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                           Global WASH Cluster
GWC Monthly Newsletter #11
15 / 12 / 2023

Welcome to the eleventh edition of the Global WASH Cluster Newsletter in 2023! In this update, we bring you a rich and diverse array of news and key updates from National Coordination Platforms (NCPs), GWC members, and partners such as UNICEF, IASC, RWSN, MIT, IRC, LSHTM, EAWAG and UNINE.

2023 was yet another immensely challenging year. It began with devastating earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye. In April, intense conflict erupted in Sudan, plunging millions of people into disaster and despair. Then in October, catastrophic war broke out in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Alongside these events, unresolved conflicts, instability, climate change, disease, and economic inequality continued to keep millions of people in a state of protracted crisis – from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa, to Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and beyond. By the year’s end, almost 30 million more people needed humanitarian assistance than at the start (according to the GHO).

Following recent GWC data, an estimated 168.2 Million people will need humanitarian WASH assistance in 2024 in 28 countries (compared to 186.9M in 33 countries in 2023). For the humanitarian WASH Sector, the funding gap is still immense. In 2023, 4.2 billion USD have been requested and only 35% of the funding has been received (1.48 billion USD) as of December 2023 (source: FTS).

NCPs are and will be at the heart of responding collectively to crises. Key NCP features this month include the "No Shame in Bleeding During Menstruation Campaign" from the North East Nigeria WASH Cluster and GBV AoR and a key guidance on the recent PIN methodology in Colombia.

We remind all that we value showcasing the incredible work NCPs and partners are doing around the world, so please send us your photos, stories, and other content to highlight the work of your team or draw attention to issues that matter to you. Read our submission guidelines here. All items can be sent directly for inclusion in the next newsletter by Friday 29 December 2023 to globalwashcluster@unicef.org.


Best regards and warm wishes for 2024!

CAST (Cluster Advocacy and Support Team)

Photo credits: © UNICEF/UNI486778/Kruglinski
GWC Collaborations and News

The GWC Climate WG held its kick-off workshop on 28 November hosted by IOM and GTO to define areas of work for the coming years.

We are now pleased to present the Climate Working Group web page here: 

Please write to globalwashcluster@unicef.org if you wish to join the group.

HP TWIG - Handwashing after the pandemic: Sustaining Hygiene Behavior Change at Scale

Join the Hygiene Promotion in Emergencies Technical Working Group to hear from a range of speakers on the opportunities and challenges for sustaining handwashing at scale in post-pandemic. COVID-19 shined a light on the importance of handwashing. There is a need to identify and implement systemic actions that can continue to support and sustain behavior change at scale in this post-pandemic era.

Come discuss with speakers on how behavioral science and insights can inform interventions, the opportunities for digital and locally adapted messages, the need for partnerships with private sector, options for financing hygiene, and examples of innovations and coordination.

English-French interpretation will be provided. 

Date: 31 January 2024
Time: 1PM - 2.30PM CET
Location: Online
Organizer: Hygiene Promotion in Emergencies TwiG

REGISTER

GWC New E-Learning!

Please find below a list of new courses developed by UNICEF/GCCS for cluster coordinators and information managers, recently added to the GWC learning channel

GWC Events

GWC @COP28
 

It's a wrap! The "Collective Outcomes" session hosted by UNICEF-(co)led Clusters and AoR at #COP28 is over! Humanitarian clusters, partners, and national coordination mechanisms have been at the center of these discussions. Together we shape joined-up action that will better respond to the climate crisis and the needs of affected populations. 


🙏🏽 Thanks to UNICEF, UNHCR, IFRC, SWA, IOM and Education Cannot Wait for their guest speakers. Read more here.


#HumanitarianCoordination
#CollectiveOutcomes

Operational Research Webinar - the Value of Coordination

We are pleased to share below the recording of the webinar from Tufts University and the GWC in their “Humanitarian WASH Research Updates” series on Researching the Value of Coordination. 🔦

Coordination is crucial to enable humanitarian response and recent research has been conducted showing the benefits of coordination, a theory of change and minimum requirements for coordination, and thoughts on improving coordination in the future.

