Welcome Note

Welcome to the New Year and to our new eNewsletter The Resource Spring! This eNewsletter is an initiative of NGO Forum's National Resource Centre (NRC) and will be sent out on a monthly basis to provide another avenue of support for our stakeholders. It, along with the NRC’s resource database, library and knowledge sharing activities, offers a one-stop-shop for all of your sector related resource and knowledge needs.

While introducing The Resource Spring is a great start to 2012 it is not the only change in our organization, as of 13 December 2011 we have also realigned and expanded our direction to include all of public health, leading to our new name: NGO Forum for Public Health. This is a great step forward for us as it enables our activities and scope to cover more developmental objectives as well as leveraging off the efficiencies and knowledge gained through cross-sector activities. While this is a steep learning curve for our organization we are looking forward to the challenge and the greater potential for change it offers.

In this issue we have included a number of sections which you may find useful including national and international news from the WatSan sector, learning opportunities from both within our organization and externally provided, upcoming events, new resources available through the NRC and a knowledge corner which provides information and resources on knowledge management and exchange opportunities.

I hope you find our first issue of The Resource Spring useful, we welcome any feedback, comments or article suggestions.

S.M.A. Rashid
Executive Director
NGO Forum for Public Health

National News

Launch of NGO Forum for Public Health

On Tuesday 13 December 2011 NGO Forum announced its extended vision to include ‘improved public health and sound environment’ and celebrated the occasion by launching its new name NGO Forum for Public Health. This widened scope will ensure that NGO Forum is able to continue addressing the emerging threats associated with water and sanitation impacting public health and our environment.

The event was opened by Executive Director Mr.S.M.A. Rashid with General Committee Member Mr. Jeffrey S. Pereira and Executive Committee Vice-Chairperson, Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed also presenting on the changing role of NGO Forum. Executive Committee Chairperson, Mrs. Tahrunnesa Abdullah was the Chair of the ceremony and gave the closing remarks before unveiling the new name. The event was attended by many representative from government agencies, national and international NGOs, development partners and mass media.  

Read more

Bangladesh to get $4.5 bln from ADB to cut poverty

Bangladesh will receive $4.5 billion in loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) over next four years to strengthen efforts to reduce the poverty which still grips a third of its population, an ADB official said on Thursday.

"The assistance over a period till 2015 aims to develop infrastructure, energy and electricity to generate more employment through industrialization," he told Reuters. It would also help boost Bangladesh's farming and communication sectors.

Read more

WatSan Events

12-17 March – 6th World Water Forum

Every three years since 1997, the World Water Forum gathers stakeholders to discuss today’s local, regional and global issues in relation to water. The goal of the 6th World Water Forum is to tackle the challenges our world is facing and to bring water high on all political agendas. The forum will be held in Marseille, France and will cover twelve priority areas as well as three conditions of success.

More information can be found on the World Water Forum website.

17-25 March – World Walks for Water

The World Walks for Water and Sanitation is a global event demanding action to address the world’s largest crisis – water and sanitation. From 17 to 25 March 2012, thousands of people will walk together to demand political change. And you can take part too!

More information can be found on the World Walks for Water website.

22 March – World Water Day

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

More information can be found on the World Water Day website.

New Resources Available

The NRC library acts as a sector memory and contains a rich collection of resources with complete connectivity to a state-of-the-art Online Library Information System (OLIS). The physical library itself contains over 4,000 books, journals, articles and other related resources and is open to the public free of charge.

For a complete list of physical resources available visit our Online Library Information System or for online resources our WatSan database.

Long Term Sustainability of Improved Sanitation in Rural Bangladesh

This is a technical paper published by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP). This Technical Paper is one in a series of knowledge products designed to showcase project findings, assessments, and lessons learned in Scaling Up Rural Sanitation. This paper is conceived as a work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues.

Published by: Water and Sanitation Program
Publication date: October 2011

The report can be accessed through our NRC library or downloaded from the WSP website. 

World Health Statistics 2011

Published by the World Health Organization this report contains WHO’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 193 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets.

Published by: World Health Organization
Publication date: 2011

The report can be accessed through our NRC library or downloaded from the WHO website.

Estimates for the use of improved sanitation facilities in Bangladesh

Published by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation this report was updated in March 2010 and looks at estimates for the use of improved sanitation facilities in Bangladesh

Published by: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation
Publication date: updated March 2010

The report can be accessed through our NRC library or downloaded from the WHO website.

Estimates for the use of improved drinking-water sources in Bangladesh

Published by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation this report was updated in March 2010 and looks at estimates for the use of improved drinking-water sources in Bangladesh

Published by: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation
Publication date: updated March 2010

The report can be accessed through our NRC library or downloaded from the WHO website.

