Water For People Blog

January 29, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Denver-Colo) -- January 29, 2010 -- Ned Breslin, the outspoken CEO of Water For People, is calling for transformative change in the water and sanitation sector, and he is starting with his own organization.

In his January 2010 essay "Rethinking Hydro‐Philanthropy: Smart Money for Transformative Impact," Breslin outlines key steps that donors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local governments and communities should take to create sustainable change with long term benefits.

Expanding upon controversial observations such as those by Nicholas Kristof and David Brooks of the New York Times, Breslin goes where few not-for-profit CEOs dare to go--laying bare all the secrets and shortcomings of today’s charity-based approach in the water and sanitation sector, as well as suggesting guidelines for transformative change.

The essay focuses on his own organization’s shortcomings, providing a first-hand account on what works and what doesn’t work--both short-term and long term. Breslin shows how a well meaning nonprofit like Water For People can move from feel-good, simplistic interpretations and communications on success to a more profound and thoughtful organization that challenges itself by asking far harder, long-term impact questions.

Key points of the report include:

• Currently, the overriding approach in the sector is of welfare and charity rather than development. This approach leads to poor project implementation which leads to high rates of failure.
• NGOs must develop the time, patience and understanding of community development to establish the foundation for success.
• Until now, "sweat equity" has been considered sufficient contribution from communities. But it is not enough to create a sense of ownership to ensure long term success of projects.
• New philanthropic giving strategies could play a significant role in eliminating water and sanitation poverty by basing themselves on a robust set of sustainability metrics.
• A new partnership between philanthropists and development agencies needs to focus on leveraging creative philanthropic giving to instill financial responsibilities on communities and governments in developing countries.
• A new culture of accountability and transparency that transcends what currently masquerades as "reporting" in the sector must emerge.
• Investors, who employ stringent due diligence when selecting for-profit ventures, should use those same requirements when considering their philanthropic donations.
• New measurements should go beyond counting number of people served in a given year to include the percentage of projects that are fully functional and self-sufficient at 3, 6 and 10 years.

Please note: This essay focuses on the water and sanitation sector. Certainly, there are other sectors where this would not apply, such as advanced or complex health care. And there are situations, such as humanitarian relief (Eastern Congo) and failed states (Somalia) where this approach would not be appropriate even for the water and sanitation sector.

Read the full essay: http://www.waterforpeople.org/hydrophilanthropy
Follow Ned Breslin’s Blog "Rising Tide": http://www.waterforpeople.org/nedbreslin

Related articles you may be interested in:

How Can We Help the World’s Poor?
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
November 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/books/review/Kristof-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=print

The Underlying Tragedy
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: January 14, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html?emc=eta1

Media Opportunities:

• Interview Ned Breslin
• Request an exclusive on an article-length excerpt
• Use the Op-Ed piece as a basis for your own investigative reporting

About Water For People
Founded in 1991, Water For People is a Denver-based private, nonprofit international humanitarian organization that supports the development of sustainable safe drinking water resources and improved sanitation facilities in developing countries. The nongovernmental organization is distinguished by its focus on local private-sector development, interorganizational collaboration, social entrepreneurship, and the engagement of stakeholders, which combine together to achieve sustainability. The organization has active water, sanitation, and hygiene education programs in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. Water For People is a charity of choice of the American water and wastewater community. For more information, visit www.waterforpeople.org.

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The celebration ran high when the new well gushed water for the first time and the entire village attended the festivities. Streamers and fresh paint decorated the new pump. But the thrill was gone when the pump broke and no one in the village knew where to find or how to install the spare part required to get the water flowing again.

It's a story that is repeated thousands of times a year in developing countries where broken water pumps and latrines are abandoned throughout villages and communities. It's not for lack of caring. Many were installed by well-intentioned nonprofit organizations and philanthropic groups. But the real challenge is how to make these systems last

"One of the biggest problems around the world is that water and sanitation systems are often installed for free, without considering how they will be maintained. You see catastrophic failure rates around Africa, Asia, and Latin America," said Ned Breslin, Water For People CEO. "The International Institute for Environment and Development estimates that 50,000 water points in Africa are broken on any given day. They estimate that it's worth between $215 and $360 million in wasted investment.

Water For People is looking at the problem of access to water and sanitation from a different angle than many nonprofits do—one that involves leveraging the local businesses. To solve the problem of broken pumps, the organization is stimulating what are essentially plumbing businesses.