The Value of Coordination in Humanitarian WASH - 30 November 2023

Previous webinars in 2023 on this collaboration:

Research Gaps in Humanitarian WASH (Spanish Subtitles)

Case-Area Targeted Interventions (CATI) in Cholera Outbreaks

Research Gaps in Humanitarian WASH

The Global WASH Cluster provides Operational Support for national coordination platforms in humanitarian emergencies through deployments and remote support. The support is provided by the Field Support Team (FST), a consortium of WASH agencies providing 8 members (4 x coordinators, 3 x information managers, and 1 x assessment specialist) with the support and oversight of the GWC-Cluster Advocacy and Support Team (CAST). To access these services national coordinators or information managers can send an email or inquiry to gwchelp@unicef.org (GWC Help Desk). 

The Field Support Team in 2023: a snapshot

The Field Support Team of the Global WASH Cluster has been providing operational support throughout 2023, via deployment and remote support. 2023 has been an intense year for the FST, with 16 deployments (2 to 3 months each) and 890 days of remote support. The deployments took place in Libya, DRC, Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, North-West Syria, Turkey, Malawi, South Sudan, and Jordan.

The team has been growing throughout the year, also thanks to a new donor, the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) that is supporting the FST with 3 additional deployable resources (transition and nexus, information management, and capacity strengthening)  The USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs (BHA) has recently confirmed its support to the FST, approving another 2-year grant that is supporting 5 FST deployable resources. Together with 2 specialists funded by CAST/UNICEF, the FST will start 2024 with a pool of 9 experts: 3 Information Management Officers, 1 People-Centered Programming Coordinator, 4 Cluster Coordinators and 1 Assessment Specialist (with one vacant position at the moment). The FST Consortium members are ACF (lead), OXFAM, and IMPACT.
 

Focus on deployments: support to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)



Abdoulaye Diallo – Cluster Coordinator (ACF)
Abdoulaye has been deployed to DRC at the beginning of 2023. The mission contributed to reinforcing the WASH sub-national coordination platform and reinforcing coordination’s core functions at the sub-national level. The mission contributed to empowering newly recruited sub-cluster coordinators to ensure there are appropriate, realistic, timely, and effective WASH coordination mechanisms to support and strengthen the predictability and accountability of WASH humanitarian response. 

Eliott Bakker - Assessment Specialist (IMPACT/Reach)
Because of limited NGO presence and stretched resources invested in the area, the need to better understand the current WASH situation and needs was expressed by the WASH Cluster, which requested a need assessment support focused on Oicha, Mutwanga and Kamango. Elliott Bakker was deployed from the 6 to the 31 October to Goma and Beni. The objective of the assessment has been to establish a better understanding of WASH-specific needs and coping mechanisms of the population affected by the displacement crises, to inform WASH response and programming to affected populations, through direct and partner-led data collection.

Bassine Niang – Information Management Officer (ACF) and Fidele Diedhiou – Information Management Officer (external consultant – iMMAP)
The FST IMOs have been working on the current crises in Nord Kivu, South Kivu, and lturi. The support has aimed to help set up an emergency response monitoring system for the Eastern crisis. This system includes setting up mobile data collection tools (using Kobo), semi-automatic processing of data to reduce cluster coordinator workload during validation and, lastly, an infographic will be consolidated to show the response levels, the gaps, and ongoing activities. This tool will permit to retrieval of urgent data on this crisis and support decision-making.
 
New team members on board! ⭐️
Welcome to Abayneh Asrat, Cluster Coordinator with ACF. Abayneh has a 17-year career in humanitarian WASH programs and coordination and has worked with notable organizations such as UNICEF, Oxfam, CRS, CARE, People In Need, and GOAL in various countries, including Somalia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. He holds a master's degree in Disaster Risk Management, a Bachelor of Science in Rural Development and Family Science, and a diploma in Environmental Health.

