Dear all,

Some time ago, we asked some of you to participate in a two-pronged research project on WASH in Schools led by BPD Water and Sanitation and Masters students from PSIA Sciences-Po Paris. The first component of this research analysed partnership approaches and the second focused on private sector participation. Some of you might also have heard of this project, when we introduced it during a UNICEF-led WinS network webinar.

We received very positive feedback from reviewers of peer-reviewed journals who underlined the relevance of this research and its value for the sector but who also pointed towards methodological limitations and analytical shortcomings. In hindsight, I think that we ventured into largely unchartered areas and tried to embrace too much. As a result, we produced very useful, often descriptive but perhaps insufficiently analytical findings with admittedly limited statistical validity.

However, appreciating the potential value of this work for many professionals interested in WASH in schools work, we decided to publish it as Partnerships in Practice research papers. We think that there is a lot to learn from what we gathered from the experience of all our informants. The papers (attached to this message) should trigger useful reflections and may well influence how WASH in schools partnerships are formed and managed and how private sector actors are engaged in this endeavour.

On behalf of BPD Water and Sanitation (now dissolved as a registered charity in the UK), Partnerships in Practice (its recent offshoot) and the eight Masters students of Sciences-Po PSIA, who graciously invested their time in this self-funded research, I thank all those who accepted to contribute to this project and I am glad to share it with you all. We hope that you will find the attached overview documents of interest.

Best regards,

Jacques-Edouard Tiberghien
PiP – Programme Manager
Partnerships in Practice Ltd.