Water For People is looking at how to encourage more local businesses to see the value in sanitation services. As in the case of a cell phone company that gives you the phone for a low price but makes its money on the two-year contract, a business would give a latrine to a family for low cost but still make money based on their service (emptying the latrine pit later)

Every country and region in which Water For People works has a different example of how the private sector can profitably address a social cause and increase the overall sustainability of international development projects, otherwise known as social entrepreneurship

And the innovative ideas are catching on.

It all started two years ago when Water For People produced an award-winning project proposal during the Development Marketplace event held by the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a global competition that encouraged innovative solutions to the world's biggest development challenges. With the $200,000 award, Water For People developed a program that leveraged eco-sanitation toilets and local entrepreneurs

The idea works like this: Families are offered an eco-sanitation latrine financed with a microloan. The family uses the latrine, adding soil and ash after every use to create compost, and then the entrepreneur returns to purchase and remove the compost. The family earns enough to pay off the cost to build the latrine and retain a little additional money. The entrepreneur grows the business by selling the compost to local farmers. And the entrepreneur has incentive to get more people to use the eco-sanitation toilet.

This "Sanitation as a Business" model proved that the local private sector truly has a place in improving the longevity and breadth of international development programs. The number of sanitation beneficiaries in Malawi will likely increase rapidly through this program—not just when the toilets were installed, but continuing into 2010

This fall, Water For People had another opportunity to test the model. In September the Blantyre Water Board, operated by the government of Malawi, selected Water For People to provide technical support for a 31-million-euro ($45 million) initiative funded by the European Union (EU) Water Facility and the European Investment Bank (EIB) to bring safe drinking water and improved sanitation to more than 540,000 people in 21 low-income areas of peri-urban Blantyre and Lilongwe, Malawi. The projects include microloans for latrines supported by low-cost services from entrepreneurs to empty the latrines at scheduled intervals, making the toilets sustainable and incentivizing business

In addition, the Case Foundation invested in Water For People in October to accelerate and expand its efforts to provide innovative, sustainable water solutions in Africa. This investment helps us harness the power of local entrepreneurs to provide sustainable operations and maintenance support in Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda

"We're developing and incubating viable business ideas so that entrepreneurs see that everyone who doesn't have a toilet—everybody who goes to the bathroom—is a viable customer," Breslin said. "That way, Water For People doesn't have to fund and build every toilet. Many other organizations have tried that idea and it hasn't worked.

But social entrepreneurship may work differently depending on the local environment and culture. In India, Water For People trained a group known as the Jalabandhus ("friends of water") to repair broken water pumps and sanitation facilities. This group of entrepreneurs saved many lives after Cyclone Aila in May 2009 by repairing all except three water pumps installed by Water For People in the Sundarban Island villages. The three remaining pumps were under water and not repairable. Not only did the Jalabandhus (also known as mobile mechanics) get the pumps working, but the local government also employed the team to repair pumps they had installed.

"An answer Water For People has found to the challenge of sustainability is the empowerment of mobile mechanics who visit village after village to maintain and repair water infrastructure," Breslin said. "Mobile mechanics collect a fee for their services and become viable businesses that serve a social good by providing quality technical support to communities.

"By stimulating the private sector to provide water and sanitation services, we plan to show that systems are still functioning after 10 years, that latrine services are still being used, and that these communities no longer need development organizations. If we can show that water is flowing, toilets are being used, hands are being washed, not just when they get the service but in 10 years, I think that's revolutionary," Breslin said

Listen to Ned Breslin's interview with Colorado Public Radio about social entrepreneurship at www.waterforpeople.org/cpr.

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“Sustainability” is the most overused and abused term in the water and sanitation sector.

Water For People is proud of our efforts over the past few years to dramatically expand the number of people we support. This is a testament to the strategic and impactful ways our field staff and partners continue to work throughout the world.

We report numbers of “beneficiaries” every year so that it is clear how many people have partnered with Water For People around the world to solve their water and sanitation challenges. And we rightly celebrate the day a water system is completed and latrine doors are open for business.

We take joy in knowing that a woman or girl no longer needs to walk for hours and miles to collect dirty water or defecate on the ground because she does not have access to a latrine.

