IRC opens its second office in Africa

Published on: 17/09/2012

Ouagadougou / The Hague, 17 September 2012: After twenty years of working in Burkina Faso through various local and international partner agencies – among which Eau-Vive, WaterAid, Water and Sanitation for Africa WSA/EEA – the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is officially opening its national representation in Ouagadougou today. The Burkina Faso office is the second national representation of IRC in Africa, following the opening of a country office in Ghana earlier this year. The opening of national offices is part of the IRC’s on-going decentralisation process. 

 

"The formalisation of our presence in Ghana and Burkina is but a first step in an ambitious programme of decentralisation and localisation of our work”, explains IRC Director Nico Terra, "through which we aim to support the achievement of sector objectives in these countries; and we are actively exploring similar opportunities for a long term presence in Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique.  IRC's Africa programme is central to our vision of a world where all people have access to WASH services that last."

In Burkina Faso, IRC and its local partners will continue to develop and test innovative approaches and support important changes in policy-making and implementation in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector by stimulating knowledge generation and sharing. The IRC country programme in Burkina Faso involves two main activities:

• action research, which consists of methodological and conceptual support for testing approaches which aim to improve planning, management and monitoring of WASH service
• knowledge management, which involves training, establishment and facilitation of information and knowledge sharing platforms, in particular via electronic media, and the participation in local and national decision-making processes.

In the next four years, IRC local office staff will implement four main programmes in collaboration with IRC international staff and partners : WASHCost, WASHTech, SaniFaso and WA-WASH.

WASHCost is a five-year (2008-2012) action research programme. The WASHCost team has gathered information related to the true costs of providing water, sanitation, and hygiene services for an entire life-cycle of a service—from implementation all the way to post-construction. IRC is leading the WASHCost programme and works with several partners to collect data in the rural and peri-urban areas of Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, and Mozambique. Even though WASHCost will come to an end in the next months, the IRC and partners will continue promoting its main findings and results including the Life-Cycle Costs Approach LCCA and a LCCA online training course.

WASHTech (2011-2013) is involving local partners in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Uganda to introduce a robust Technology Assessment Framework (TAF) that will assess the potential of new innovative technologies which may be used at decentralised level.

SaniFaso (2010-2014) was introduced in Burkina Faso in December 2010 with the aim of eradicating open defecation in 12 partnering communes throughout the country. This 3 million Euros programme co-funded by the European Commission is being implemented by the French NGO Eau-Vive, in association with WaterAid Burkina Faso, Helvetas, and GIZ.

WA-WASH  (2012-2015) is the West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Initiative, which concentrates on several WASH issues including sanitation coverage in rural settings, capacity building, management at different levels, knowledge sharing, and water delivery both for domestic and other uses. The initiative is funded by USAID and coordinated by Florida International University (FIU), leader of the Global Water for Sustainability (GLOWS) consortium.

The opening of the IRC office in Burkina Faso also aims to consolidate its institutional anchoring in the country and will help ensure its long-term presence.

For more information:

Nourou-Dhine Salouka, Communication Officer at IRC/Burkina Faso: Tel : +226 50505144, GSM: +226 76502712, Email : salouka@ircbf.org