Failing better in the WASH sector
Interested in sharing your own experiences of failures in environmental and public health? We are currently accepting submissions for a Special Collection of the open access journal Environmental Health Insights!
Things can, and do, go wrong in water, sanitation and hygiene. In July 2018, an event at the Water Engineering Development Centre Conference in Nakuru, Kenya, “Blunders, Bloopers and Foul-ups: A WASH Game Show” inspired a call for WASH Professionals to publicly commit to sharing their failures and learning from one another. After months of iterations, including collecting feedback from the sector, we present to you:
The Nakuru Accord: failing better in the WASH sector
Transparency and accountability are necessary for achieving sustainable, positive impacts from water, sanitation and hygiene. As a WASH professional, I believe that we can achieve this through a culture of sharing and adaptation when things go wrong. To support this, I will:
- Promote a culture of sharing and learning that allows people to talk openly when things go wrong.
- Be fiercely transparent and hold myself accountable for my thinking, communication and action.
- Build flexibility into funding requests to allow for adaptation.
- Design long-term monitoring and evaluation that allows sustainability to be assessed.
- Design in sustainability by considering the whole life cycle.
- Actively seek feedback from all stakeholders, particularly end-users.
- Recognise that things go wrong, and willingly share these experiences, including information about contributing factors and possible solutions, in a productive way.
- Critically examine available evidence, recognising that not all evidence is created equal.
- Write and speak in plain language, especially when discussing what has gone wrong.
Please click here if you would like to sign The Nakuru Accord.
You can download a high resolution version of the Accord as a pdf or a png and stick it on your wall/door to spread the word and keep yourself accountable.
We also suggest adding to your email signature: I am a signatory to The Nakuru Accord: I believe that things can and do go wrong in WASH and I promote a culture of sharing and adaptation.
We’re excited to share that we have been awarded funding by the Royal Academy of Engineering for a project titled: “Amplifying local voices to reduce failure in the WASH sector”. The project began in October 2019 and is a collaboration between University of Leeds, University of KwaZulu-Natal, UNICEF Supply Division, National University of Science and Technology (Zimbabwe), University of Malawi Polytechnic, the MWANZA Centre (Tanzania), Cranfield University, York University, Imperial College London and Plymouth University.
Follow developments in this space on Twitter.
Signatories:
Organisations/groups (17)
Aguas dulces paraguayas
Duke University Center for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Infectious Disease (WaSH-AID)
Joe Brown and the Brown Water Group, Georgia Institute of Technology
Hameedah Poverty Relief Foundation
Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network
Prof. Kara Nelson and the Nelson Research Group
Water Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
Events (1)
Individuals (276 – 9 individuals have asked us not to share their names here)
Lino Deng Akot
Patrick Alubbe
Dale Andreatta, Ph.D.
Asegis
Alison Baggen
Richard G Baker
Philip Banda
Mitesh Baran
Dr Amita Bhakta
Marc Anthony Branch
Giorgio V. Brandolini
Titilola Bright-oridami
Lena Bunzenmeyer
Jasmine Burton
Dan Campbell
Ken Caplan
Robert Chambers
Colex Batison Chapendeka
Kondwani Chidziwisano
Vincent Chireh
Ajay Chouhan
Dr. Clément Cid
Erick Corimanya
Mimi Coultas
Crick
Allie Davis
Sengoga Desire
Awa Diagne
John Edwards
Franck Flachenberg
Melinda Foran
Blanca Rosa Garcia
Eduarda Giffoni
Fredrick Owino Gudda
Leonel Alberto Guitian Berniser
Stephanie Hamel
Dayna Hansberger
Tom Heath
Lucia Henry
Esmaeil Ibrahim
David Ibuyat
Janvier
Evalyne Kamau
Chilala H. Kapulu
Shula Kasongamulilo
Nicole Klaesener-Metzner
Mohamed S Koroma
Tyler Kozole
Vincent Kutai
Patricia Labina
Jenny Lamb
Dennis Langat
Puleng Letsie
Dr Laura MacDonald
John Macharia
Fiona Majorin
Fungai Makoni
Adrian Mallory
Rossanie Daudi Malolo
Nathaniel Mason
Onike Mcharo
Lisa Mitchell
Berta Moya
Margaret W. Maina
Gloria Magut
Regis Matimati
Mumba Matsautso S
Mbae Maureen
Principal Mdolo
Melese Mengistu
Emmanuel Kwaw Mensah
Luis Fernando Perez Mercado
Rebecca J Morante
Francis Musinguzi
Kennedy Musumba
Kate Neely, PhD.
Fangjun Niu
Martin Nyamai
Peter Nyamoko
Carolyne Achieng Odero
Wale Ojo
Eng. James Otieno Ouma
Umesh Pandey
Bruce Pelz
Sterenn Philippe
Elias Phiri
Grace Phiri
Chris Prottas
Mary Renwick
Becky Richardson
Bram Riems
Lona Robertson
Gloria D. Sclar
Kanika Singh
Kyla Smith
Santiago Septien Stringel
May Sule
Stephanie Tam
Orizzonte Terra
Aliwa Thomas
Anju Toolaram
S Townsend
Emily Van Houweling
Franziska Volk
Hugh Sharma Waddington
David Weatherill
Nicole Weber
Sian White
Eyob Yisfawossen
Fiona Majorin