The WaterAid Nicaragua Country Program started operations of its initial 3-year pilot phase during the second semester of 2011 aiming to contribute to efforts to improve access to WASH across three indigenous territories of the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN).

Before beginning any major service delivery investments in the region WaterAid Nicaragua facilitated a participative community mapping process in all of the communities of the three territories and baseline study consisting of a random household survey combining socio-economic conditions with knowledge, attitude and practice related to WASH.

Following a year of implementing the Inodoro Ecologico Popular (IEP) toilet, WaterAid and Welthungerhilfe took the decision to join forces to conduct an evaluation of the results of implementation of the technology in the area of intervention, with the objective of measuring its success and impact and to inform potential modifications.

Overall the WASHtech Technology Assessment Framework (TAF) was found to be:

  1. Easy to apply including the preparation of the facilitator team.
  2. Easy to adapt and translate the Guiding Questions and the Key Question to local languages
  3. Easily understood by the participants at each stakeholder level: user (community member), regulator (government), and providers (in this case NGOs)
  4. An effective trigger for engaged cross-stakeholder discussion and debate in relation to successful and sustainability introduction of the technology and the diverse roles and responsabilities involved.
  5. Low cost.

With regards to recommendations for the TAF methodology, WaterAid Nicaragua would like to contribute the following:

  1. It is important when doing the user analysis to consider different groups within this category: women, men, adolescents, children, elderly, differently abled, etc.
  2. The questions for the Environmental instrument guide and accompanying manual should be reviewed to avoid the confusion created when a negative response is actually a positive condition (for example, the fact that no negative impact on the environment is created may result in the participants assigning a negative symbol in the chart even though it is a positive condition.
  3. It is important to ensure the maximum preparation of the facilitator team prior to the workshop

 

 

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