Seen on twitter: Presentations & photos from the March WASHFutures conference in Brisbane are now available to download. Included are videos from the opening and closing plenaries and keynote presentations, along with audio PDFs of all the conference presentations, access here: ow.ly/Sscn30jk0wf

(to listen to the audio pdfs you might have to update your Adobe reader and flash player, like I had to do - actually I couldn't get it to work in the end for my laptop)

The formatting of the names and titles and links looks much nicer on their website (link above) but I copy it here just to wet your appetite, and to show you the thumbnail previews of the Youtube videos:

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Opening Plenary Opening Address Senator the Hon Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Youtube video:

Keynote Presentation 1 Citywide Inclusive Sanitation: Going to scale and leaving no one behind Maria Angelica Sotomayor, World Bank Youtube video:

Keynote Presentation 2 Resilient sanitation services in the cities of the future; how collaboration can take us to scale Prof. Barbara Evans, University of Leeds Youtube video:

Panel Achieving WASH at Scale Facilitator: Professor Barbara Evans, University of Leeds

Shri Parmaeshwaran Iwer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India;

Chreay Pom, Director, Department of Rural Health Care, Ministry of Rural Development, Cambodia;

Rudy Prawiradinata, Deputy BAPPENAS for Regional Development, Government of Indonesia.



Keynote Presentation 3 Managing water resources in Australia – lessons of international relevance to WASH Dr Nick Schofield, Australian Water Partnership Youtube video:

Keynote Presentation 4 Bending the curve: Changing behaviour in national sanitation programmes Prof. Val Curtis, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Youtube video:

Closing Plenary Youtube video:

Dear colleagues,
In addition to highlights above I will wish to submit as well that;
The main highlight of the WASH Futures conference is collaboration for universal WASH coverage. Involving the women, men, disabled and vulnerable groups to accelerate and promote WASH with equity and nondiscrimination. Among the highlights of the WASH Future conference is the practical approaches to gender equity and nondiscrimination in the WASH sector by recognizing and valuing the roles of women achieving the SDGs 6.

Conference highlighted on city wide inclusive sanitation: going to scale and leaving no one behind which addressed fecal sludge management to ensure environment and public health safety. Affordability of sanitary services which is meant to make the environment safe and the need for strong local connection to leverage fecal sludge management. Prof. Barbara Evans, University of Leeds highlighted resilient sanitation services in the cities of the future; how collaboration can take us to scale.

From India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi championing the ODF programme which has become the people’s movement, creating demand for construction of toilets by household. Foster use by behavioural change through proactive political will, engagement and community approaches to sanitation and information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns.

The Early Career Café: Accelerating your WASH Career provided me the opportunity to interact with consultants, researchers and facilitators. Learn from their wealth of experience in the WASH sector, challenges and success stories, good practices and share ideas for collaboration.

Here comes my last post regarding feedback from this conference. It is about
Day 4 Brisbane WASH Futures Conference
by Arti Indallah Tjakranegara and Saniya Niska from SNV Indonesia (thank you!)

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Dear WASH Colleagues,

Greetings from sunny Brisbane. It’s with a pleasure that we, Saniya and Arti from SNV Indonesia, share you the highlight of the 2nd day of training here in WASH Futures 2018.

Today’s training is divided into 6 interesting sessions, which are Working within health systems: Improving WASH in HCF to drive quality health care, Push and Pull: what’s motivating corporates to support SDG6?, A foundation on behaviour change design and implementation, Leaving no one behind-ensuring equality and non-discrimination in sanitation, A framework for national and local level sector strengthening, and lastly is WASH resilience in a changing climate.

Since Saniya joined the Leaving no one behind-ensuring EQND session and Arti involved in WASH resilience in a changing climate session, we will bring you towards some snapshots from those sessions.
Facilitated by WSSCC/GSF, SNV and UTS/ISF the first of these two was started by the presentation on progress of water & sanitation as a human right, followed by a participatory exercise that we looked at several disadvantages, analysed it, and concluded that we need to look at hidden vulnerability, as well as don’t make any assumption out of it, and we understand that the challenges vary, depend on the social settings. We also had another exercise on challenges and good practices to ensure the participation of the potentially disadvantaged groups.

