WASH Workstream Kick-off Call

November 13, 2014

11-12pm EST

Participant List

Jan Willem Rosemboom, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Stephanie Ogden, CARE

David Addiss,Children Without Worms (CWW)

Jodi Keyserling, CWW

LaurenLabovitz, CWW

Eric Strunz, CWW

Yaobi Zhang, Helen Keller International

Marci Van Dyke, USAID

Lisa Schechtman, WaterAid America

Yael Velleman, WaterAid UK

  1. Welcome/Introductions
  1. Review role of workstream and how it will do its work; review roles and responsibilities of workstream members

Materials: Workstreams document

Background

Donors met in June and decided the STH Coalition should be structured around workstreams. There are now workstreams for different risk groups (preschool-age children, school-age children, women of childbearing age) and cross-cuttingactivities (WASH, operational research, M&E, advocacy).

The workstreams bring partners together to identify barriers and define ways in which action can be taken. They bring ideas and issues together to come up with common solutions and strategies. This call will focus on expanding upon the dialogue that has occurred to date. The background materials sent prior to the call containstwo tables: 1) The objectives and potential areas of focus as defined bythe smallgroup in June, and 2) Various commitments made by STH coalition partners that may be relevant to WASH.

Cross-workstream Collaboration

The work of the WASH workstream will influence the work of the other workstreams and vice versa. Mechanisms are being identified to ensure collaboration and cross-fertilization between workstreams.

  1. Review context and key barriers

Materials: Notes from NGO Forum

The notes from the NGO Forum provide a good summary of the challengesrelated specifically to WASH, as well as the other workstreams.

4.Review key priorities and areas of focus, partners' contributions and measuring progress

Materials: See Background on WS document or workstreams link on STHCoalition.org

Identify and engage key partners to coordinate and collaborate on strategies for improved sanitation, water, and hygiene.

WASH Workstream Participation

  • Participants agreed that the list of partners with WASH-relevant commitments is a comprehensive start and represents keyWASH partners for STH control
  • Additional suggestions include:
  • The Water Sanitation program in the World Bank
  • The focus on advocacy is not apparent in the list of partner commitments, even though demonstrating and publicizing the impact of WASH on STH is one of the potential priority areas of focus
  • Engage other organizations to ensure inclusion of the work already being done to link sanitation with other sectors.
  • This core group of energized stakeholders could make up the WASH workstream and others could be included as needed and as specific workstream activities are identified. The current group should determine the first potential priority and decide who to regularly pull in from the STH side.
  • We should determine how to come up with the ideal WASH program for STH and then build on that

Cross-sectoral Collaboration

  • There is a huge understanding of the value of WASH from the STH circles. What strategies will be valuable for marketing ourselves to the WASH folks?
  • Stronger advocacy and messaging could help (coordinate with Advocacy workstream)
  • Some of these advocacy messages have been or are being developed. We should make the distinction between where this group defines or shapes new areas/advocacy work and where we pull from other groups in order to prioritize our capacity and value added.
  • The Advocacy workstream has identified pulling together STH-related materials as one of its priority areas of work. We invite you to contribute case studies, talking points, different materials that could be helpful for the Coalition’s work. * Action item for Workstream participants: send any materials, case studies, etc. to
  • What are the barriers to collaboration?
  • Lack of country-level coordination. This is something the Advocacy workstream is also discussing.
  • Program design. Country-level coordination won’t change priorities if different stakeholders are being held accountable to different outcomes. We need common indicators.
  • The M&E workstream could come up with common indicators based on health outcomes to present to donors, which can then be piloted.
  • The WASH and M&E workstreams could have a cross-workstream steering committee comprised of a few individuals from their respective workstreams to pull these indicators together and report back to their workstreams. They should discuss what WASH indicators for health outcomes would look like and what it would take to measure them. * Next steps: Explore establishing a working group to focus on these issues

For each of the potential areas of focus, there are specific questions at the global, national, and implementation levels, which should be all be addressed. We can use a matrix to produce recommendations or focus areas for the different levels, describing what actions should be taken at each level. * Next step: Develop a matrix explaining the key issues for each of the priority areas of focus at each of the different levels.

5.Ways of working, next steps and tentative date for next meeting

The WASH workstream will hold conference calls every 2-3 months with ad-hoc calls and meetings as needed.

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