CARE KENYA

LIVELIHOOD SECTOR

WASH PROGRAM PROFILE

Introduction

The livelihoods sector is currently one of the CARE Kenya’s country programme sector that focuses on empowering the vulnerable rural communities to enhance their livelihoods through use of various multipronged approachesamong them integrated water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). The sector has consolidated experiences and has documented best practices particularly with regards to resilience to drought related risks/disasters and school WASH making CARE Kenya as one of the key agencies co-chairing the national level platforms on the school WASH with UNICEF and other line ministries.

  1. Millenniam Water Alliance Program in Kenya - KALDRR

Background

Kenya Arid Lands Disaster Risk Reduction – WASH program is being implemented under the millennium water alliance (MWA) consortium. Funded by USAID, the KALDRR-WASH activities are implemented by four partners under the umbrella of millennium water alliance. The four partners are CARE, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Food for the hungry (FHK) and World Vision (WVK). The Dutch partners who form part of MWA consortium are co-funding the program to address program sustainability through the integration of learning initiatives on multiple uses of water (MUS), water recharge, retention and reuse (3-R), life cycle cost approach (LCCA) and field level digitalized monitoring. The MWA KALDRR-WASH program collectively targets to reach 160,000 beneficiaries in five counties of Garissa, Wajir, Isiolo, Marsabit and Turkana of Northern Kenya.

CARE’s KALDRR-WASH activities are implemented in three counties of Garissa, Wajir and Marsabit but in specific sub counties of Lagdera, Balambala and Garissa Central (Garissa), Wajir North (Wajir) and Moyale (Marsabit). CARE, by the end of the program in November 2014 targets to reach 42,300 people in those sub counties. The program focus isto improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and build resilience to climate change. The program was designed in the context of assisting the national government, counties and communities to increase resilience to drought and flash floods while simultaneously increasing access to improved WASH services. The program objectives are clustered into three outcomes summarized as (1) improving water supply storage and increasing resilience, (2) improving WASH conditions in Aphia+ health & nutrition facilities and (3) linking these two outcomes with the neighboring communities largely through behavior change and capacity building activities

Program goal and strategic objectives

The Kenya Arid Lands Disaster Risk Reduction – WASH Program goal is to increase resilience to drought and flash floods while simultaneously increasing access to improved water supply and sanitation services and improving hygiene behaviours for poor and vulnerable populations in the arid counties of Turkana, Marsabit (including Moyale Sub-county), Garissa, Isiolo and Wajir.

Strategic Objectives

  1. Increase water storage capacity in arid lands, through improving natural and artificial storage;
  2. Improve WASH conditions at health facilities and nutrition centers frequently used during emergency response;
  3. Improve (a) access to safe drinking water sources, improve (b) access to and usage of point of use water treatment products, (c) promote good hygiene behaviors and the use of sanitation facilities as a means of reducing diarrheal diseases in areas with recurrent emergency levels of malnutrition and around areas of improved storage

The program activities include water supply infrastructure development, capacity building of Water users associations and water committees on management as well as accountability, integration of community managed disaster risk reduction approach, addressing WASH gaps in Aphia+ health facilities and behavior change interventions at community level targeting sanitation and hygiene promotion.

  1. SWASH+ Phase 2: Increasing accountability in school WASH.

Current Programming

The School Water Sanitation and Hygiene plus (SWASH+) project aims to improve the sustainability and effectiveness of school water, sanitation and hygiene at scale in order to support the National School Health Policy. The project is supporting decision makers to access high quality data, evidence and learning in order to improve resource allocation, prioritization and governance of school WASH. Leadership and coordination is provided by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) towards implementation of the following:

  • Revamping the Education Management Information System (EMIS) through a school based mobile data transmission platform
  • Producing evidence through field trials on incentives for improved governance in schools, private sector model of service delivery in informal settlements and Life Cycle Cost of school WASH
  • Generating learning from various trials through Policy Briefs and outreaches to decision makers and decision organs
  • Promoting the Sustainability Charter on Comprehensive School Health program and training TAC tutors

This is the second phase of SWASH+ project (2012 -2016) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