Both Dr. Sarah House and Gabrielle Halcrow, and our colleagues from SNV Bhutan and Nepal brought the examples from the field where we face a lot of challenges in access to sanitation for the elderly, PwD, single-headed HH, also MHM issue at the school level. Conservative social setting also creates a double burden for women in several countries.

The last group work discussed the priority action to increase the attention and efforts on those who may be potentially disadvantaged at programme, community, and enabling environment levels, as well as to establish a good M&E system. One of the agreed actions to prioritise is a clear identification of who the disadvantaged groups are. Further work to do is an advocacy and partnership with organisations who focus on the EQND.

Next, the session that facilitated by UNICEF and Riscon Solutions Ltd. Roger Singleton started the session with the introduction of the effect of climate change in the WASH sector. It was followed by the exciting discussion from the participants to determine “resilience” meaning, at least for this training session. We agreed the resilience is “the ability of communities and their WASH systems, the infrastructure for water and sanitation schemes, and the people who are managing them, to adapt to changing conditions in their environment, absorb negative impacts/shocks, and have the ability to recover. We concluded this definition could cover the social, environmental, and technical aspects of resilience.

This one-day session was divided into three major part of exercise and group work which reflected the situation from village level, sub-national level, and national level. We worked and discussed based on 6 villages, 3 sub-national, and one national level case study which brought the discussion towards several resilience factors in the WASH sector that we need to be aware of.

On the community level session, we started from examining the current condition of WASH through water access and availability assessment, WASH provision and associated risk assessment. We learned that even in the community level, the ability to examine the existing WASH condition, tracking the supply of water, and balancing the supply and demand were a really critical aspect to increase the community resilience and make the appropriate water safety plan. In the sub-national level session, there was a lot of discussion about the role of sub-national level especially in the prioritising process, monitoring, and evaluation activity. Then, the national level session discussed more into how to channel and arrange the resource efficiently and incorporate resilient and climate change issues into WASH national policy. In the end, the resilience of WASH in changing climate needs to be considered and mainstreamed in the all of the levels of the institution from national to village level. It needs the collaborative effort to look backward and forward and prepare for all of the possible scenario. Lastly, we have a lovely dinner with all of the training participant as the closing of the day.

Regards,

Arti Indallah Tjakranegara and Saniya Niska
SNV Indonesia

Here are reflections about Day 2 of said conference, thanks to Maria from SNV:

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Maria Carreiro
March 6

Dear WASH colleagues,

Greetings from Brisbane. My name is Maria Carreiro, WASH sector leader for SNV Indonesia, and it’s with pleasure that I share a snapshot of the 2nd day of the WASH Futures Conference 2018.

The day started with the plenary session and two key note speeches. The first was delivered by Dr. Nick Schofield, from the Australian Water Partnership. He shared different experiences of integrated water resources management and how the learnings derived from these processes can be of use to the WASH sector globally. Findings from Australia, Indonesia, Iran and India showcased the challenges of integrated water resources management and WASH and highlighted the need for constructive dialogue, management of conflicting perspectives and of addressing long term sustainability vs immediate priorities. He concluded his presentation by emphasising the central role that SDG 6 has for the achievement of all SDGs.

The second key note speech was delivered by Professor Val Curtis from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Referring to India’s goal of becoming an open defecation free country by the 2nd October 2019, Professor Val highlighted the relevance that strong leadership (with results publicly acknowledged and symbolically rewarded), creation of a sense of urgency and achievement (derived from live on line monitoring), and the built up on “islands of success” (such as the involvement of influencers and movie stars in the process, or the role women groups play at the local level) as the critical factors pushing for the meaningful progress achieved to date. Building also on a similar country wide movement initiated recently in Tanzania, she shared the main lessons learned: (i) good sanitation is politically rewarding for leaders; (2) the setting of Big Hairy Ambitious Goals (BHAG); (iii) critical role of governments in establishing an inspiring vision, and to coordinate, plan and inspire, with development partners filling in critical gaps; (iv) the importance of imagination and creativity and of both emotion and reason.

