The World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg formally endorsed “partnerships” as a model for action. Likewise, USAID emphasized partnerships between governments, NGOs and private sector entities as a key strategy in developing a continuing focus on sustainable development. As a result of this global movement towards partnerships, the West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI) was launched.

Core partners in the Initiative representing a spectrum of international institutions include: the Hilton Foundation; World Vision International; USAID; UNICEF; the World Chlorine Council; the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development; WaterAid; Winrock International; the Desert Research Institute; the International Trachoma Initiative; the United Nations Foundation; and Lions Clubs International Foundation.

In its first five-year phase, the Initiative will invest over $40 million in small scale, potable water supply, sanitation, hygiene and integrated water resources management activities in Ghana, Mali and Niger.

A WAWI Partners Meeting was held on December 30, 2002, for team building, establishing working relationships, and organizing the partners around strategic and focused goals. USAID and EHP staff attended the meeting. EHP will play a leading/coordinating role in establishing and developing a core set of six to eight indicators to be used in the WAWI monitoring and evaluation system to monitor WAWI goals.

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

Malaria is a critical health problem in Uganda and has a dramatic impact on the health status of Uganda’s rural population. Recent data indicate that malaria is also a problem in urban areas.

EHP has initiated an activity in two cities, Kampala and Jinja, aimed at reducing urban malaria transmission. In the first year, the activity will identify mosquito breeding sites in areas at high risk for malaria, develop baseline data on breeding sites and malaria infection rates, and work with local stakeholders to develop an action plan for eliminating or controlling the breeding sites. The action plan will then be implemented during the second year, with regular monitoring to evaluate its impact on reducing local mosquito populations, biting rates and malaria transmission. The activity is co-funded by USAID’s Bureau for Global Health, Office of Health, Infectious Disease and Nutrition (USAID/GH/HIDN) and Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade, Office of Urban Programs (EGAT/ENV/UP), with cooperation and supervision from USAID/Kampala.

For more information about the activity, please contact Matt Lynch at [email protected] or Gene Brantly at [email protected].

Community Management of Environmental Health also known as GESCOME (Gestion Communautaire de la Sante Environnementale), a multi-year activity implemented by EHP in Benin, has been completed. Since September 1999, EHP has been working with USAID/Benin to optimize decentralized decision making related to diarrheal disease prevention in selected medium–sized towns.

The activity, which engaged citizens and government in local communities, resulted in the provision, under well-structured management, of much wanted and needed public latrines. Additionally, participatory community health communication (PCHC)——an innovative approach to cooperative learning by community and public health personnel——ensured proper use of latrines, resulting in reduced open air defecation. PCHC also led to improved hygiene behaviors such as handwashing after latrine use, covering food, covering water jars and increased general cleanliness of the environment. There was also a change in the understanding of causes of diarrhea and an increase in participatory decision making and solution finding related to health problems.

The GESCOME approach stresses the importance of decision making at the local level and coalition building between local government, civil society and communities to stimulate community changes in health understanding and health practices.

A report documenting lessons learned from the GESCOME experience is now available from EHP (see “New EHP Publications” below).

In response to the deteriorated urban environmental conditions in the country, the USAID Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (USAID/DRC) developed an urban environmental health strategy in collaboration with the USAID Regional Urban Development Office (RUDO/Africa). EHP provided the technical assistance.

The strategy provided a framework for USAID/DRC to implement its Urban Environmental Health Program, which included long-term and short-term interventions. Short-term interventions comprised three urban health pilot activities: market sanitation and hygiene in Kinshasa; water, sanitation and hygiene in Kananga; and a community-based environmental health program in Kinshasa. The three pilot projects, begun in 2000, have been completed, and a lessons learned exercise to identify key elements of the pilot activities that will lead to the design of long-term interventions has been conducted.

A lessons learned report is being prepared. For information on the availability of the report, please contact [email protected].

EHP has recently concluded six years of USAID-funded technical assistance in the Dominican Republic with the National Water Supply and Sewage Institute (INAPA). The objective of the technical assistance was to create an enabling environment at the national level through activities aimed to reform and strengthen INAPA, in order for INAPA to support and sustain community-owned/managed rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) and hygiene systems. A key portion of EHP’s assistance concentrated on reforming and capacity building of INAPA/Acueductos Rurales (INAPA/AR), a department within INAPA responsible for rural communities and rural water supply.

Technical assistance efforts comprised: advocacy and policy-related efforts including strategy development; development of three key documents (tools) used in numerous workshops and ongoing coaching of INAPA staff and collaborators; and field activities at rural communities to familiarize INAPA staff with a total community participation (TCP) model. The model promotes community-owned/managed RWSS systems and uses NGOs to implement projects.

A report documenting technical assistance efforts to INAPA, results of the efforts and lessons learned is now available from EHP (see “New EHP Publications” below).

STRATEGIC REPORT 4. CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR COMMUNITY-BASED RURAL WATER SUPPLY, SANITATION AND HYGIENE PROMOTION SYSTEMS. CASE STUDY: REFORMING THE RURAL DEPARTMENT OF THE NATIONAL WATER AGENCY (INAPA) IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

This report documents assistance given by EHP in the Dominican Republic on behalf of USAID and distills lessons learned from the experience that may be useful in designing interventions for creating enabling environments for the support of other community-owned/managed rural water supplies, sanitation and hygiene promotion.

A 599 KB PDF version of the report is now available at http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/Strategic_papers/SR4INAPAFinal.pdf

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

 

STRATEGIC REPORT 5. THE GESCOME DIFFERENCE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM GESTION COMMUNAUTAIRE DE SANTE ENVIRONNEMENTALE (GESCOME), THE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROJECT CESH BENIN ACTIVITY

The Benin GESCOME approach was an effective instrument for stimulating community changes in health understanding, and potentially health practices, as well as building and maintaining physical infrastructure (hardware) for diarrheal disease prevention in rural towns.

GESCOME showed that with minimum external supervision local communities could successfully establish and manage effective, decentralized, autonomous decision-making structures. To attain these results, the communities had to use and master low-cost, simple technologies that provided a desirable public service and were financed and sustained by public support.

The objective of this report is to review the experiences of the Benin GESCOME activity in order to draw broadly applicable lessons learned.

A PDF version of the report will be available at: http://www.ehproject.org/

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

 

EHP BRIEF 8. MALARIA CONTROL IN ERITREA

A 684 KB PDF version of the report is now available at http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/EHPBriefs/EHPB8.pdf

For more information or a hard copy, contact [email protected].

 

EHP BRIEF 9. INTEGRATED VECTOR MANAGEMENT FOR MALARIA CONTROL IN AFRICA

A 615 KB PDF version of the report is now available at http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/EHPBriefs/EHPB9.pdf

For more information or a hard copy, contact [email protected].

 

EHP BRIEF 10. Nepal Vector-Borne Disease Program Update

A 489 KB PDF version of the report is now available at http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/EHPBriefs/EHPB10.pdf

For more information or a hard copy, contact [email protected].

 

EHP BRIEF 11. A FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION: CHILD DIARRHEA PREVENTION

A 560 KB PDF version of the report is now available at http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/EHPBriefs/EHPB11.pdf

For more information or a hard copy, contact [email protected].

 

EHP BRIEF 12. LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUPPORT TO COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IN BENIN

A 565 KB PDF version of the report is now available at http://www.ehproject.org/PDF/EHPBriefs/EHPB12.pdf

For more information or a hard copy, contact [email protected].