Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS)

Applying, researching, and learning about systems-based approaches to improve the sustainability of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services​.

 

Sustainable WASH Systems Initiative Logo

Understanding Factors and Actors to Achieve Sustainable Drinking Water Systems in...
“Water and food security” is designated as one of five strategic priorities by Kenya’s Kitui County Government. Providing sustainable drinking water services in the area remains challenging...
Water Currents: WASH and the Systems Approach
Water Currents is produced biweekly by USAID’s E3 Water Office. Each issue contains recent news and articles on water sector issues, partner and donor updates, latest sector research, and a...
Analyzing and Improving Collaboration Among WASH Stakeholders in Ethiopia
The Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS) team in Ethiopia – led by IRC, working with TetraTech and LINC – employed Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) to assess the relationships...
Webinar: Using Network Analysis to Understand and Strengthen WASH Systems
On February 21, 2018, the Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership (SWS) conducted a webinar that provides an introduction to network analysis and early lessons learned from analyses...

SWS held a webinar on August 23 to present recent learning about preventive maintenance, and how it can help local governments, communities, and the local private sector to shift the paradigm from paying pump mechanics, to fix broken pumps to paying them to keep water services running.

SWS Photo

Overview

Sustainable services remain a daunting challenge in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector. Traditionally, national and local governments, WASH service providers, and development partners have focused on the construction of WASH facilities and the expansion of service coverage. Less emphasis has been placed on sustaining and maintaining existing WASH services. As a result, failure rates of water supply and sanitation systems continue to be high.

Universal access cannot be achieved without addressing the sustainability of WASH services. This requires taking a comprehensive, long-term view of service delivery and changing local systems. While the sector recognizes this shift in programming is necessary, there has been limited exploration of what approaches work, what benefit they bring to sustainability, and how they can be applied effectively.

The Sustainable WASH Systems (SWS) Learning Partnership tests new ideas, approaches, and tools to overcome barriers for improving WASH service sustainability. The partnership seeks to:

  • Influence USAID to apply evidence on how systems approaches can help improve the sustainability of future USAID WASH programs

  • Catalyze national and international uptake of successful systems change approaches

WHAT IS A SYSTEMS APPROACH?

USAID has recognized that to achieve sustainability, local systems need to be engaged and strengthened. Under the 2017 U.S. Government Global Water Strategy USAID’s agency plan goal is to “increase the availability and sustainable management of safe water and sanitation for the unserved and most vulnerable.” Through SWS, USAID seeks to learn how to improve the sustainability of WASH services by using systems approaches.

SWS defines a systems approach as one that:

  • Seeks to understand the complexity, interactions, and interdependencies between actors and factors in a deliberate, rigorous manner;
  • Acts based on this understanding; and
  • Regularly adapts to feedback and changing conditions.
Acronym: 
SWS
Activity Status: 
Active
Start Year: 
2016
End Year: 
2021
Award or Grant Number: 
AID-OAA-A-16-00075
Prime Implementing Partner: 
CU Boulder
Implementing Partners: 
Environmental Incentives, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, Tetra Tech, LINC, WaterSHED, Whave, Oxford University
Resource Partner: 
USAID
Funding Level: 
$15,300,000

SWS Concept Map

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Partners

Consortium

The University of Colorado Boulder (UCB) leads a consortium of partners who are developing, demonstrating, learning about, and sharing evidence on systems-based approaches for improving the sustainability of WASH services. With implementation of systems-based approaches in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, USAID—and the broader WASH sector—will gain an understanding of how, and under what conditions, these approaches can be effectively applied in future programs.

SWS Steering Committee

The steering committee is comprised of leadership from our consortium member organizations.

  • Lucia Henry, Tetra Tech
  • John Butterworth, IRC
  • Rich Fromer, LINC
  • Adam Harvey, Whave
  • Rob Hope, University of Oxford
  • Elizabeth Jordan, USAID
  • Karl Linden, UCB
  • Harold Lockwood, AguaConsult
  • Shawn Peabody, EI
  • Daniel Hollander, UCB
  • Andrew Trevett, UNICEF

SWS Advisory Board Membership

SWS is advised by a group of respected members of the global WASH community.

