Presentation by George Obondo, ICRAF, at the SIANI Members Meeting in Nairobi, November 14th 2018

1. Strengthening collaboration at the WASH, food and
nutrition nexus to build community resilience in
low income countries (WASHnut)
Presented By:
George Obondo
on 14th Nov. 2018
SIANI Meeting, ICRAF Nairobi, Kenya
Contact: Obondo_George@kya.salvationarmy.org

3. Linkages Between Water, Sanitation And Food Production For Food And
Nutrition Security (2016)

5. Key findings
• Sanitation is both an opportunity and a threat: Well managed sanitation
can promote food and nutrition, security, while poor sanitation is a source
of contaminants endangering health, environmental and nutritional
security
• Integrated management of water, sanitation and hygiene offers critical
opportunities for promoting food and nutritional security
• Integrated management is technically feasible. However it is hampered by
several barriers, including silo thinking, lack of cross-sectoral
communication and lack of working models.
• To promote integrated management, there is a need for cross sectoral
goals, knowledge-sharing and dissemination of well illustrated cased
studies of cross sectoral management experiences

6. Expert group 2 (2017)
Strengthening collaboration at the WASH, food and nutrition nexus to
build community resilience in low income countries (WASHnut)
Objective: Find 10 case studies, development country focus
Synthesize practical guidance how to link WASH, food and nutrition
security sectors and ways of operationalizing resilience within
development projects.
Questions: 1) motivation, 2) facilitation in early stages, 3) overcoming
challenges, 4) resilience and cross-sectoral work

7. Guiding questions used for the study
Questions:
1. Motivation
2. Facilitation in early stages
3. Overcoming challenges,
4. Resilience and cross-sectoral work

8. Cross-sectoral case studies
• PeePoople (Kenya)
• International Aid Service (Kenya)
• Sanergy (Kenya)
• The Salvation Army (Kenya)
• Centre for Community Initiatives (Tanzania)
• Action for Rural Women’s Empowerment (Uganda)
• Sumaj Huasi Foundation (Bolivia)
• Swedish Agricultural University (Sweden)
• Save the Children (Burkina Faso)

9. Motivation

10. What motivates cross-sectoral projects?
Stick (Push factors)
•Crisis
•Complexity
•Demand driven
•Healthy community
needed
Carrot (Pull factors)
• Government
encouragement
• Research inspired
• Economic
• Environment
• Added value/benefit
• Prestige

11. What challenges at intervention stage are
specific to cross-sectoral projects?
• Policy/standards: Lack of support from legal system. Lack of
standards and certification
• Government support: Lack of coordination between authorities
representing different sectors, unclear responsibilities
• Multiple partners: time required for discussion, MoUs etc
• Staff capacity: Capacity to work on complex community problems
across sectors, knowledge of entire value chains, technology
• Users: Social stigma. Safety concerns. Lack of acceptance. Lack of
knowledge on technology use

12. Which factors facilitate the early stages of
cross-sectoral projects?
• Attitude: Positive attitude. Willing to collaborate with other sectors,
goodwill
• Starting small: demonstrating pilot. Trying things small prior to
scaling up
• Learning: Willing to try new things and learn from mistakes
• Local engagement: User acceptance. Ownership by local people
• Research support: cost-effective and context specific research
findings
• Context understanding: contextual system understanding.
Platforms for cross-sectoral discussions

13. Workshop: Nairobi (4-6th of Dec 2017)

15. Visit to TSA, Kibera

16. Key messages and learnings
• Cross-sectoral projects require more resources (time, funds,
knowledge and skills) and require more intensive planning, but
have high positive impact
• Cross-sectoral work is way to address complex challenges in
communities
• Importance of different sector-specific cultures
• Business opportunities within WASH-nutrition-food security
sectors and reuse. Economic empowerment is glue between
sectors
Key stakeholders: business, government, capacity building
organisations

17. SIANI group references
Link to news story and presentation with case studies (2018)
https://www.siani.se/news-story/food-water-sanitation-and-hygiene-tie-a-knot/
Link to discussion brief (2017)
https://www.siani.se/wp-
content/uploads/2017/10/water_ag_sanitation_siani_discussion_brief_aug17_fo
r_the_web.pdf