World Water e-Summit (Part 2) working with non-governmental organizations on Rotary Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene projects

Editor's Notes

1. [BOB] Welcome to today’s webinar ‘Part 2 of the World Water e-Summit, Working with Non-Governmental Organizations on Rotary water, sanitation, and hygiene projects’
2. [BOB] My name is Bob Wubbena and I am a member of the Rotary Club of Olympia, Washington, USA. I am also immediate past vice chair of the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group, and I will be moderating today’s session. A little about me: I am an Environmental Engineer with over 46 years of professional water, waste water and water resources planning, design, and operational management experience. My wife and I are now retired and we travel extensively throughout the world while continuing to support Wasrag and The Rotary Foundation funded water projects. For the next 60 minutes we will discuss how the Rotary family can partner with non-governmental organizations on water, sanitation, and hygiene, commonly known as WASH, projects. If you missed part one of this series about working with governments on WASH, you’ll receive an email with a link to a recording of the first webinar shortly following this presentation.
3. [BOB] This digital water summit, hosted jointly by Rotary and Wasrag, will share lessons learned at the May 2014 World Water Summit in Sydney, Australia, which focused on collaborating across sectors to plan and implement sustainable Rotary water projects. We would like to take a moment to thank our World Water Summit sponsors listed here, without who this initiative would not be possible.
4. [BOB] In the next 60 minutes, I’ll give you a brief introduction to Wasrag for those of you who missed the first webinar or may not be familiar with the Rotarian Action Group. Then, we’ll be joined by two panelists who both have a wealth of knowledge and expertise on partnering with non-government affiliated groups on small and large Rotary water projects. After we hear from our two panelists, we will have about 20 minutes at the end of the presentation for our panelists to address your questions.
5. [BOB] Let’s begin with a brief overview of the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group. - A group of technical experts who assist clubs and districts with water, sanitation, and hygiene projects - Assists Rotary Clubs and Districts Implement WASH Projects. Implementing rainwater harvesting Building toilets and sanitation systems Digging wells and drilling boreholes Building dams and gully plugs; recharging aquifers Building local capacity, changing behaviour Working with NGOs, CBOs to create self-sufficiency Setting up factories to build slow-sand filters Creating opportunities for entrepreneurs in the WASH supply chain And much more! - Wasrag has more than 1650 members - Wasrag is a truly global organization. We have members in 92 countries, located in some 320 Rotary Districts. We are represented in all of Rotary’s zones and support Rotary projects around the world. Membership is open to Rotarians, family members of Rotarians, Rotary program participants and alumni I’ll come back to more about Wasrag at the end of this webinar.
6. [BOB] Now I am delighted to introduce our panelists: Eric Lungren and Nancy Gilbert. As director of international programs, Eric Lundgren manages a portfolio of international initiatives at Africare. Eric has more than 15 years of experience managing development projects and organizations in a broad range of sectors and geographic areas. While Eric is currently based out of Washington, D.C., USA, he has extensive experience working abroad and works closely with Africare’s affiliates in Africa. Nancy Gilbert, Past District Governor of District 7810. Nancy is an international development consultant and has worked extensively with the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group chairing their international marketing and communications team. Nancy currently works with a non-governmental organization called Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta. A warm welcome to Eric and Nancy, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to talk with us today. Remember, if you have any questions for our panelists, for Wasrag members, or for Rotary staff, please submit them using your question pane. Eric and Nancy, I will turn it over to you.
7. [NANCY] Today’s session is about Rotary Clubs working with NGOs. We wanted to share some of the challenges and lessons learned from a program that Eric and I worked on. We’ll start the presentation by reviewing the program, so everyone has an understanding of what it involved, and then we’ll use that as the basis for discussing how the partnership worked and what lessons we learned and can apply moving forward. First - a bit about the program. Eric and I worked as part of a team that developed a pilot WASH in schools program. This was a pilot program for Wasrag because Wasrag is exploring ways we can support clubs and districts in their WASH work. Bringing these partners together offered a number of benefits. The program involved providing 30 schools with water and sanitation facilities, and hygiene education programs. WASH – means water, sanitation, and hygiene education. We group these together for good reason – all should be address to have a significant impact on health. Malawi and Tanzania were selected as Africare had country teams on the ground, had been working in those areas for a while, and intended to stay into the future. However, in this pilot, we were not successful at engaging local Rotary clubs in the project – despite our wish to do so, and efforts made. We are now working on a phase 2 pilot, and engaging local Rotary clubs has been a key consideration from the start.
8. NANCY The Partners: The partners in this program were H2O for Life, Wasrag, Procter & Gamble, and Africare. Wasrag’s role was to invite clubs to participate, represent their interests in the program, and ensure funds were collected and accounted for. H20 for Life is an NGO in the US that works with schools. H2O for Life sources partner international schools needing WASH support. They then engage with local schools in the US and Canada, provide educational materials for the children about WASH and ideas for ways the school children could raise funds to support the program. P&G provided funds for the program and their product P&G packets (formerly known as PUR) – an excellent method of purifying water. And Africare was the implementing partner, and also mobilized some funding from their donors.
