Welcome to our first newsletter in 2018!
A lot has happened since our last newsletter in 2017 and we continue to work on a range of interesting projects and with committed and equally engaging clients. From research into policy influencing, strategic support to leading global NGOs, in-depth field research into sanitation financing and micro-financing mechanisms and the design of innovative faecal sludge management (FSM) approaches, our portfolio continues to grow, both in scale and in diversity.
We are happy to have Delia Sánchez Trancón fully on board with the team and she has settled in well since joining us in October last year. We are now working closely with Ajay Paul on the Welthungerhilfe initiative and we look forward to a growing collaboration with him. We thank our latest intern, Joe Patterson, who did a stint with us in March and look forward to working with new young professionals during the rest of 2018. .
Last month we were also delighted to announce a ‘giving back’ initiative which reflects our collective position to do more to support causes that we think can make a difference. As a group of like-minded staff we have decided to dedicate time and resources to global initiatives, but also very much include support or outreach to local organizations in the local area and the UK more widely.
Delia Sánchez Trancón, Will Tillett and Georges Mikhael from Aguaconsult will be at Stockholm World Water Week 2018. Email Delia, Will or Georges to set up a meeting or look out for them at the conference.
Please read on for more information on our work and areas of expertise, get in touch or visit our website and do share any feedback or comments with us here.
Warm wishes from the team - Nic, Melissa, Will, Julia, Georges, Goufrane, Delia and Harold
Project news
Our sanitation portfolio continues to grow and in September 2017, Aguaconsult was commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to undertake a review of experiences in engaging the private sector in FSM services. The review focussed on cities where BMGF and DFID had funded such initiatives, including Accra, Blantyre, Dakar, Durban, Freetown and Kampala.
We have now finalised a long-running research effort in Ghana in support of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water, via UNICEF funding, to identify financial allocations to sanitation at district level, a work following-up on the TrackFin initiative and conducted in association with Maple Consult. Preliminary findings from this study are here. Working with WSUP we are providing long-term business development support to Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company to scale up FSM management models with financing from the World Bank.
As a partner of the HEART advisory initiative led by OPM, Aguaconsult also recently completed a review of The Zambia Sanitation & Hygiene Programme funded by DFID. This is implemented by UNICEF and is one of the largest rural sanitation initiatives in Southern Africa and has made impressive gains to date.
We continue to be active members of the Agenda For Change (A4C) movement, bringing together a growing number of like-minded organisations committed to systems strengthening and making WASH services more sustainable. As part of A4C we are working with Water For People to strengthen district capacity in Rwanda to achieve universal access to sustainable services, through the development of a capital maintenance expenditure planning tool. Also linked to A4C, we continue to work closely with IRC of the Netherlands on an innovative systems learning initiative funded by the USAID Water Office to understand the barriers and potential solutions to the sustainability challenge.
We are providing strategic support to the new Sustainable Services Initiative of Welthungerhilfe which aims to improve the organisational focus on sustainability of WASH outcomes in three of their country programmes, namely Ethiopia, Nepal and Uganda. We are also providing strategic advice to WaterAid for their Sustainable WASH programme, funded by the H&M Foundation which supports four country programmes in applying WaterAid’s District Wide Approach.
Aguaconsult is finalising a global research project into the Civil Society Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (CS WASH) Fund financed by DFAT of the Australian government, which included primary and secondary data analysis from CSO partners. Aguaconsult led the research project and was responsible for the area of policy influencing; preliminary findings were shared at the WASH Futures Conference held in March.
Publications
Review of the engagement with the private sector for urban onsite sanitation services lessons in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
Goufrane Mansour (Aguaconsult) Didier Allely-Ferme and Robert Van-Ess (Maple Consul) have been focusing on Sanitation expenditure in 4 districts in Ghana on a review commissioned by the Environmental Health and Sanitation Department (EHSD) and with support from UNICEF Ghana.
A blog post by Julia Boulenouar
Aguaconsult's George Mikhael is supporting Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods - or SOIL - as part of Aguaconsults new Giving Back initiative.
