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EHP News March 2003

January 31, 2023 by Ehproject Staff

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IN THIS ISSUE:

BREAKING NEWS THE EHP NICARAGUA PROGRAM RECEIVES THE ROBERT C. MARINI CLIENTSHIP GRAND AWARD

The Nicaragua Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Health Program received CDM’s prestigious Robert C. Marini Clientship Grand Award. CDM (Camp Dresser and Mckee International Inc), the prime contractor for the USAID Environmental Health Project (EHP), established the Clientship Award to recognize each year the project that best achieves the integration of service, technical and business excellence, and outstanding client service.

USAID allocated nearly $9.8 million for water and sanitation improvements over a 28-month period to assist rural communities in Nicaragua affected by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. EHP served as program manager for the Nicaragua program. Through the program, EHP and its PVO partners reached an estimated 215,000 beneficiaries in 289 rural communities.

USAID rated the EHP/Nicaragua program performance as excellent, emphasizing the program “has been effective in establishing an excellent working relationship with the Nicaraguan government and NGOs.”The EHP/Nicaragua program was picked out of 3,000 ongoing CDM projects. The factors used in the selection included: excellent evaluation from the client (USAID); meeting or exceeding all project goals/targets within the project timeframe of two years; receiving an outstanding review from GAO auditors; and supporting humanitarian objectives. CDM has been working for USAID since 1964 and considers USAID to be one of the firm’s most important clients.

SIERRA CLUB HONORS AVS COORDINATOR

To celebrate women working for a better environmental future, the Sierra Club honored Dr. Odile Michele Randriamananjara, Association Voahary Salama (AVS) Coordinator, in celebration of International Women’s Day 2003. “Dr. Randriamananjara is an inspiration for women around the world,” the Sierra Club said, “Her work serves as a model for other population and environment programs in a growing field of family planning and conservation efforts.”

EHP and AVS are collaborating in a USAID funded project “Community Centered Population-Health-Environment Interventions in Madagascar,” along with partners such as John Snow Inc. (JSI), LDI (Chemonics), Conservation International, Linkages, Measure Communications, PACT, Medical Care Development International (MCDI), and the University of Michigan Population and Environment Fellows Program.

For more details, visit the Sierra Club’s website, where you can download the Winter 2003 issue of the Sierra Club’s newsletter, “Population Report,” at http://www.sierraclub.org/population/reports/winter03/stories.asp.

To learn more about the EHP and AVS collaboration, email Odile Randriamananjara at [email protected] or Eckhard Kleinau at [email protected].

CAIRO URBAN SLUM CHILD HEALTH PROGRAM

In an effort to help USAID Field Missions effectively program child health resources in urban slums, USAID/Asia Near East (ANE) Bureau launched an Urban Health Initiative.

Phase I of the Initiative, a desktop literature review of existing studies on child health in urban slums and squatter settlements in select countries of the ANE Region, was recently completed by EHP (<http://www.ehproject.org/live/Rptspub.html>). Cairo was one of the case cities selected in the desktop study, and the USAID/Egypt Mission responded favorably to a region-wide request for a city-based follow-on program.

Phase II is the design and implementation of a demonstration integrated child health program. Two slums in greater Cairo, Ezbet el Nakhl and Hekr Abu Domaha, have been selected for the program. These slums were selected for their extreme need, lack of infrastructure and services, and in the case of Hekr Abu Domaha, for its “temporary” status. Ezbat El Nakhl is a community of garbage collectors and recyclers whose livelihood is in jeopardy due to imminent privatization of Cairo’s solid waste management. The presence of NGOs in the neighborhoods capable of carrying out program activities added to the selection criteria, and capacity building of these organizations will be a key activity.

EHP and USAID/EGAT/Urban Programs staff visited Cairo in December 2002 to establish a relationship with the Mission and to scope out program approach and implementing partner possibilities. The Mission is participating in the Urban Slum Health Program through a grant for MCH/RH activities, which will complement EHP’s hygiene improvement efforts.

For more information on the Cairo program, please contact Sarah Fry at [email protected].

AGA KHAN WORKSHOP

Through EHP, USAID assisted the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in the design, facilitation, and technical direction of a workshop for field and management staff from seven countries in Asia and Eastern Africa. The AKDN is a group of private institutions, including the Aga Khan Foundation and others, working to improve living conditions and opportunities in specific areas of the developing and developed world. The workshop was held in Kenya, February 24-27.

The overall goal of the workshop was to improve the impact and efficiency of environmental health programs within the Network. Specific objectives were to define environmental health within the context of AKDN programming; to describe a practical framework for environmental health programs and identify principles to guide its application within the Network; and to identify specific communication vehicles within AKDN and with outside sources that are engaged in environmental health.

