Dear all

it is time for a wonderful update!

WASH United has been announced as one of the 10 winners of the LEGO Foundation's "Re-imaging Learning" competition. During the LEGO Idea conference in April 2015 this great video about our work and how we use games to create awareness and behavior change around WASH has been presented.




VIDEO on VIMEO


The video shows part of our WASH Challenge Cup event in Busia, with local partner YES. The WASH Challenge Cup is a East-African regional programme in partnership with streetfootballworld to develop and train organization from the field of sport 4 development and civil society to use our game-based trainings and event format.
Hope you like what you see

Dear Cor

i was finally able to receive answers by our partners and have time to respond

First off all, MEA CULPA, WASH United needs to get better in documenting and sharing the learnings with experts. A website and facebook and occasional webinar is not enough.

SDC had contracted EAWAG in Switzerland to evaluate the Yatra. The EAWAG website mentions that the final report would be ready by January 2013 but it has not yet been made available.

The research team from EAWAG has collected huge data sets from visitors, villagers and schools and were busy analysing it in January. They has submitted their first draft report to SDC in early April. Based on feedback by SDC and WASH United they have revised the document, which is awaiting pending approval.
I will definately share it here, once available.

I also contacted SDC about their intention to support a similar large media campaign in another continent, depending on the evaluation of the Yatra.

Yes, SDC is committed to do another media campaign for Africa. They are still screening potential countries, where the campaign can be embedded within current SDC-supported WASH programmes.
I cannot say more at this point about which countries and when, but it will be worth checking on SDC site for updates. www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/dfa/vrtrag/auss.html

replication, follow-up : The only tangible follow-up activity from the Yatra I could track was the construction of 5,000 toilets, as mentioned in a presentation by the new NGO WASH for India.

The Ministry of Rural Development is exploring what aspects of the Yatra lend themselves to replication at scale and had invited us to present to the heads of different states. We are at very advanced stage for a village-level Yatra, Nirmal Gram Mela. WASH for India also mentions with 5,000 Toilets under this new project. the NGM will use the lessons-learned and successes from the Yatra, but will be at a much smaller and thus more flexible scale. It aims to design a more guided learning & teaching for different target groups.

Of interest too is whether the government's involvement (some used the term term "hijacking") hindered or helped the campaign. Minister Jairam Ramesh's remark at the launch of the Yatra that “the country needs more toilets than temples” sparked considerable political controversy and three weeks later he was stripped of his additional post as Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation.

It definately helped!
The government on State and National level gave huge support in providing land, the stage, security, the logistics and food for bringing people who attended the Yatra in each stop. (the value is around 500,000 USD).
Having the minister attend the event, also attracted many adult people.
And, even more important was his involvement in terms of advocacy: after he went into the Menstrual Hygiene Lab, he said to his ministers " we need to include MHM into the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan". A huge success, because 2 weeks prior, the government did not want to have MHM as a 3rd issue during the launch / press conference, and it opened the chance for our partner WSSCC to engage on policy advocacy even better.

This particular quote was very very controversial and thus got covered widely. Well, he stressed an interesting point, no ? On the second event he stressed very much "no toilet- no bride"
He was not necessarily removed from the post because of the quote, the government shuffle was schedule long time before. But even his successor came to visit the Yatra, which shows the support by GoI to the NBY.

Overall, the government support was crucial. On the downside it made the planning processes more complicated and long, as you might can imagine.

Dear Ina,

Thanks for forwarding my questions to WASH United and EAWAG.

The Yatra was unique in terms of its scale and extensive media coverage. Of interest too is whether the government's involvement (some used the term term "hijacking") hindered or helped the campaign. Minister Jairam Ramesh's remark at the launch of the Yatra that “the country needs more toilets than temples” sparked considerable political controversy and three weeks later he was stripped of his additional post as Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation.

There is a lot to learn from an evaluation of the Yatra, not in the least if it takes into the political aspects as well.

Cor

Dear Ina,
Thanks for taking your time to provide these comprehensive replies to my questions. Your approach of using entertainment and playfulness, I think is a very efficient way to get people engaged and talk about issues such as personal hygiene that may be a taboo.

Regarding the link between soft and hardware; I agree that when raising the awareness of sanitation it is important to provide the tools for people to make a change. Promoting how to construct a simple toilet, like an arboloo (in the rural/peri-urban context), might be a good and appropriate solution that the families can pursue with minor efforts. This would be a toilet that is possible to upgrade, in Peter Morgan manner, when the family has acquired resources or when some external support is available.

Looking forward to hear more about your findings in the future!

Thanks and best regards,
Kim

@Cor:

thanks for your questions, that i guess many other people might have as well.

i shared the question with the team in India (WASH for India) and EAWAG, and hope to provide you with a consolidated answer soon.

Best greetings from WWWEEK

INA*

Dear Kim
Thanks for your questions. let me respond to each question

Did you see a difference in response by your target groups from your campaigns, if you compare issues like hand washing (that often requires less technical interventions) compared to access to a toilet (that will require a significant effort to achieve)?