  • Clare Battle, WaterAID-UK
  • Louis Boorstin, Osprey Foundation
  • Jenna Davis, Stanford University
  • Aaron Kabirizi, Uganda Ministry of Water and Environment
  • Adeeb Mahmud, FSG
  • Heather Skilling, DAI
  • Tjip Walker, USAID

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Resources

SWS is developing a body of knowledge about the cost of different systems approaches, their benefits, and what is needed to sustain them; how to effectively apply these approaches to new or existing activities; the conditions that support and inhibit different approaches; and the effectiveness of certain approaches. Through a series of knowledge products, webinars, and other resources, SWS shares evidence and lessons related to systems approaches and tools with the broader WASH community.

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Topic

Resource Type

Geography

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Blogs

Learn more about our latest research and activities, and get news about upcoming SWS events.

  • Blog
    A New Approach to Address Urban Sanitation Shortcomings
    7 Mar 2019

    In December, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies joined with USAID implementer AECOM to host a panel discussion on Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS), a topic of particular inte

  • Blog
    How Network Analysis Can Forge a Stronger Sanitation Sector
    30 Jan 2018

    Challenges to improving rural sanitation in Cambodia remain immense. New efforts and approaches are needed to achieve the country’s long-term vision for improvements in the sanitation sector, which includes sustainable access to sanitation services for all Cambodians.

    As part of the USAID Sustainable WASH Systems (SWS) Learning Partnership, WaterSHED is supporting a locally led and owned approach to increase the sustainability of sanitation and hygiene services in rural Cambodia.

Displaying 1 - 2 of 2

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COUNTRIES

ETHIOPIA AND UGANDA (IRC, Tetra Tech, and LINC)

IRC, Tetra Tech, and LINC are working with local actors in Ethiopia and Uganda to better understand and strengthen local systems for rural water and small town sanitation service delivery. In each location, SWS is promoting and facilitating learning alliances – stakeholder platforms for collaboration and shared learning – as a vehicle for improved sector coordination. These platforms bring together actors at the town, district, zonal, and regional levels to innovate and take collective actions to strengthen systems for sustaining WASH services. Inspired by principles of collective action, SWS is undertaking learning and research activities that involve researchers and implementing agencies working together to further understand the challenges and test solutions. Learn more here.

UGANDA (Whave)

Whave is working to cultivate a sustainable model for rural water service delivery by testing a preventive maintenance approach in three pilot districts. Operating as a Ugandan regional service provider, Whave is signing multi-year preventive maintenance service agreements with communities that require community leaders to charge operation and maintenance tariffs, manage the collected funds in supervised bank accounts, and pay an annual service fee. An important component of this model is incentivizing local technicians to prevent breakdowns by paying them based on the number of days a water source is functional instead of paying them to make repairs. Whave is helping local governments build an effective institutional and regulatory structure to establish and enforce preventive maintenance services. When incentives are aligned and costs can be recovered locally, the system can continue to work, increasing the sustainability of rural water service provision. Learn more here.

KENYA (University of Oxford and UNICEF)

Oxford and UNICEF, along with local partner Rural Focus, are developing, testing, and scaling-up the FundiFix model as one response to rural water challenges in Kitui County, Kenya. The goal is to provide a model for universal, rural water service delivery. FundiFix provides a performance-based approach to maintaining water infrastructure, using ‘smart handpumps’ that collect real-time information on abstraction volumes and breakdown incidents. Oxford and UNICEF are incubating the local Kenyan company Miambani Ltd. to provide preventive maintenance for small-piped schemes and handpumps. Learning about and documenting the risks and returns of this approach will provide insights and direction for government, private sector, and communities to establish an empirical basis for improving policy, practice, and investments for water security for the poor. Oxford and UNICEF are working closely with government and other stakeholders, using an existing platform of quarterly County WASH Forums, to strengthen the institutional coordination necessary for effective service delivery. Learn more here.

CAMBODIA (WaterSHED and LINC), completed in January 2019

WaterSHED and LINC drew upon the principles of collective impact and systems thinking to bring together a diverse set of stakeholders, including government, private sector, NGOs, and donors, around a shared vision for universal sanitation and hygienic environments. With SWS support, stakeholders collaborated to develop a common measurement framework and to align mutually reinforcing activities. Systems mapping and analysis tools were used to effectively identify and engage relevant local actors, collectively prioritize high potential areas of collaboration to achieve sector goals, and better understand how collective efforts contribute to sustainable rural sanitation and hygiene services. Learn more about WaterSHED here.

Contact Us

Liz Jordan, USAID, ejordan@usaid.gov  

 

Ethiopian Women