The workshop was attended by 24 participants from India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Syria, Mozambique and Zanzibar. All workshop objectives were achieved, and a list of follow-up activities was developed. The complete report from the workshop is being finalized and will soon be available from EHP.

For more information, contact Craig Hafner at [email protected].

BEST PRACTICES FOR DENGUE PREVENTION AND CONTROL IN THE AMERICAS

In the past ten years, the number of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) cases has increased dramatically in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. In response to the growing need of health staff to address dengue prevention and control, USAID requested EHP to develop a document of best practices for the prevention and control of dengue fever.

The conceptual framework for the document is that of comprehensive, integrated dengue prevention and control, a framework the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) proposed in 1994, which is supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dengue Branch, and the World Health Organization (WHO). The best practices include 11 examples of practices currently in use in several countries–nine from the Americas, one from Southeast Asia, and one of global application. The best practices selected were those that are consistent with the conceptual framework and reasonably well established, and they were written by a range of contributors, each of whom was directly familiar with the practice.

The document is now available from EHP (see “New EHP Publications” below).

DHANUSHA-MAHOTTARI VECTOR-BORNE DISEASE PROGRAM: COMMUNITY-BASED PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF KALA-AZAR

With support from USAID/Nepal, EHP is collaborating with several local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the Nepal Ministry of Health in pilot testing community-based interventions for kala-azar prevention and control.

The pilot program was initiated in 2001 in Dhanusha and Mahottari, two kala-azar and malaria affected districts of the Terai region. Under the program, Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) and other community health workers, will play an important role. The training of FCHVs that is being conducted focuses on raising awareness at the community level, identification of kala-azar cases, and case referrals using specially-designed referral cards. Other community members such as Mother Child Health Workers (MCHWs), Village Health Workers (VHWs), and Village Development Committee (VDC) members are also being orientated to provide a support system for the FCHVs.

For information on the activity, please contact Lisa Nichols at [email protected].

SANITATION IN SMALL TOWNS: SUMMARY REPORT ON SUB-REGIONAL WORKSHOPS

EHP developed a practical tool with a ten-step methodology for designing a sustainable sanitation plan for small towns. The methodology was field tested in three countries. To disseminate the principles and methodology with practitioners and policy makers throughout Latin America, two workshops were held–one in Peru and the other in Honduras–by EHP in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Water and Sanitation Program.

The workshops provided a unique opportunity to discuss the issue of small town sanitation with participants from 12 countries, representing national and local governmental and non-governmental institutions, and the donor community. A report documenting the outcomes of the two workshops is now available from EHP. (See “New EHP Publications” below.)

USAID KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT INVENTORY

Three knowledge-based tools used by EHP to communicate activities and practices in environmental health were highlighted in the USAID Knowledge Management Inventory:

Information exchange networks on malaria and hygiene

E-conferences on safe excreta disposal and EHP’s Hygiene Improvement Framework

The EHP website and virtual library.

The Inventory, produced by USAID, seeks to raise awareness in the Agency of the depth and breadth of knowledge assets, tools and activities available to USAID employees and partners and is a product of the Knowledge Management Fair held by USAID in December. Approximately 250 people visited the Fair. A searchable database that lists the more than 100 knowledge assets presented is now available on-line from the Knowledge Fair website at www.dec.org/partners/km_fair along with more information on USAID’s knowledge sharing plans and fair exhibits. In addition, an inventory of activities can be found in the Knowledge Marketplace section of the web site at www.dec.org/partners/km_fair/knowledge/

NEW EHP PUBLICATIONS!

STRATEGIC REPORT 6. INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT MECHANISMS FOR COMMUNITY-MANAGED RURAL WATER SUPPLY & SANITATION SYSTEMS IN LATIN AMERICA

This report’s purpose is to provide guidance to organizations and individuals involved in the design and establishment of support mechanisms that contribute to a greater capacity for sustained community management of rural water supply and sanitation systems.

A 458 KB PDF version of the report will be available at: http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/Strategic_papers/SR-6.pdf

For more information or a hard copy of the report, contact [email protected]

STRATEGIC REPORT 7. BEST PRACTICES FOR DENGUE PREVENTION AND CONTROL IN THE AMERICAS

The best practices include 11 examples of practices currently in use in several countries–nine from the Americas, one from Southeast Asia, and one of global application. The examples selected are reasonably well established and consistent with the conceptual framework proposed by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 1994 for comprehensive, integrated dengue prevention and control.

A 645 KB PDF version of the document is available at: http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/Strategic_papers/SR-7.pdf