But we have also learned that counting beneficiaries is not enough. What is also important is what happens after Water For People has left the area, the cameras are gone, the beneficiaries have been counted, and the donor reports have been submitted. What happens when a former “beneficiary” walks by that very same tap or pump that is now broken, on her way back to the dirty source of water that she used before? What happens when the latrine is full or too dirty to use?

The truth is that we and our sister development organizations must significantly improve the quality of our work so that water systems supported today are still functioning years later. Around the world, despite many people’s best intentions, an unacceptable number of pumps are broken, taps are dry, and schools have become graveyards for failed water and sanitation infrastructure. This makes us wonder what it means when organizations talk about “sustainability.”

What sustainability means to us is that beneficiaries counted today can still get safe water from functioning taps or pumps in 10 years. And when it’s time for a new water system, beneficiaries and local government partners can replace the hardware themselves without seeking financial and technical help from yet another development organization. Sustainability means that people who start using a latrine today will never have to go to the bathroom outside again. And when the pit fills up, they can sell the contents for compost, or call a pit-emptying service, or replace their pit latrine.

So how can you measure this? Water For People believes that conventional success indicators are misleading and need to change. That is why we are not going to try to show more impact just by showing increasing beneficiary numbers. Now we will also report on sustainability. We are morally obligated to program for and measure sustainability because we dare to intervene in people’s lives, and because people like you trust us and invest in our work.

We will still report on how many people and municipalities invested their sparse cash and resources in partnership with Water For People to solve their water and sanitation problems every year. But we will only really “count” people who benefit from water and toilet systems if we can demonstrate that they are still using toilets and accessing water 3, 6, and 10 years after system inauguration. We will measure this with very clear and difficult indicators of functionality. Three, 6, and 10 years out: that is when Water For People will really celebrate. And we will aim high. Our goal is that at least 90% of systems we have supported in the past will also be operational over 3-, 6-, and 10-year periods.

This means that Water For People will invest even more in ongoing monitoring and evaluation, and will modify and improve programs based on field results. We will continue to look for ways to make our data visual and accessible to our partners, supporters, and peer organizations. We need to be accountable especially to the people we engage with, every day, in the countries where we operate. And we will put our reputation on the line by demonstrating impact over time, rather than simply speaking about sustainability anecdotally. We would love to work ourselves out of a job: the only way to do that is to change the conversation about how to truly solve the water and sanitation crisis worldwide.

Listen to Ned Breslin's interview with Colorado Public Radio about social entrepreneurship at www.waterforpeople.org/cpr.

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Sometimes there are added benefits as volunteers connect with people. On a recent trip with World Water Corps volunteers Don Holmes and Matt Millis in Bolivia, the two volunteers were eager to return to one of the homes they had already visited. They had met 85-year-olds Don Francisco and Señora Francisca, a married couple who lived in Centro Hoyada outside Tiraque. Holmes and Millis had taken a picture of the couple, printed and framed it, and wanted to give it to them as a gift for their hospitality two days earlier.

Sra. Francisca had told them that her backyard shallow well had gone dry and her only option had been to gather water at the irrigation ditch and then more recently load her water jugs in a cab for the two kilometer trip to buy water. She explained that her life changed two years ago when she started to attend a weekly meeting of the water committee in Centro Hoyada. The committee served as a focal point to bring together the community, local government, other development organizations, and the local private sector so that a water system could be installed, operated, and maintained far into the future. Holmes and Millis translated that the decision to help pay for her own new water system was an easy one. She knew that there was no free tap in the offing, but when she saw the new tap in her backyard, she cried, realizing that things were getting better for herself and her community. It took Sra. Francisca, Water For People, her local community, and the government to create this solution.

Holmes and Millis knocked on her door that day to see if the tap was still running and working properly, but the story she told Holmes and Millis, about her life, her family, their challenges, and how water was central, impressed them. She invited both to come in and share a simple meal with her family, which they did.

The experience so moved the pair of volunteers that they returned that day with their present.

Sra. Francisca greeted Holmes and Millis with hugs and kisses, chatting with them as friends. She cried and kissed the framed picture of her and her husband and once again opened her home to us all. The World Water Corps volunteers collected valuable data throughout their two-week trip to Bolivia that will help Water For People improve its work. But in another crucial way, Holmes, Millis, and the World Water Corps connected with people and demonstrated how development can work with respect, care, and compassion, not just data. They were ambassadors in the highest sense of the word. And that works.

See what else works in What Works blog written by Peter Mason. "Join" the blog to hear when a new blog entry is written.

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