Program Archives

School Water Sanitation and Hygiene plus Community Impact (SWASH+) phase I (2006 to 2012) was an action research and advocacy project focusing on increasing the scale, impact and sustainability of school water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions in Kenya. The goal of the project was to identify, develop, and test innovative approaches to school-based water, sanitation and hygiene in Nyanza Province, Kenya. The partners of the SWASH+ I consortium were CARE, Emory University’s Centre for Global Safe Water, the Great Lakes University of Kisumu and the Government of Kenya. The objectives then were to identify, develop and test innovative approaches to school and community based water, sanitation and hygiene interventions that promote sustainability and scalability; provide and test an integrated WASH program in school that maximizes impact, equity, sustainability and cost effectiveness and; positively influence Kenyan government investment in school WASH by leveraging learning on sustainable, scalable and effective approaches. The project conducted a series of rigorous quantitative studies in 185 schools where the project was implemented as well as qualitative studies on a number of topics. The first phase was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Information Documents

Attached please find baseline and evaluation reports. For more information reference can be made to SWASH+ website:

  1. Nyanza Healthy Water (SWS)

Introduction

CARE International in Kenya and Procter & Gamble (P&G) have partnered over the last seven years to support pre-positioning of P&G Purifier of Water. This has added to CARE’s service delivery capabilities and provided innovative solutions to point of use water treatment. The project is valuable and life-changing, so that children and families can lead healthier and more productive lives. Safe Water System (SWS) is an inexpensive method of providing safe water at point of use through treatment, safe storage and behavior change.

Project Goal: Sustainable improvement in the quality of life of vulnerable women, children and pupils living in the Western Kenya region.

Broad Objective: Reduce waterborne-related illnesses among women, children and People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) that result from the consumption of contaminated water.

Strategic Objectives

  • Increase partners’ knowledge of safe drinking water using SWS/P&G purifier of water and hygiene promotion.
  • Improve access to safe drinking water and hygiene infrastructure in schools and health facilities.
  • Enhance linkages at the community level to boost the adoption of safe drinking water.
  • Assess uptake and measure intervention’s impact.

Key Findings

SWS and hygiene in schools evaluated by CARE and Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in 2006, 2007 and 2009, revealed significantly increased household adoption of water treatment and proper hand washing techniques and decreased absentee rates among students.

SWS and hygiene in clinics studies demonstratedhealth workers are effective change agents. They serve as role models and are well-trusted, which means their messages are valued by the communities.

Progress Status: Jan 2012 to June 2013

  1. Conducted stakeholders targeting meeting to identify 20 schools and ECD centres.
  2. Procured and distributed 4,778,090 sachets of P&G purifier of water supplies for schools, ECD centres and clinics.
  3. Completed stakeholders’ dissemination workshop on previous evaluation.
  4. Completed rapid assessment of 53 health facilities and 20 schools.
  5. Trained 24 Health Workers, 7 Education Officials, 80 teachers and 632 Community Health Workers on Safe Water System and hygiene.
  6. Conducted Annual review meetings with Community Health Workers (CHW) and Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW) in 53 Community Units
  7. Hosted CARE Celebrity Ambassador – Venus Williams and other VIPs to project sites.
  8. Participated in emergency response work during January & April 2013 floods in Western Kenya.
  9. Hosted 3 local media stations (KBC, NTV & K24) during the March 22, 2013 World Water Day.

Target Beneficiaries

Through the proposed third phase of Safe Drinking Water for Vulnerable Communities project, CARE and P&G will improve the health of 14,000 children in 40 primary schools, as well as their adjoining ECD centers. This will indirectly reach or support 7,000 households within the schools’ catchment areas, for a total population of 35,000 community members. Under the health facilities component through the PMTCT and MCH/FP clinics, the project team will target 8,950 women of reproductive age who visit PMTCT delivery sites both at the health facilities and in community settings. The intervention will aim to reduce diarrhea-related illnesses among infants and children under 5 and; therefore, enhance their survival and development.

Similarly, the intervention will enhance the care and support for PLWHA by reducing the incidence of opportunistic infections as well as contribute to safe infant feeding practices for HIV-exposed infants. CARE will target 900 PLWHA through their support group settings in the 20 new project clinics, which are key outlets to promote safe drinking water messages, conduct demonstrations and distribute supplies for use at home. Indirect beneficiaries will include 4,500 community members residing in households with health facility clients.