussions with Mrs. B. Maithili, Director of the Rural Development Institute of the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, Uttaranchal, in India, where a RC initiative has started recently were very fruitful. There was a lot of useful exchange of questions and answers on why NEWAH had joined the RC-initiative and on network management. She met four of the network members in their offices and attended the network meeting.

This provided her a good idea of what the networking involves and the direction the network takes in Nepal. Her enthusiasm and NEWAH’s positive feeling about her visit again underscore the importance of this type of exchange visit. She has invited NEWAH for a return visit.

Mrs.Maithili would also very much like to join the Asian Alliance of Resource Centres for joined activities with other RC’s in the (S)AARC-countries and will contact the regional secretariat at NGO-forum Bangladesh about it.

Dissemination of sustainability of changes in hygiene behaviour research

A good example of RCD/IRC collaboration is a recently finished research project Sustainability of changes in hygiene behaviour. NEWAH staff members involved in this research have been very active in targeted dissemination of research results, including a workshop, small booklets in Nepali, and a CD-ROM, and more extensive booklet in English. They also co-authored an article in a special theme issue of Waterlines, January 2004.