After the plenary, conference participants moved on to the 6 thematic parallel sessions. The session dedicated to Hygiene Behaviour Change saw 6 presentations detailing BCC experiences in Tanzania, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Bhutan and Indonesia, from LSTHM, WaterAid, East meet West Foundation and SNV. Targeted behaviours included hand washing with soap, also at schools, management of infant faeces and child feeding practices. Despite the variety of experiences and results, commonalities were observed on the consistent use of research for the design of interventions, regular monitoring and the embeddedness of lessons learned in new interventions. Though no “silver bullet” exists, it was concluded that paying additional attention to the setting (as in enabling environments that facilitate the desired behaviour), rigorous theories of change, identification of the most efficient triggers, focusing on single behaviours (rather than multiple at the same time) as well as broadening the scope of the targeted audiences (not just mothers or traditional caregivers, for instance) delivered more substantial and sustainable results.

After lunch, another 6 thematic sessions were delivered to the conference participants. The panel of speakers dedicated to “working with and mobilising private sector” shared their experiences in Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, from Asia p3Hub, World Vision, Plan International, ISF-UTS and iDE. Ideas presented included the services required to take sanitation businesses to scale, on how to leverage private investment to increase disability adapted sanitation access, on fostering connections between governments and enterprises, on building the skills of practitioners and on ways of creatively combining tried and tested ideas for innovation. Key findings included the need to deepen the understanding of WASH enabling environments, consistent monitoring, moving from a needs-driven to demand driven approaches, iterative product and systems design processes, building/modular construction for people with disabilities, on combining viability with desirability and feasibility, sustaining sources of finance and on developing pro-poor mechanisms.

The final session of the day, back in plenary, marked the closure of the WASH Futures 2018 Conference. The conference committee discussed the highlights of this edition, referring in particular to the increased sophistication and nuance of the discussions around gender issues, to the continuous challenge of multi-stakeholder, multi-level collaborations and to the opportunities for furthering scale, as governments increase ambition and investments, while the SDGs and technological innovations bring new space and exciting possibilities. Representatives from the participants highlighted the increased relevance of gender debates in general and on Menstrual Hygiene Management in particular, as well as the political push for the WASH agenda in the Pacific.

Final word came from the DFAT representative, with the Conference thanking the Australian Government for remaining in the forefront of WASH knowledge development and innovation globally.

The Conference was closed by a representative of the Traditional Custodians.

A Conference Dinner, that included the Awards Ceremony for WASH posters, innovative WASH ideas and Students Big Ideas marked the end of a very successful and rewarding edition of the WASH Futures Conference.

Kind regards,

MARIA CARREIRO
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector Leader

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation
Jl. Kemang Timur Raya 66| 12730 Jakarta Selatan | Indonesia

I attended part of this conference. It had about 350 attendees, mostly from Australia and neighbouring countries in Asia and the Pacific plus some people from Africa and Europe. There were quite a few SNV staff members and their counterparts present. They use a Dgroup system for learning and sharing. From their Dgroup on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene group for Asia (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) I copy the following summary posts about the conference. Thanks to Gabrielle and Kencho for sharing. I'll copy the feedback from Day 2 to 4 in separate posts over the coming days in order not to overload you with everything in one go.

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Dear colleagues

Sharing below for your interest the reflections from the SNV Bhutan team of Day 1 of the Brisbane WASH Futures Conference 5-9th March

Gabrielle



From: "Wangdi, Kencho" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 5 March 2018 at 9:30 PM
Subject: reflections Day 1 WASH Futures Conference

Hi! And greetings from Brisbane WASH Futures Conference. Today (5th March 2018) is Day 1 of the Conference.

The Welcome and the panel sessions were facilitated by Professor Barbara Evans from University of Leeds. The conference was opened by the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Senator the Hon’ble Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. She highlighted the global state of affairs with regard to access to water and sanitation and stated that without addressing Water & Sanitation challenges , achievement of SDG goals will be next to impossible. The Senator also mentioned that Hygiene Promotion is the most cost benefit investment in WASH with a return of about $ 5 for $ 1 investment.

