Sustainable and Innovative Rural Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (SIRWASH)

Our Goal

The objective of SIRWASH is to improve enabling policy, innovation and knowledge environments and to foster the necessary capacities to deliver sustainable quality water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to rural communities with a particular focus on vulnerable and disadvantaged people.

Project Profile

The “Sustainable and Innovative Rural Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (SIRWASH)” programme is an initiative funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by the Inter-American Development Bank.

At its core, the programme aims to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and networking opportunities concerning rural WASH matters within the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. The programme operates at both regional and global levels, with a special focus on Brazil, Bolivia, Haiti, and Peru.

One of SIRWASH’s key focal points is its influence on public policies for rural water and sanitation, which is achieved through advocacy for political dialogues and support for national and global authorities in formulating, promoting, and implementing policies that ensure safe rural water, sanitation, and hygiene services. Since 2022.

SIRWASH works in close collaboration with RWSN and SuSanA to promote south-south exchange among the three development banks: Inter-American Development Bank, African Development Bank, and Asia Development Bank.

Skat Foundation plays an important role in sharing the experiences in Rural Water and Sanitation of Latin America to other regions, through the Rural Water Supply Network platform, as well as through webinars and events.

Location

Bolivia, Brazil, Haiti and Peru

Duration

2020 – 2024

Theme

Water, Networks, Knowledge Brokering.

Key services provided

Global project level:

Improving enabling policy, innovation and knowledge environments
Fostering the necessary capacities to deliver sustainable quality water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to rural communities with a particular focus on vulnerable and disadvantaged people.

Skat Foundation level:

Building a regional rural WASH hub within the global networks RWSN and SuSAnA. The focus will be on strengthening the LAC chapter in these global networks.
Enhancing South-South cooperation and learning through a series of webinars and online exchanges with entities from other regions, including the Asian and African Development Banks, academia, nonprofits, and sector entities, and framed in the RWSN and SuSanA platforms.
Strengthening the presence of SIRWASH in key events and networks such as LatinoSan and OLAS.

Staff

Sean Furey, RWSN Director
Aline Saraiva Okello, Network Manager
Batima Tleulinova, Communications and Engagement Officer
Rena Salzmann, Junior Programme Officer
Bertha Camacho, Senior Knowledge Management Specialist

Project achievements

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4

countries improve their rural WASH policies or implement reforms to en-hance the rural WASH enabling sys-tem.

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16

At least 16 partnerships are estab-lished by SIRWASH with organisa-tions from the public and private sec-tor, academia and civil society at re-gional, national or local level to direct efforts and resources to rural WASH.



300

More than 300 professionals and 30 entities are targeted through capacity building that improves the technical and social assistance capacity of ru-ral WASH professionals, with a strong focus on young people and women.

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