9. ERIC Africare is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, but with current operations in 17 countries in Africa. We were founded in 1970, and since that time have conducted over $1B in programming in 36 African countries. Our technical areas of expertise are in public health, rural agriculture and food security, and water and sanitation. Across all these sectors, though, Africare has a consistent methodology that we use to implement effectively based on the core competencies we’ve developed over our nearly 45 years of operations: effective community engagement, local capacity building, and local behavior change. It’s through this lens that we are able to deliver strong results in our programs. In order to accomplish this, over 97% of Africare’s staff on the continent are local to the countries where they are working. This allows us to have a deep understanding of the local context of our programs as well as local cultural norms that can affect the way a program is designed and implemented. As mentioned earlier, the program involved 30 schools – 15 in Tanzania and 15 in Malawi. The total budget for the program was approximately $810,000, or roughly $27,000 for each school. This funding included the costs of the interventions that we’ll discuss below, as well as the costs of supervision and management of the program. Of the $27,000 for each school, $5300 came from Rotary Clubs, and $5300 from H2O for Life schools. The balance came from P&G, Africare, and from locally donated labour and materials. To begin the implementation of the program, the local Africare teams undertook a needs assessments at each school. They engaged the staff and parents, the wider community and local government officials to determine what the needs were as well as what the most effective means of meeting those needs would be. Based on these consultations, a workplan in each school was developed. It’s important to note that while the construction of facilities was a key component of the program, the long-term value added will come in the form of behavior change associated with water, sanitation and hygiene, and not just in the construction of facilities. As such, teachers were trained in hygiene and use of the water and sanitation facilities that would be built (this was part of the sustainability plan as the teachers would continue to work in the schools as students graduated or left). They, in turn, trained students in each of these areas. Another technique used for promoting behavior change was to create WASH clubs in each school where students could support each other, under the guidance of trained teachers, in how to promote the WASH messaging they were learning in school in their communities. It took two years to raise the funds and fully implement the program.
10. ERIC What we learned falls into three main categories. And we will deal with each of these in turn.
11. NANCY Why should Rotary Clubs consider partnering with NGOs? Knowledge of the subject area: International development programming can be a complex area to work in. Developing an understanding of local needs and culturally appropriate solutions to local challenges takes time and requires specialized knowledge. For example, in the area of WASH where we worked, the days of drilling a well and walking away are over. Often programs require innovation and extended engagement with the local community to build systems that are self sustaining and will last. Expertise in implementation: NGOs who work in your area will know things like reputable suppliers, cultural issues, and hopefully will be up to date on technologies and “software” issues. They may also be aware of other programs going on that you can either dovetail with, or benefit from in some way. This is what they do full time: Rotary members are volunteers with limited time. As the programs we undertake get larger and more complex, managing them gets more demanding. Building good relationships with NGOs can offer a win-win situation. We Rotarians can still be involved and make a significant difference but not feel we have to do everything ourselves. Often NGOs will have other sources of funds to add to the pool. This can help leverage the Rotary Club funding. It can even be used to motivate fundraising – for every dollar raised, matching funds of X or Y will be donated by other partners….
12. ERIC Rotary Clubs bring a different form of local knowledge to the table – as business and professional women and men, they understand the local business environment, and will have insights into different societal and cultural realities that can be useful; Funding from Rotary Clubs is always useful! Rotary Clubs generally don’t just want to write cheques. They want to roll up their sleeves and get involved. This may require some thinking and planning, but can ultimately add significant value to project outcomes if done well. In particular, volunteering helps to build deep relationships with the beneficiaries – and as both the community and the Rotary Club are around for the long term, this is a good thing! Deep relationships can lead to long term support – of both the project and the community. In Wasrag it is often said: “Start with Water” – i.e. build that strong foundational support with improved water, and sanitation facilities, and hygiene education to change knowledge attitudes and practices. But those relationships can then be expanded upon to address other community needs.
13. [NANCY] From Rotary’s perspective, there are a number of challenges in forming effective partnerships with NGOs. These include the Rotary year, and changing leadership, The time needed to raise funds (clubs rarely have a significant chunk of money just sitting in their account) Also, making space and taking time to engage Rotary Club members beyond fundraising can be a challenge for an NGO. Certainly it’s easier with a local Rotary Club but can even involve an international club whose members may want to come and volunteer on site. [ERIC] From the NGO’s perspective, it takes more work on the part of the NGO to engage more fully with the Rotary Club members. So how can this be framed from the outset so it is seen as useful and positive?
14. [NANCY] So what, then, are the key lessons learned associated with building a partnership with an NGO? Clarity – talking through expectations and ensuring there is a shared understanding of what you hope to achieve and why, for example meeting country standards (such as ratios for toilets or urinals to students), alternative technologies etc. is extremely important and useful. Even something as simple as who to contact, and who are the back-up contact people is really important information to share. Agreeing on costs – we mention project management costs which historically have been common in Rotary projects (volunteers!) but are becoming more common as project sizes grow. NGO’s pay their project staff, so for them, this is a standard cost. Regular meetings, and making time to get to know one another is helpful. Up front definition of each others’ needs. For example, what are our reporting needs, as a donor, and are those able to be met by the NGO? Understanding your partners’ processes and how that bureaucracy will impact your project (i.e. UNICEF v. Africare v. a local NGO) [ERIC] And from the NGO’s perspective, what are the key lessons? Understand the cash flow mechanism well, and plan implementation milestones accordingly (this will be addressed more in the coming slides) Get clarity early regarding Rotary’s needs with respect to participation in project activities by rotary members.