In her key note presentation, Ms. Maria Angelica from World Bank pointed out that WASH should address the whole Sanitation Service Chain in urban (city and small towns) sanitation or we risk failure in our endeavours. Integrated urban sanitation services should encompass a) solid waste, b) storm water, c) latrines, d) septic tanks and e) sewerage networks.

Prof. Barbara pointed out urban sanitation services should be
(i) Resilient to shocks (below) with ability to deliver quickly with low marginal costs.
a. Population growth
b. Climate change – flood and drainage challenges
c. Political disruptions – should not be (fully) dependent on champions, but focus on institutionalising BCC, which is not well developed or thought through in urban sanitation
(ii) Affordability of services
(iii) Technical – look at how to sell sanitation on its virtues (eg: as part of other developments like energy and food chain) and not focussing only on the problems it presents
(iv) Long-run commitments

The urban sanitation service provider (organisations) should be strong but flexible: who can provide core services and who can quickly respond to shocks.

There were 2 thematic sessions with 6 parallel sessions at one time. Highlights/takeaways from the sessions we attended are:
1. Faecal Sludge Management for Rural Population
a) When do we know faecal waste is safe to handle – when it is (at least) dry and when the liquid/affluent (at least) is clear.
b) Rural Faecal Sludge Ladder and where a type of toilet (technology) falls within this ladder
c) The need to empower (build capacity) of local sanitation facilitators and masons on safe management – how can they influence the choices of toilet technology by households and return on investment in the medium to long term.
2. Using Evidence to Influence and Inform Strategies, Approaches and Policy
a) Ownership of data and findings at local level – how can we increase that ownership, and the role(s) the central level agencies and local government/agencies can play
b) On water supply front, should move from “access to drinking water” to “access to safe drinking water”. SDG has three more assessment levels as compared to MDGs
c) Innovations should be seen from i) new solutions to challenges, ii) adoptions of existing solutions to address challenges, and iii) should demonstrate incremental updates.
3. Women and WASH enterprises
a. Engaging women in the sanitation supply chain
b. Empowering women as participants in the rural WASH market
c. Talking about overcoming challenges and barriers at the structural, environmental and individual levels for women’s successful entrepreneurship in Melanesia
d. Formative research on MHM in the pacific
4. Gender Equality and WASH
a. Strategies for gender equality and inclusion in WASH at scale: key messages include the need to be conscious about WASH approaches to be GESI-responsive, think intersectionality, twin track approaches and align or integrate with other gender and empowerment initiatives
b. Empowering women through sanitation at hh, community and institutional levels: by partnering with the most strategic partner and in this case the Vietnam Women’s Union for positive outcomes.
c. Affecting hygiene behaviour change through netball in PNG
d. The importance of networks: key messages: social networks are important to consider both as part of interventions and as part of measurement and learning, because they capture aspects of reality that are not captured otherwise. They are particularly relevant to consider when working with women.

The day’s formal session ended with a Panel discussion on Achieving WASH at Scale and was facilitated by Prof. Barbara Evans with representations from India (Clean India Mission), Cambodia (National Action Plan for Rural WASH, and Indonesia (Water HIBAH and Sanitation HIBAH programme). The main points of discussions were on
- The current programme activities build on earlier initiatives and is going to scale.
- Political commitments
- Investments : human resources, capacity building and financial
- Decentralisation and collaboration : Central and local governments
- Ownership of the programme activities at different levels, especially in countries like India and Indonesia
- Investments (time) required to build and get in consensus from all stakeholders, including private sectors
- M&E and verification processes
- Mechanisms/forums where local and central governments come together
- Inclusion and how these big programmes address the “Leave No-one Behind”
- Private sector engagement

Tshering Choden and Kencho Wangdi
SNV Bhutan

WASH Futures Conference 2018
I am preparing as an author and a participants. Hope to meet many SuSanA member in the conference. Are we going to have a stand in the conference?
Are there WSSCC member in the forum hoping to meet you all.

