A look back at 2018
By continuing to raise the living standard of communities around the world, we are one step closer to our goal of improving water and sanitation services to 1.4 million people.
Together with communities, private and public sectors, NGOs and artists, we have been able to improve water and sanitation services to almost 700,000 people in 13 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Water has the power to transform people’s living conditions by reducing health risks and broadening the economic opportunities of vulnerable communities.
While we continue to launch new projects such as the Agua para Convidarte Tumaco project last November in Colombia, and work on upcoming initiatives in Canada and Haiti, other interventions have been successfully completed; such is the case for Honduras, El Salvador and some of the projects executed in Burkina Faso and India.
Let’s take a look at what’s been achieved up to the third quarter of 2018:
One Drop executes its current projects in Latin America through the regional program, Lazos de Agua. This innovative program is centered on the Social Art for Behaviour Change™ (SABC) approach -- improving access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Latin America through replicable and scalable solutions. Lazos de Agua is a multi-stakeholder partnership of One Drop, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), The Coca-Cola Foundation, and Fundación FEMSA. The following five projects are part of Lazos de Agua:
Colombia (Lazos de Agua)
Agua para ConvidArte Tumaco was recently launched in Bogotá with the occasion of the Cirque du Soleil show, Amaluna, in Bogota. This was an opportunity to gather a variety of stakeholders under an artistic ambience, bringing them closer to the SABC approach. ConvidArte will benefit 20,000 people from 27 rural and urban communities in the municipality of Tumaco, located on the Pacific coast of Colombia. The project is executed by Fundación PLAN.
Guatemala (Lazos de Agua)
The Quiché – Guatemala project will benefit around 37,000 people by providing them with improved access to water and sanitation. Up until July 2018, the Lazos de Agua project has benefitted more than 16,000 people, with many more participating in the SABC interventions. Thanks to the beautiful mosaics developed by the community and their artist partner group, Armadillo, a pilot project has been developed. The pilot blends Social Art products and interactivity in order to support agents of change, educators, parents and the whole community, going a step further towards sustainability through Social Art. This project is in implementation before the Program Lazos de Agua was launched. During the time preceding Lazos de Agua, the project had the generous support of the Prince Albert II de Monaco Foundation. Currently, the project is part of Lazos de Agua and is co-financed and executed by Water For People.
Mexico (Lazos de Agua)
The Guanajuato – Mexico project, implemented by Living Water, expects to benefit 45,000 people by 2021, by building or improving water supply systems and sanitation infrastructure, fostering the practice of healthy WASH-related behaviours, and supporting the emergent WASH supply chain of services and goods, among others. It has already surpassed 1,400 beneficiaries. The Comisión Estatal del Agua de Guanajuato (CEAG) is responsible for building the required infrastructure as well as providing capacity building to water user associations and other WASH stakeholders, under the A·B·C for Sustainability model of One Drop.
Nicaragua (Lazos de Agua)
From 2017 to 2021, Nicaragua Rural is being carried out by Water Aid America in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. By the end of this project, 15,000 people will benefit from greater access to safe water and sanitation services, including SABC interventions to strengthen healthy WASH behaviours, as well as a better financial environment to improve WASH-products and services.
Paraguay (Lazos de Agua)
Y Kuaa (“Water Wisdom”, in the Guaraní language) has benefitted 751 people and will reach more than 43,000 beneficiaries by 2021 in seven departments. With an integrated approach to WASH services, this project includes the definitive participation of the government organization SENASA, responsible for building the required infrastructure and for providing capacity building to water user associations and other WASH stakeholders. The Paraguayan Fundación Moisés Bertoni (FMB) implements components B and C, and coordinates the implementation of component A with SENASA. The SABC interventions plan, community training, and training of sanitation boards inside and outside the area of intervention (due to the interest raised by the project), were all completed during the first half of 2018.
Our two current projects in Burkina Faso have been ongoing since 2016. The ECED Sahel project has already benefitted more than 10,000 people from three communes located in the Sahel Region. By the end of 2019, this project, co-funded with GAC and IAMGOLD and executed by CowaterSogema, will attain 100,000 beneficiaries. It will contribute to the sustainable economic growth of the region by supporting income generating activities, improving access to water and sanitation, and providing capacity building and training to community organizations and governmental organizations for governance and management of WASH services and facilities. Our second project in Burkina Faso, carried out in the Grand Ouest Region by Water Aid, is coming to an end this December, 2018. The total number of beneficiaries has already exceeded our prior expectations, adding up to more than 43,000 people in five communes.
The PRISMA 2 project, co-financed by GAC and implemented by CCISD, is in the planning phase. This project seeks to improve the quality of service at health facilities in the Artibonite Department, reducing maternal, neonatal and under-five mortality rates. Through the strengthening of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services and infrastructure, by 2021, Haiti Prisma 2 will benefit more than 238,000 people, including women of reproductive age, youth, and children.
The Project Sheohar, co-financed and implemented by Water For People, has just come to an end. It far exceeded the initial expectations of 250,000 beneficiaries by reaching more than 380,000 people in the district of Sheohar. The project’s achievements include increasing the coverage and access to safe water and sanitation in 200 villages and 316 health clinics and schools, increasing dialogue and critical thinking about WASH and other related healthy practices, enabling access to microcredit loans for sanitation and livelihood initiatives, and improving farmers’ capacities and skills. Our second WASH project in India, in the Rajasthan State, co-financed by Tata Trusts and implemented by Centre de Microfinance, will benefit 240,000 people in 200 villages by 2020. It will provide sustainable access to WASH facilities, services and products, inspire and sustain the adoption of healthy behaviours related to WASH, and facilitate the access to government-subsidized latrines. Currently, more than 41,000 people have benefitted from this initiative, which has reached more than 100,000 people with its SABC interventions.
The Integrated Pathways for Improving Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (InPATH) project has been ongoing in three districts since 2017 and will last till 2020, by when some 200,000 people will have benefitted from it. This project is co-financed by GAC and implemented by CowaterSogema.
The Ji Ni Beseya project, co-financed by Water Aid Canada and implemented by Water Aid Mali, began in 2016, covering the Kali and Bla districts. As of today, 50,000 people have benefitted from this project, and by 2020, the number of beneficiaries will rise to more than 60,000. During this period, thousands more people will participate in the SABC interventions.
The Pirursiivik Project, meaning “a place to grow” in Inuktitut, seeks to support the community of Inukjuak in order to develop an Inuit-led project to improve living conditions in the region. This includes providing increased access to fresh produce via the first year-round northern greenhouse. The project focused its first year of implementation on establishing a solid foundation with strong ties to community organizations. What started as an idea brought forward by One Drop and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) together with Makivik Corporation, has now gained the engagement and active participation of the most relevant social and governmental organizations in Inukjuak. Social Art processes involving local artists and mobilized members of the community continue to be at the heart of the project, including the complementary support of Cirque du Monde by Cirque du Soleil. The project provides capacity-building and organizational support to create a multidisciplinary regional troupe of young Inuit artists, capable of leading and replicating social Art activities both in Inukjuak and in the larger region of Nunavik.