15. [ERIC] As just referenced, the biggest challenge that the NGO will face when working with Rotary is the timing of cash flows, which is inconsistent with how most other donors finance programs. In the case of the WASH program discussed, funds were being raised on a school-by-school basis and were being delivered to Africare in relatively small chunks. Because we hadn’t originally planned our implementation schedule consistent with this funding stream in mind, we were unable to manage expectations effectively, both in communities where we were working and with the donors. This can obviously lead to a difficult cycle in the partnership – not understanding money flows leads to over-promising of expectations which leads to frustrations on the part of the donor and difficulty in fund raising. [NANCY] With respect to the same issue, there is also a challenge from a Rotary Club perspective. Understanding these challenges in cash flow and how they affect implementation will impact our understanding of when we can expect results, and how this is relayed to donating clubs. This is particularly important as club members often (and quite rightly) will ask about progress of the work. Sometimes their donation can be made some time before the work actually takes place. This can lead to frustration and fear by Rotarians. (Example from the pilot). Reporting needs – Rotary Clubs will likely want regular updates to that club members can be kept in the loop. While this is quite consistent with normal NGO operating procedures, we need to make sure that this expectation is clarified early on and codified in the project agreement with the NGO. In the case of Africare, they regularly report quarterly to donors, but because we weren’t explicit about this request, we were not getting information in the same timely basis that we expected.
16. [ERIC] One very specific example where it’s important to ensure that expectations and roles are well clarified before implementation begins in in monitoring and evaluation of project progress and impact. Most NGOs will have a system in place for measuring the progress of project implementation. They may also have a plan for doing a baseline and endline survey of project outcomes. However, due to funding constraints, it’s very unlikely that an NGO will finance either a short-term impact evaluation (i.e. a rigorous evaluation using a randomized methodology to eliminate selection bias in reporting impacts) or do long-term, post-project closure evaluations of the sustainability of those interventions. Therefore, any needs like this by Rotary need to be explicitly mentioned early on, and a plan made for addressing them. [NANCY] As we mentioned earlier, this is a great opportunity for Rotary to use their long-term relationship in some of these communities. For example, perhaps some rotary volunteers could review the effects of project implementation at regular year intervals after project close, to evaluate the sustainability of the interventions which could lead to invaluable learning for both Rotary and NGO partners.
17. [ERIC] It’s very important for Rotary members to understand that NGOs have likely never worked with a donor who also wants to ensure that their members can play an active role in the project. As such, it’s very important to discuss, in the earliest stages of the project, the role that Rotary members will play in implementation to ensure that their participation is adding real value to the project. It’s also important to note that, as a primary donor of NGO activities, Rotary needs to ensure that all activities are appropriate financed in the budget. As such, if the NGO is expected to provide some logistical support to Rotary volunteers on the project, there needs to be a clear understanding at the start of the project of where those funds are coming from.
18. NANCY One last thought we want to leave you with is that a good way to build effective partnerships, particularly with organizations that don’t understand each others’ operating models initially, is to first conduct a small pilot, iron out the wrinkles of the partnership through that pilot, then consider going to scale afterwards. This will allow you to learn key lessons early on regarding issues we’ve discussed such as how to manage expectations, plan funding cycles, ensure appropriate monitoring and evaluation, and include rotary member participation in project activities.
19. [BOB] As reminder, this is the second webinar in a series of three. You will shortly receive a follow-up email with a link to a recording of this webinar. We’ll also include an option for you to register for the final webinar in this series and hope to see you again next week.
20. [BOB] If you are interested in assisting Wasrag with our work, become a member! Lack of WASH is an affront to humanity. Help Rotarian help others. When one jumbo jet crashes the world, rightfully, reacts with horror. Yet the equivalent of more than a dozen planeloads of people die every day from the lack of clean water and sanitation – and the world hardly notices. Join us to combat this global crisis. Just go to www.wasrag.org and follow the links.
21. [BOB] Will you attend the RI convention in Sao Paulo in 2015? Come a day early and attend Wasrag’s World Water Summit VII on Thursday June 4th. Topic: WASH in Schools. The registration site will be open by the end of October 2014. www.wasrag.org
22. [BOB] Thank you again to our panelists Eric and Nancy. We appreciate all of your support and assistance. All of our participants will be receiving a survey after the webinar. Please take the time to complete the survey honestly. We appreciate your feedback on your experience. As a reminder, we also recorded today’s webinar, and we will be sending out a link to view the recording within 24 hours. Remember, you can register for upcoming webinars and view recordings of past webinars at any time by visiting www.rotary.org/webinars. Thank you for participating in today’s webinar!