Paper Title: Menstrual hygiene management in Nigeria: Strategy for multisectoral collaboration
Principal author: Daniel Iroegbu
Organisation: Daniel Iroegbu Global Health Foundation

Only five weeks left to register for the WASH Futures Conference 2018. Delivered over five days, including a two-day conference and three days of training workshops, the event will be held in Brisbane, Australia 5 – 9 March 2018 and will explore the core theme of Collaboration for Universal WASH.

Hosted by the International WaterCentre in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, WASH Futures will bring together water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) professionals from around the world to share innovations and evidence about ways to achieve a future in which the WASH needs for all are sustained. Learn more and register here: washfutures.com/

Only THREE WEEKS left to secure your early bird registrations for the WASH Futures Conference 2018. Delivered over five days, including a two-day conference and three days of training workshops, the event will be held in Brisbane, Australia 5 – 9 March 2018.

WASH Futures 2018 Conference will explore the core theme of Collaboration for Universal WASH. Hosted by the International WaterCentre in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the conference will bring together WASH actors from around the world to share innovations and evidence about ways to achieve a WASH future in which water, sanitation and hygiene needs for all are sustained.

The five day program comprises a two day conference and three days of training workshops, and will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the following topics:

Financing and investing to achieve universal and sustainable WASH systems
Collaborative and effective WASH enabling environments
Equitable WASH
Women and sustainable WASH
Sustainable WASH for rural populations
Urban water and sanitation systems
WASH service delivery beyond households
Hygiene for personal health and wellbeing
Integrating WASH with water security and other sectors
Achieving SDG6 in Pacific Island Countries

Delegates will hear from distinguished international Keynote Speakers including Professor Barbara Evans (Chair in Public Health Engineering, University of Leeds) and Professor Val Curtis (Environmental Health Group Director, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).

A Panel Discussion: Achieving WASH at Scale will also provide delegates with an opportunity to hear from representatives from the governments of India, Cambodia and Indonesia on their challenges and strategies for achieving successful large-scale WASH. The discussion will be facilitated by Professor Barbara Evans and provides an opportunity to discuss the lessons and insights from three countries implementing water, sanitation and/or hygiene at large scales.

More information
For more information on the WASH Futures Conference 2018 and to register please visit: www.washfutures.com

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

WASH Futures 2018 Conference

5 - 9 March, 2018

Brisbane, Australia

Abstract submissions for the WASH Futures 2018 Conference are now being accepted from interested individuals or groups for oral or poster presentations, and training workshops. Submit your abstract before 15 June 2017.

WASH Futures 2018 Conference, hosted in Brisbane, Australia 5 - 9 March, will explore the core theme of Collaboration for Universal WASH. Hosted by the International WaterCentre in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the conference will gather a wide range of practitioners and professionals from industry and private sectors, governments and academic institutions to contribute to the broader international WASH dialogue and share knowledge with the Australian WASH community and partners.

The five day program comprises a two day conference and three days of training workshops, and will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the following topics:

• Financing and investing to achieve universal and sustainable WASH systems
  
• Collaborative and effective WASH enabling environments
  
• Equitable WASH
  
• Women and sustainable WASH
  
• Sustainable WASH for rural populations
  
• Urban water and sanitation systems
  
• WASH service delivery beyond households
  
• Hygiene for personal health and wellbeing
  
• Integrating WASH with water security and other sectors
  
• Achieving SDG6 in Pacific Island Countries

WASH 2018 Abstract submission
Abstracts are invited from interested individuals or groups, on the conference topics, or other relevant topics. Collaborations between organisations are encouraged, as are teams of trainers/workshop presenters, to enable a diversity of experiences from conceptual/academic to practice.

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT
www.conferenceonline.com/abstract/alogin...=1&warehouse_id=1412

A conference program of oral presentations, with specific thematic sessions and streams, will be developed based upon the abstracts accepted. Submitted abstracts must align with one or more of the above topics (abstracts may align with more than one numbered topic, and do not necessarily need to align with a specific dot point listed under each topic online).

The Conference Committee will also review abstracts and work in partnership with selected training/workshop teams to ensure the training program delivers high quality opportunities for building the capacity of delegates.

More information
For more information and to submit an abstract please visit the WASH Futures 2018 website: washfutures.com/abstracts/