Welcome as well to John Kanani, Cluster Coordinator with OXFAM. John has more than 20 years of WASH experience and is part of the OXFAM HSP PHE team (Humanitarian Support Personnel, Public Health Engineer team). He is based in DRC. He has a wide multi-country experience, having been deployed in Burkina, Yemen, CAR, Ethiopia, Guinea-Conakry, Congo, Somaliland, Chad, Darfur, Haiti, Indonesia, and Ghana, among others.

Welcome to Cynthia Rakha, Project Manager Assistant with ACF. Cynthia has been working for 3 years in Bruxelles as UNICEF Consultant, in the field of humanitarian project management and development. She holds a Master's in Political Sciences, with a specialization in international solidarity and humanitarian crisis.
 
Goodbye! 👋🏽
Fabrizio Cavallazzi (WASH Cluster Coordinator with NCA), Fabrice Asso (IM with ACF) and Malo Rivoallan (FST PM support with ACF): your excellent professionalism and attitude will be highly missed. We have been lucky to have you all on the team and we wish you the best for your future personal and professional endeavors!

Operational Updates
Latest Resources and Tools from National Coordination Platforms
 
We encourage all National Coordination Platforms to send their examples, guidance, tools on coordination, information management, assessment and technical guidelines/documents directly to: globalwashcluster@unicef.org. The below is the result of a collection of resources that you can find on WASH cluster/sector websites.
 
Highlight of the Month
No Shame in Bleeding During Menstruation Campaign
North East Nigeria WASH Cluster and GBV AoR - 6 November 2023
Latine America and the Caribbean
Eastern and Southern Asia
West and Central Africa
Eastern and Southern Africa
Middle East and North Africa
Partner Updates

Localization in Humanitarian Action for Children - Technical Note

The purpose of this technical note is to inform the implementation of localization commitments in UNICEF humanitarian action as outlined in the Core Commitments for Children (CCC). It provides clarity on the policy framework and related measures and actions, which will enhance results for children by strengthening UNICEF’s capacity to work with local actors (national and sub-national) and its capacities and systems for local-level (national and sub-national) service provision to children in crisis. This technical note acknowledges the importance of localization in UNICEF humanitarian and development programming to reduce risks and address children’s needs and vulnerabilities before, during and after a crisis. Read more here.

Progress on Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa 2000-2022
This snapshot presents findings from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) and the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS), implemented by WHO. 

It provides first regional estimates of progress on sanitation and hygiene in households in the African Union (55 countries) between 2000 and 2022. Read more here.

Global WASH System Strengthening Research Gap Exercise

The Global WASH System Strengthening Research Gap Exercise seeks to collaboratively generate a consensus-based research agenda that can steer the WASH Systems Strengthening field for the next ten years. This is a global call for WASH System Strengthening Experts to join an expert panel to judge and prioritise research gaps that can help the sector realise the goals of system-based approaches in WASH. We are looking for experts from different geographies and areas of expertise in WASH programming and policy to participate in an expert panel. It will involve:

  1. Completing an online survey to rank priority research gaps for WASH system strengthening (estimated time: 45 minutes)
  2. Attend a webinar to hear results from the first round of prioritisation (estimated time: 60 minutes)
  3. Completing a follow-up online survey to adjust or confirm your ranking of research priorities for WASH system strengthening (estimate time: 30 minutes)
The research gap exercise is being conducted by IRC WASH, the University of Leeds and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as part of the FCDO supported WASH Systems for Health programme. 

If you would like to join the Global Expert Panel, please complete the sign-up form here: https://forms.office.com/e/j7mYvx8JwX

Contacts:

On behalf of the WASH Systems for Health Facility team

The Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems Group - Connect with MIT Lincoln Laboratory!

The Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory is dedicated to the research, development, and implementation of systems, operations, and technologies that address complex disasters and humanitarian challenges. As a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), the Laboratory and Group partner with diverse stakeholder organizations to build resilient, scalable and sustainable solutions focused on impact. We work widely across the humanitarian sector in areas that include water resilience, natural disaster response, supply chain transparency, and climate risk mitigation.