In India a team of EAWAG (Hans-Joachim Mosler and Elisabeth Seimetz) have done an extensive research on behaviour an behavioural factors for handwashing with soap of a) visitors of the yatra, b) female caretakers in village households and c) schools using the RANAS Model. we internally did an additional evaluation with our target schools 3 months after the Yatra.
a) the visitors of the Yatra showed an increased awareness on the risks of not washing hands.
b) unfortunately most of female households interviewed for baseline were not able to visit the Yatra.
c) in the schools was a mixed bag: in our internal evaluation many schools reported that they continued WASH education. There has been a few schools who toured on their communities with WASH song& dance to collect funds for hardware improvements However, lack of appropriate infrastructure and maintenance of tippytaps was an issue.
I am sure they can tell more details, and the study will be available in this year.

In Kenya and Uganda we undertook a polling around our public toilet campaigns and knowledge and behaviour change in schools, that revealed these changes.
I am still working on a small paper that gives the overview on our results.

In your lessons learned you state that it is important to link software interventions with hardware. How did you do this and how are you planning to do this with success in the future phases? Were you able to provide support for people who wanted to know more or get access to technical assistance, funds, etc.?

the yatra and all our other activities are foremost awareness campaign to increase awareness, and the objectives was not to build hardware or increased numbers of villages & households stopping ODF/ . then the campaign would have been different.
But combining soft&hardware is especially crucial for schools, where the lack of adequate infrastructure inhibits the uptake and continuation of behaviour. So we addressed that by including a TippyTap (played as game competition) into our curricula, and to leave it in school. We also collected data on school situation, which revealed that bugdets for O&M are far to small, and facilitated a local stakeholder meeting with schools and government to address the issue.
The government supported the Great WASH YATRA , because of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, and thus the local state government had their own exhibitions and staff/ + local NGOs at the stops to explain the shame and local technical options.

One of your project objectives was about closing the relevance-gap between WASH and other more attractive development issues. Which were the main achievements, challenges and lessons learnt regarding this objective?

as stated below, we were able to bring "dirty issues" sanitation and Hygiene into fora such as the CECAFA cup, SuperSport or the great Ethiopian Run where typically the other charity partners are malaria or Hiv/AIDS. i think the success is, because we address it in a fun way (such as the inflatable puppets) and have good story and some good examples already, the partners become interested.
one challenge is that some of these associations/ media expect large budgets from us, but we need to explain that we are "charity" and not a commercial partner. One lesson-learned is, that if you work with the right champions and a good story, you can open doors to associations/media/ and leverage your campaign.


Hope these answered helped.
greetings from WWW
INA

Dear Ina,

Thanks for your overview of WASH United's activities in Africa and Asia.

Back in February I asked WASH United about the follow-up/impact of the Great WASH Yatra in India. The request was passed on to your India office, but I never received an answer. I also contacted SDC about their intention to support a similar large media campaign in another continent, depending on the evaluation of the Yatra. Again I received no reply. SDC had contracted EAWAG in Switzerland to evaluate the Yatra. The EAWAG website mentions that the final report would be ready by January 2013 but it has not yet been made available.

Could you please provide an update on the above? From what I read on the Yatra website , I understand that a Yatra preparatory team had spoken to local government to get their support for the Yatra and follow-up activities. Do you have some examples of such follow-up activities?

The only tangible follow-up activity from the Yatra I could track was the construction of 5,000 toilets, as mentioned in a presentation by the new NGO WASH for India .

The Yatra generated a massive amount of publicity, but as yet there is little evidence that it has had a significant, lasting impact.

Cor Dietvorst
IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

Dear Ina,
Thanks for the very fascinating and colorful post about your project on WASH campaigns.

Did you see a difference in response by your target groups from your campaigns, if you compare issues like hand washing (that often requires less technical interventions) compared to access to a toilet (that will require a significant effort to achieve)?

In your lessons learned you state that it is important to link software interventions with hardware. How did you do this and how are you planning to do this with success in the future phases? Were you able to provide support for people who wanted to know more or get access to technical assistance, funds, etc.?

One of your project objectives was about closing the relevance-gap between WASH and other more attractive development issues. Which were the main achievements, challenges and lessons learnt regarding this objective?

Thanks and best regards,
Kim A.

Dear all,
as a Bill & Melinda Gates grantee, we would like to share here our project that has been recently concluded - with big success

WASH United is an award-winning Berlin-based international social impact organization that uses the power of sports superstars, interactive games and positive communication to promote safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for all.



Name of lead organization: WASH United (contractual management by GIZ)

Primary contact at lead organization: Thorsten Kiefer, CEO; Ina Jurga, Head of WASH in Schools

Grantee location: Berlin, Germany

Developing country where the project has been carried out: Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Lesotho, India.

Short description of the project:
Under the grant, WASH United has implemented the following activities in the target countries of Uganda, Ethiopia, Lesotho and Kenya: i) Public awareness campaigns ii) Media work and iii) WASH in Schools (except Ethiopia).