Contact Us

If you would like to subscribe to the Resource Spring or have any story ideas, comments or suggestions please email us.

email: nrc@ngof.org

postal address: NGO Forum for Public Health, 4/6, Block-E, Lalmatia, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh

website: National Resource Centre

In this Issue ...

• International News
• National News
• Learning Opportunities
• WatSan Events
• New Resources Available
• Knowledge Corner
• Useful Links
• Contact Us

International News

Climate Conference Approves Landmark Deal

A UN climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement on a complex and far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming decades. The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would put all countries under the same legal regime enforcing commitments to control greenhouse gases. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.

The deal also set up the bodies that will collect, govern and distribute tens of billions of dollars a year for poor countries. Other documents in the package lay out rules for monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests, transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of technical issues.

Read more

Developing nations offer creative solutions for tackling hunger, says Assembly President

The President of the General Assembly lauded the Global South-South Development Expo held in Rome as a strong testimony to the creativity of developing countries to achieve global food security. “This year’s Expo has demonstrated the power of the Global South to respond quickly to development challenges and meet global needs for adequate food and nutrition,” he stated in remarks to the closing ceremony that were delivered by his Deputy Chef de Cabinet, Tariq Ali Al-Ansari.

“We can leave here today, knowing that the South-South spirit of striving for collective self-reliance is stronger than ever before,” he stated, noting that there have been many “dynamic” examples of successful solutions on display to address the pressing demand for food security.

Read more

Learning Opportunities

NGO Forum January Training

The following training will be held by NGO Forum for Public Health during January 2012. If your organization is interested in having this type of training please contact Mr. Waliul Islam.

Inclusive WASH Webinars

Presented by WaterAid Australia the webinars bring together experience and expertise in addressing the WASH needs of people through different social inclusion ‘lenses’: gender, disability, HIV/AIDs and other grounds for exclusion such as age, religion or ethnic minority.

Three sessions have so far been aired and their recordings, as well as information on upcoming webinars, can be found on the inclusive WASH website.

Webinar: Investigating Long-term Sustainability of Rural Sanitation in Bangladesh

In 2010, the Water and Sanitation Program conducted a study in rural Bangladesh to gain insights into whether sanitation (i.e., latrine use) outcomes from Community-led Total Sanitation approaches are sustainable over the long-term. This presentation is based on findings from a WSP study of 50 local governments that were declared 100% sanitized/open defecation free almost five years ago.

A recording of this webinar can be viewed on the WSP website.

WASH Governance Training Under Development

IRC is developing a training program to support professionals involved in capacity strengthening of local governments that implement water, sanitation and hygiene services at district level. The WASH Governance Training Program will comprise a series of modules with practical content and selected tools. The first modular package will be field tested in Africa soon.

For more information visit the IRC website or email Jean de la Harpe harpe@irc.nl

Knowledge Corner

The South-South Exchange Community

South-South cooperation, loosely defined as an exchange of expertise between governments, organizations and individuals in developing nations, is gaining importance and momentum. More and more, developing countries help and support each other with knowledge, technical assistance, and/or investments. This has brought an important new dimension to the aid landscape and the growth potential for this type of cooperation is enormous.

The South-South exchange is a community of professionals dedicated to South-South cooperation, knowledge exchange and learning for development. The online platform offers a space to come together to discuss, learn and connect around South-South cooperation and knowledge exchanges.

For more information, or to join the network, visit the South South Exchange community.

Read some Knowledge management (KM) resources from the Asian Development Bank

Harvesting knowledge - If 80% of knowledge is unwritten and largely unspoken, we first need to elicit that before we can articulate, share, and make wider use of it. Knowledge harvesting is one way to draw out and package tacit knowledge to help others adapt, personalize, and apply it; build organizational capacity; and preserve institutional memory.

Storytelling - Storytelling is the use of stories or narratives as a communication tool to value, share and capitalize on the knowledge of individuals.

Communities of Practice 101 - The potential for communities of practice in an organization is enormous, but their success hinges on a wide range of factors—from readiness to structure, champions to members. Find out the basic ingredients needed in setting up productive and sustainable communities of practice.

These documents can be accessed through our NRC library or downloaded from the ADB website.

Finding a way to pool knowledge and answer questions

Five international organizations active in the fields of water, sanitation and development have come together to develop a coordinated way of dealing with queries and questions.

All the organizations regularly receive requests from NGOs, community groups, academics and individuals about how to tackle problems and where to find information. There is a particular need to respond to requests from the field for critical technical advice or information.

Now they have come together to create KnowledgePoint as an IT platform that will handle such requests jointly (whichever organization receives them) and so widen the range and quality of responses. The international groups will also include local organizations in the service.

For more information visit the IRC website or read KnowledgePoint’s blog.

Useful Links