Our strategy focuses on close collaboration with stakeholders to characterize mission challenges, translate these challenges in to technical requirements for new solutions, then escalate to iterative building, testing and piloting of developed systems. We look forward to meeting, working with and supporting new partners to tackle big challenges in the WASH space. Feel free to connect to let us know how we can help!  

Read more here.

Rural Water Services Capacity Assessment

What support do you and your colleagues need to enhance your abilities in providing rural water services?

This simple question holds the power to transform the rural water sector, making it more effective, efficient, and professional. But we can't achieve this transformation without your input.

We (RWSNCAWST, and the Global Water Center) are seeking your feedback on this question to strategically inform the support we can offer.

The Capacity Needs Assessment Survey results tell us about the commonalities in responsibilities, daily work challenges (help questions), and preferred methods to overcome these challenges.

This survey will take between 10 minutes - 15 minutes to fill in. Please, take this time to ensure your opinion is heard! And thank you for being part of this journey. The deadline for filling out the survey is Friday, December 22nd.

Please use the menu at the top right of the survey page to select English, French, or Spanish.
Capacity Needs Assessment Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2N6XM7V

Certificate of Advanced Studies in Water Sanitation and Hygiene for humanitarian and developing contexts

SUPSI is pleased to announce the launch of the 5th edition of the post-university degree CAS WASH. Registration is open until Friday 19 January 2024. The course consists of 3 online/theoretical modules from February to July, on Thursday afternoons, and 1 in-presence/practical module in Mendrisio, Switzerland. The cost of the course, organized by 3 Swiss academic institutions (SUPSI, Eawag, UNI-NE), is 4’500 chf. The Certificate corresponding to 12 ECTS will be granted after having completed written exams scheduled at the end of each of the 3 online modules, 12 ECTS will be granted.

For further information, please consult the attached flyer and our website: www.supsi.ch/go/caswash

Inter-Cluster Updates
IASC New Resources

List of Humanitarian Coordinators (HCs), December 2023 - 14 December 2023
A list of serving Humanitarian Coordinators, giving name, duty station and position held.

Accountability in action snapshot - December 2023 - 1 December 2023
The IASC Global AAP Landscape Mapping plots what is being done in terms of collective AAP in the different humanitarian contexts around the world, thus serving as a baseline to inform strategic planning, orient field support activities, support advocacy and fundraising efforts, give visibility to best practices, and strengthening Inter-Agency capacity.To share with the humanitarian community what we have learned so far, we are publishing quarterly snapshots of our analysis.

IASC Humanitarian System-Wide Scale-Up Activations and Deactivations - 1 December 2023
The IASC Humanitarian System-Wide Scale-Up Protocols are a set of internal measures designed to critically enhance the humanitarian response given drastically increasing humanitarian needs and to ensure that IASC member organizations and partners can rapidly mobilize the necessary operational capacities and resources to respond to critical humanitarian needs on the ground.

IASC Key Messages on the Climate Crisis for COP28 - 24 November 2023
The IASC Deputies Group endorsed the expanded IASC Expanded Key Messages on the Climate Crisis for COP28 which derive from the IASC Action Plan for Engagement in COP28 and have been consulted widely with IASC and non-IASC members.
 
 
Upcoming Events
 
Webinar/Event                               Date & time    Organisation
EU Humanitarian Forum 2024 - Brussels 18-19 March
2024
ECHO
World Water Day 22 March 2024 World
Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks (HNPW) - Geneva 29 April - 10 May 2024 OCHA
28th Global WASH Cluster Annual Meeting - Zürich 13-14 May 2024 GWC members and NCPs
EEHF - Zürich 15-16 May 2024 EEHF
10th World Water Forum 18-24 May 2024 World Water Council
28 November 2023 - People fill water for use in their homes due to water shortages caused by the ongoing escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip. Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip.
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