Deadline: 10 March 2017
ELRHA’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) is launching WASH challenge, a new challenge to understand how to design, implement, and evaluate approaches to user-centred sanitation that incorporate rapid community engagement and are appropriate for the first stage of rapid-onset emergencies.
The limited time and resources available in emergencies, particularly rapid-onset disasters, means the design, selection, and implementation of sanitation facilities are often done without adequate consultation or engagement with local communities. The knock on effect is that the implementation of facilities are rarely in line with people’s needs or preferences. This misalignment can ultimately lead to increased risk of health and social problems for those affected by the emergency.
The aim of the Challenge is to create good practice guidance for rapid engagement with affected communities as end users to generate actionable and practical solutions for user-centred sanitation in emergencies. The guidance should be appropriate for the design of sanitation in the first stage (typically 12 weeks) of a rapid-onset emergency, but will be applicable to a range of humanitarian contexts, including protracted settings where rapid decision-making in sanitation design is necessary.
Objectives
The aim of the Challenge is to achieve the following objectives:
- Understand existing community engagement practice and relevant approaches across a range of fields, as well as their strengths and limitations, and their applicability in an emergency;
- Develop and test innovative community engagement approaches and tools that can be used in a rapid-onset emergency;
- Develop a robust methodology to monitor and evaluate the impact of community engagement approaches on the overall satisfaction and use of sanitation facilities in emergency situations;
- Build a body of evidence around the effectiveness and impact of rapid community engagement in making sanitation decisions in humanitarian emergencies;
- Change existing practice by sharing evidence and learning around designing, implementing and evaluating rapid community engagement in emergencies.
Funding
Funding of up to £200,000 will be made available for the selected Research and Evaluation Partner.
Eligibility Criteria
The Programme invites a Research and Evaluation Partner to create good practice guidance for designing user-centred emergency sanitation provision using rapid community engagement approaches.
The Call is open for individuals, groups or organisations, as well as partnerships that contain the required mix of skills. Applicants are expected to have:
- Broad experience and knowledge of community engagement approaches (and related concepts) in humanitarian settings;
- Understanding of sanitation in emergencies;
- Extensive monitoring and evaluation experience and expertise;
- Familiarity with the dynamics and intricacies of humanitarian settings and the ethics of carrying out research in these contexts;
- Excellent research skills including (but not limited to) desk research and qualitative data collection, specifically interviews;
- A strong understanding of how to translate research findings and insights into engaging and practical outputs;
- Access to a varied network of expertise in both the humanitarian sector and in the community engagement sector;
- Excellent coordination and collaboration capabilities and experience of working with multi-stakeholder groups.
Responsibilities
The Research and Evaluation Partner (R&E Partner) is expected to carry out the following tasks:
- Create a Review of current community engagement practice and approaches (including relevant related/similar notions and concepts) and their appropriateness for and impact on making sanitation decisions in rapid-onset emergencies.
- Informed by the Review, develop a framework for monitoring and evaluating the success of community engagement approaches in emergencies.
- Share Review findings and initial monitoring and evaluation framework with up to 10 shortlisted Community Engagement Projects at a 2-day Innovation Workshop in July 2017. The framework will be discussed and adapted in collaboration with the teams.
- Coordinate and support the data collection for up to 5 community engagement projects around sanitation in rapid-onset emergencies.
- Analyse data collected and translate the findings into good practice guidance on how to design, implement, and evaluate rapid community engagement projects to inform sanitation provision in humanitarian emergencies.
- Work together with a Dissemination Partner to identify the most relevant format for the guidance so that it brings the most value to its intended users and supports sanitation decision-making in emergencies.
- Support the Dissemination Partner to share the good practice guidance with the broader humanitarian community and other relevant actors involved in making sanitation decisions in emergencies.
- Write up the Review and project findings in academic paper format with the aim of publishing the study as a peer-reviewed article and presenting it at relevant forums.
How to Apply
Interested applicants must apply via ELRHA’s Grant Management System.
For more information, please visit WASH Challenge.