The 8th Water Corner was held on the 17th of February and discussed the topic of “Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion”. Two guest speakers from the WaterAid UK and Australia were invited to the True Coffee Shop to present to a group of students, academics and professionals.

Dr. Om Prasad Gautam, a senior WASH manager at WaterAid UK, gave a presentation on the complexities of behavior change in developing countries. He drew many comparisons to recent WASH-programs around the world, with a specific case-study of a recent and successful sanitation program in India. He spoke at length about the effectiveness of different tools in changing behavior, and how effective behavior change is more than just delivering knowledge and infrastructure.

Ms. Stephanie Franet from the Sports for Development Program presented on WaterAid’s project in Papua New Guinea, which is integrating sports participation with WASH and women’s leadership. Having previously identified strong relationships and synergies between these three areas in the past, WaterAid is now using sports to deliver WASH knowledge and empowerment in a setting natural to young women.

Both presentations gave important insights into current strategies being applied within WaterAid and in the WASH-sector at large. Feedback from the day was overwhelmingly positive and we are looking forward to our next event.

We would like to thank Dr. Om Prasad Gautam and Stephanie Franet for presenting on these interesting topics and taking the time to engage in discussions with our guests.