Sharing Knowledge and Experience

Technologies, methodologies and experiences are deeply rooted in the society in which they originate. Sharing them with others requires interaction between trainers and trainees, advisors and clients, service providers and users, to ensure that innovation and learning can take place, and that the technologies and methodologies match the local environment. IRC shares its knowledge and experience through training; information exchange, including its publications; and advisory services.

Training

There is a clear trend towards transferring skills abroad, and preparing IRC partners for taking over IRC courses in their regions. In that context, for the first time the Management for Sustainability course was omitted from the programme in the Netherlands. All the Management for Sustainability courses are now run by partners in the various regions.

In total eight courses were given in Africa, Asia and Latin America, for some 125 participants. The first Hygiene Education and Promotion course in Kenya was organized by IRC's partner NETWAS International and attracted 17 participants from 10 countries.

Another step toward taking training outside of the Netherlands was taken when the gender expertise used in briefing programmes at IRC was called on from organizations abroad. For UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP) gender training workshops were given in Mauritania and South Africa. Technical staff of the French development funding agency Caisse Française de Développement in Paris received a similar training.

Nearly 50 persons attended briefing programmes and some 80 attended the six short courses at IRC, an increase of 37% from 1996. Among those in the Netherlands for briefing and exposure visits were delegations of planners and decision makers in water resources and environment from China, India, and Sri Lanka.

The seventh annual abstract journal Woman, Water, Sanitation, funded by the UNDP-World Bank Water and Sanitation Program and the Government of Norway, was dedicated to training.

Publications

Probably the most recognizable way in which IRC provides information support is through its publications. The collection of over 100 titles grew by some 10% in 1997, with five new titles and four translations.

To improve access to information for Lusophone Africa and South America, an agreement to translate several IRC publications into Portuguese was reached with the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) Mozambique in 1996. SDC distributed Working with Women and Men on Water and Sanitation: an African Field Guide, translated in 1996, together with titles translated in 1997, to the Portuguese-speaking African countries. IRC then distributed the Field Guide to nearly 90 REPIDISCA cooperating centres in Brazil, along with an earlier translation of Drinking Water Source Protection: a review of environmental factors affecting community water supplies. These Brazilian REPIDISCA centres, together with the other 305 REPIDISCA centres in the rest of Spanish-speaking Latin America, also received a copy of the Spanish translation of Organizing local documentation services for the water and sanitation sector: guidelines.

Advisory services

Knowledge and experience are also shared during advisory missions, which at the same time serve as an unmissable source of information for IRC's own knowledge base development. Staff expertise is shared upon request with projects and programmes overseas, in the form of monitoring and evaluation, project formulation, workshops and seminars.

Over 30 missions dealing with subjects such as hygiene education, resource centre development, operation and maintenance and gender were carried out in 17 countries in 1997. Lessons learned from selected missions can be found in the section on Supporting Innovation.