SWIFT takes part in event at WEDC conference in Ghana

Rachel Stevens, Senior Programme Funding Manager at Tearfund, presents the SWIFT Consortium’s experiences at the side-event at WEDC 2016

From left to right: SWIFT’s Rachel Stevens, Senior Programme Funding Manager at Tearfund; SSA4H’s Anne Mutta, Multi-Country Programme Manager; and SAWRP’s Mimi Coultas, WASH Adviser at Plan

The SWIFT Consortium took part in an event at this year’s WEDC conference for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practitioners, which was held in Kumasi in Ghana from 11-15 July with the theme ‘Ensuring Availability and Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation for All’.

SWIFT and the other consortia implementing DFID’s WASH Results Programme held a joint side event on Wednesday 13 July. The session examined the opportunities and challenges presented by measuring WASH sustainability in a Payment by Results context.

Discussions focused on the approaches and tools being used to monitor, report and verify the programmes being implemented by SWIFT, the Plan International-led South Asia WASH Results Programme (SAWRP), and the SNV-led Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All (SSA4H).

SWIFT’s Rachel Stevens (Senior Programme Funding Manager at Tearfund), SAWRP’s Mimi Coultas (WASH Adviser at Plan) and SSA4H’s Anne Mutta (Multi-Country Programme Manager for SSA4H) presented the experiences of their consortia, and a number of common challenges and opportunities. Some of the learning was specific to DFID’s WASH Results Programme, but much was more widely applicable.

The event, which included a lively question-and-answer session, also featured a presentation by a representative of the e-Pact consortium which is monitoring, verifying and evaluating the WASH Results Programme. Andy Robinson, lead verifier for SSA4H, wrote a blog about the event which can be read here.

The three WASH Results Programme consortia held a similar event at last year’s WEDC conference in the UK, at which the focus was on ‘Implementing WASH programmes in a Payment by Results Context’. The standing-room-only session enabled the three consortia to discuss how the requirements of a Payment by Results contract had been incorporated into their programmes, and the key learning themes that were emerging.

Find out more about this year’s event at the WEDC conference in Kumasi.