The hands4health consortium and the Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium (SWSC) are pleased to invite people interested to a 2-day interactive symposium in Muttenz, with the aim of disseminating the learnings of the Hands4health project and sharing experiences from SWSC projects.
Key information:
- Date: Tuesday 17 – Wednesday 18 June 2025
- Location: FHNW, Campus Muttenz, Switzerland
- Co-Organisers: FHNW, SWSC
- Languages: ENG/FR (translation will be available on day 1)
- Registration: https://ee-eu.kobotoolbox.org/x/gkhefbEc
Tentative program (to be refined and completed)
Day 1: hybrid, 9:00-17:30
- Opening presentations & key insights – featuring Nicolas Randin (SDC Assistant Director General, Ambassador, Head of Africa Division), Maryna Peter (Hands4health project lead), and Thijs van der Velden (Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium, SWSC)
- Flash presentations – workshop participants and their contributions to WASH in health care facilities and schools
- WASH FIT in healthcare facilities – frameworks, implementation at regional & country levels
- Sustaining hardware in crisis settings – rehabilitation and preventive maintenance of infrastructure in healthcare facilities & schools
- Deep dive into water quality, chlorination, water recycling & behavior change
- Impact evaluation in schools & healthcare facilities – data, evidence & learnings
- Systems strengthening –experiences and our strategy
- Critical reflections & future directions
- Closing & Networking over Apéro riche
Day 2: Thematic interactive workshops, only live, 9:00-17:00
- WASH FIT in practice – from implementation to integration into country strategy
- Hardware and infrastructure rehabilitation – how to keep systems running? What is the potential of preventive maintenance?
- Driving behavior change – tools & approaches for lasting Impact
- WASH in schools – implementation & lessons learned
- Stakeholder engagement
Short description of the event
The University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and the Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium (SWSC) co-organize a symposium on recent experiences in programming of WASH interventions in healthcare facilities and schools. We aim to bring together experts, researchers, practitioners and policy makers from the Swiss community of practice along with project teams from our partner countries.
The aims of the symposium are twofold: Trigger discussions and nurture synergies 1) between organizations that implement projects in WASH in schools and healthcare facilities, 2) between the emergency and development sector to achieve a more sustainable, longer-term perspective by strengthening local players from the health and education systems.
The symposium will be centred around the dissemination of learnings from the 4-year hands4health project (implemented in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and Occupied Palestinian Territories) and look at experiences from projects of the SWSC (12 countries across West Africa, East Africa, South-East Asia and South Asia). The objective is to learn from experiences and deepen understandings of WASH in schools and primary health care facilities, including topics like: WASH FIT, chlorination, infrastructure rehabilitation and maintenance, water recycling handwashing stations, behaviour change interventions, results from health impact evaluation as well as advocacy efforts, ensuring sustainability and overall system strengthening.
Key stakeholders from ministries of health and education from West Africa will share the efforts that have led to harmonized institutional and legal frameworks and explore insights on how to trigger investments and fund allocations in WASH on the national level.
Furthermore, we plan to draw in experiences and relevant inputs from other key organizations working on WASH in healthcare facilities and schools, including global actors such as WHO and UNICEF.