Dear Depinder and Paresh,

Quite a worthwhile discussion. Very similar experiences can be found on the African continent. Currently, many African countries have taken several measures to strengthen their ability to prevent and stop covid-19. It is great to see the RUSR highlighting the importance of timely, relevant, and actionable inputs for policymakers.

Some African governments, as part of their Covid-19 response plans, quickly carried out activities aimed at ensuring that water is made available to members of their communities by drilling boreholes and mobilising water tankers to supply water. In order to maintain handwashing practices and improve public health, governments should find fiscal space to sustain the initiatives that are put in place. There should be a continuity in the distribution of handwashing facilities to communities and public places

South Africa is one of the countries in Africa that has been terribly hit by the virus with the number of cases increasing by the
day and this is where a similar approach to the framework you mentioned Depinder comes in... The National Department of Health has developed guidelines for members of the public to adhere to during this period. www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/0...TH-GUIDELINE-1-3.pdf 

The importance of safely managed water supply, sanitation and hygiene services, and medical waste management cannot be ignored or avoid further transmission of the virus. For example in Ethiopia, resources were mobilised to respond to Covid-19 emergency. Working hand in hand with the Ministry of Health and the Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority, it was of importance to ensure all healthcare facilities access to water. Additionally, water pumps and boreholes in Addis have been replaced and rehabilitated to provide services to those living in this dense urban area. www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water/brief/w...hygiene-and-covid-19

You can also read about how in Tanzania, hand hygiene is being promoted in prisons during this Covid-19 period. An emergency hand hygiene in prisons is encompassing the installation of handwashing stations.  hygienehub.info/en/case-studies/tanzania...sons-during-covid-19

I strongly believe we have achieved so much in hand-hygiene promotion during this pandemic and have taken real ownership of these interventions as countries in the global south. 

Regards,
Chaiwe

Pleased to share the documentation of urban sanitation response by Indian Cities - a documentation of actions taken during the 4 months of lockdown under Covid 19 in India. 

The study is a joint initiative of AIILSG Mumbai and NIUA. It captures the city responses and tries to summarise the experience using the Resilient Urban Sanitation Response (RUSR) Framework that was developed as an organic process of engagement with Covid 19 urban sanitation work. 

The Framework and the Report may please be seen as a capacity development contribution from Group 1. 

Critique, comments, questions and suggestions are most welcome.

Hi Paresh,

I had made the "decolonization of knowledge" comment in a light vein - emphasising what Ms. Euphresia had in her IRC talk on Deceolonization of WASH Knowledge mentioned - that Covid 19 has ensured that western experts cannot parachute into developing countries of Asia and Africa, to launch new frameworks and projects. 

Racism is a deep rooted issue and manifests itself in several domains including learning and capacity development, in frameworks and discussions. There cannot be guidelines for this. 

I am separately posting the report of cities that we produced. Alongwith the RUSR framework infographic. 

Thank you Depinder for posting this excellent resource.

To me it is also an excellent example of operationalising the Rapid Action Learning (RAL) framework developed by Prof. Robert Chambers and his colleagues at IDS. It is available on the forum here: forum.susana.org/196-capacity-developmen...ction-learning#31042

Like RUSR, the RAL framework also emphasises on timely, relevant and actionable inputs to policy makers. I think, many would agree that such a framework is extremely important when the area of scholarship is rapidly evolving (such as CoVID-19) or a programme is being implemented in a mission mode (such as SBM). 

I agree that such frameworks that emerge from the Global South are more rooted and respond to ground realities often not addressed or inadequately addressed by frameworks developed by researchers in the Global North. However, I am curious why you mention that this resource be seen as an effort of decolonising WASH sector knowledge? Are you hinting at classifying future publications as those that contribute or not to decolonisation of knowledge? If yes, what criteria should we use to classify? 

I look forward to the report based on application of the framework in 20 cities. I think it will be interesting to understand and compare how their responses were different.

Regards
paresh

Please find attached a Framework we developed as an organic engagement in Covid 19 Urban Sanitation Response in India.

This framework may please be seen as a de colonisation of WASH Knowledge input. Designed as a simple practitioners framework, identifying priorities that we experienced and find missing in most international frameworks coming out today for Covid 19 and city response, that are not rooted in the reality of a country context.

In this case, sanitation workers safety, the timeliness, appropriateness and effectiveness of the sanitation response -  was a gap that we could identify and tried to plug through this Framework. Hence its practical approach. 

We applied this framework to a documentation of Covid 19 and city sanitation response( of 20 Indian cities and will be happy to share that report when ready.

Comments, suggestions and critique of the Framework most welcome.