Thanks for introducing such a beneficial website. certainly it will enhance the opportunities to help the WASH organizations in scaling up.
regards Abdul

Hi Elisabeth

Thank you for your interest in the CS WASH Fund website and resources: www.cswashfund.org

The purpose of our website is to be repository and 'one-stop-shop' for resources and toolkits for CSOs/NGOs working in WASH, particularly those that are part of the Fund (working in the regions of the Pacific, East Asia, South Asia and Southern Africa).

We highlight similar activities to those that SuSanA highlights, but with a particular CSO focus, and with hygiene, water and sanitation. Some of our key thematic areas of interest are on gender and social inclusion (including disability), sanitation marketing, working with the enabling environment and sustainable behaviour change.

Our site also includes a list of upcoming webinars, events and edisucssions, including those we host ourselves.

Our most recent focus has been on WASH in the Pacific, with our Pacific WASH REgional Learning Event last week www.cswashfund.org/our-work/news/pacific...-pacific-communities

and a webinar on Menstural Hygiene Management and Schools WASH in the Pacific which now has a recorded video for people to watch
www.cswashfund.org/learning-events/webin...-barriers-and-taboos

We ensure quality control of resources by mediating the uploading of resources to our site. Hope this answers some of your questions.

People can sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date with Fund activities and new resources available.

Kind regards

Bronwyn Powell
Knowledge and Learning Manager, CS WASH Fund

Dear Kim,

Thanks for your post, I am still trying to get my head around this Civil Society WASH Fund website.

So the money for this WASH fund comes from AusAid, right? On the website it says:

An Australian aid program initiative managed on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade by Palladium International Pty Ltd

How do you see possible synergies with your website and the SuSanA website and tools? Is your website focusing primarily on Australia and Asia-Pacific?

I see potential overlaps here for example you also have a small e-discussion section:
www.cswashfund.org/learning-events/e-discussion
(like SuSanA which has this forum)

You have a resources section which can be filtered:
www.cswashfund.org/shared-resources/tools
(like SuSanA's library)

and you have a project database:
www.cswashfund.org/our-work/cswash-projects
(like SuSanA's project database: www.susana.org/en/resources/projects - could/should your projects be integrated into the wieder SuSanA project database?)

The WASH space is huge and there is certainly room for many people's resource databases and so forth; no problem there. I am just trying to think how the two could perhaps be integrated so that they interlink well with each other. What do you think?

And if anyone can add resources then how do you ensure quality control? For the SuSanA website in future, partners will also be able to add resources, e.g. about their own projects.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Hi Elisabeth,

I am consulting for the Fund on a social media project to get them on Facebook and LinkedIn. Also, I am a graduate student researching WASH projects and have been using the fund's site as a way to get myself up to date on some of the things that are going on in the WASH world in this area of the world. sometimes I have felt overwhelmed getting current on WASH when I've been reading forums and articles - I feel that the site holds good resources that have given me a chance to catch up with the rest of the sector.

The Fund itself does support a lot of neat projects (through their Innovation and Impact Fund) so organizations have the chance to test out new ideas and innovations that might help evolve the WASH sector, like questions about using ICT in making projects more sustainable.

The site holds a lot of useful information for WASH professionals who need to look for more recent resources/articles/courses but don't have a lot of time. I think one thing to point out about the fund's site is that anyone can add a resource so that it's easily available for others to find, like a library.

Hope this helps, and if you have any more questions do let me know!

Warmest,
~Kim

Dear Kimberly,

Thanks for this post, always good to hear what is going on in Australia with WASH!

Could you tell us a little bit more how you as a person are related to this WASH fund? Do you work for them? Is there anything in particular that prompted you to post this on the forum? Do you have particular questions to ask or things to point out about this fund?

It looks really interesting.

Regards,
Elisabeth

The objective of the AUD103m * Civil Society Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (CS WASH Fund) is to enhance the health and quality of life of the poor and vulnerable by improving sustainable access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. Expected outcomes of the Fund are: (i) improved performance of actors in the WASH enabling environment, (ii) improved gender equality, (iii) improved WASH evidence and knowledge base, (iv) improved hygiene behaviour, (v) increased use of improved and equitable sanitation services and (vi) increased use of improved and equitable water supply services. The Fund is supporting 13 Australian and International Civil Society Organisations (CSO) to deliver 29 WASH projects in 19 countries over the years 2013 to 2018.

The CS WASH Fund site is a knowledge and learning platform that complements the work of the Fund. Its purpose is to provide the Fund's CSO Partners and general WASH practitioners a platform for sharing and finding resources on WASH as well as the Fund. All WASH practitioners to share and use resources on the site.

Visit the CS WASH Fund site


* Note by moderator: this stands for 103 million Australian Dollars