In India, where we had originally only planned a small test campaign on cricket grew, our idea for a travelling WASH carnival caught the imagination of the entire sector. In the end, actors such as the Government of India, Arghyam, SDC, Unicef, WSSCC, WaterAid and many more joined the “Nirmal Bharat Yatra/Great WASH Yatra” to turn it into a multi-channel mega-campaign

Goal(s):
Goal of the project was to raise the profile of and the awareness for sanitation and hygiene in Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho and Uganda, both among the general public and among poor and marginalized people.
Purpose: to tackle the taboos related to sanitation and hygiene and raise the profile of sanitation and hygiene in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Objectives:
WASH United programme has defined the following 3 objectives:
1. Close the relevance-gap between WASH and other more attractive development issues and turn WASH into a key social and development issue;
2. Promote WASH behavior change in schools and football teams that can reduce morbidity and mortality from diarrheal diseases among children and adolescents;
3. Build WASH United’s capacity to engage in a broader range of campaigns, regions, and audiences.

Start and end date:
30 September 2011 - 30 October 2015

Grant type:
“Other” (Global Development Grant)

Funding for this research currently ongoing (yes/no):
This phase is now finalized. We are awaiting follow-up funding programme.

Research or implementation partners:
GIZ has managed the Grant on behalf of WASH United. In countries we have strategic partners and country coordinators.

• Ethiopia: WASH Ethiopia Movement
• Kenya: Hakijami Trust, from March 2013 onwards own office team. Local partners have been Matahare Youth Sport Association (MYSA), Hodari and Our Child Foundation.
• Uganda: Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET) with local partners YES, CIDI, Divine Waters, and Kampala City Council Authority.
• India: Quicksand, from December 2012 onwards own project team

Links, further readings – results to date:
www.wash-united.org
www.facebook.com/WASHUnited
www.nirmalbharatyatra.org (for the Great WASH Yatra , see below)

We calculated that 59,582,454 people (including 6,156,105 poor and marginalized) across the target countries Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho and Uganda have been reached through public awareness raising campaigns, and almost 55 Mio through appearances in the media.
36,711 children and adolescents have completed WASH United's football-based WASH training and participated in WASH Football Tournaments.

Biggest successes so far:
There were many activities this year, so please check also our website and facebook site. Here is a small selection:

The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) and WASH United agreed on an official charity partnership around the 2012 Tusker Challenge Cup - the East-African Football Cup- with the goal of promoting hand-washing with soap across Eastern and Central Africa under the slogan “Protecting the beautiful game”. WASH United was also able to promote hand-washing with soap during the Great Ethiopian Run, the largest city run in Africa established by Haile Gebresselassie.




In Nairobi we teamed up with Ecotact and Kampala with Kampala City Council Authority to display hand-washing and toilet use messages in the public toilets, in Ethiopia we used the minibuses thus reaching to a large number of visitors at the point of contact.

The Nirmal Gram Mela / The Great WASH Yatra , was an unprecedented multi-channel mega-awareness campaign led by WASH United and Quicksand that took place from 4 October 2012 to 19 November 2012 in India. The Nirmal Bharat Yatra was designed to raise the importance of sanitation , hand-washing with soap and menstrual hygiene management among different target groups in India. The Yatra carnival travelled 1,950 km, and reached 230 million people through the media, engaged 160,000 visitors directly and trained 8,414 children in good WASH behavior. WASH United managed to leverage the Foundation’s investment in our work in India to attract more than USD 2 million of additional funding and in-kind contributions from Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), the Government of India, Arghyam and WSSCC.






In the WASH In Schools programme evidence of increased knowledge and behavior change was documented, that proves the success of the fun and game based curricula.

Main challenges / frustration:
An extensive project planning period resulted in a delay of the kick-off of activities in almost all countries. It was really challenging to implement the WASH In schools programme only in 1 term. In the end, proper preparation and good project management on the side of WASH United headquarter and partners helped to implement the programmes in a shortened implementation period and still over-achieve the agreed targets.

During the project period, Kenya was in the midst of negotiating a change in guard at the political level. Given the unfortunate events of 2007-2008 that saw widespread violence specifically within Nairobi’s informal settlements, community members have become more cautious about public meetings and activities.

There have been many requests to expand campaign activities, that we could not address under the current grant.

Lessons learned
The CECAFA Cup and the Great Ethiopian Run, helped to reach large audiences with hand-washing messages. Those events in particular underlined WASH United’s capacity to build exciting partnerships with high-level sports events to create highly compelling stories around WASH issues and reach tens of millions of people with such content through partnerships with the media. The role of stars - as role models for children and as door-openers for the media – remains very important.

In the WASH in Schools programme, it is important to link WASH United’s effective software interventions as much as possible with appropriate sanitation and hand-washing hardware - ideally through a partnership with other WASH actors or alongside government programmes - in order to facilitate and sustain behavioral change.

Through the Monitoring &Evaluation strategy, WASH United built a robust system to monitor outcomes and quality and capture lessons learned.

Looking forward to exchange with you in this Forum!