Ongoing Projects in Afghanistan
SSDA, in partnership with UNICEF, is currently implementing a project titled “Accelerating Ending Open Defecation in Afghanistan” and two consultancies/researches each study on “Open Defecation Free Status of Communities” and “WASH in Schools”.
Moreover, SSDA has been awarded a two-year project for the capacity building of the implementing partners in CLTS implementation for the project titled “Initiative for Hygiene, Sanitation and Nutrition” (IHSAN).
1. “Accelerating Ending Open Defecation in Afghanistan” Project
SSDA is implementing a two-year project entitled “Accelerating Ending Open Defecation in Afghanistan, funded by UNICEF Afghanistan. Under the signed PCA for this project, SSDA in close coordination with UNICEF and MRRD is given the scope to build the capacity of CLTS Implementing Partners. i.e. ZOA, ACTED, IMC, POWER, CAF, DACAAR, and DoPH in five target provinces, namely in Ghor, Paktika, Badakhshan, Nangarhar, and Sar e Pul.
Capacity building of the CLTS Implementing Partners is carried through:
- Conducting trainings on CLTS (basic & advanced), refreshers, Hygiene Behavioral Change and ODF Verification and Certification
- Coaching, mentoring and organizing exposure visits
- Supportive supervision coupled with follow ups
SSDA successfully accomplished:
- Conducting seven separate six-day training on Basic CLTS to 150 staff (CLTS team) of the CLTS Implementing Partners including ZOA, CAF, POWER, IMC, DACAAR, ACTED and DoPH.
- Holding a three-day workshop as anticipated, 4 months after the kick-off meeting. Major objective of the Inception Workshop was to review the activities implemented during the inception phase, identify what worked well, challenges of the programme and to prepare for the upcoming phases of the programme
- Conducting a three-day training on “Hygiene Behavioural Change” in seven batches for all the seven partners.
- Regular coaching and mentoring of the IPs’ CLTS Implementing Team in all five target provinces
- Conducting first follow up visits to the target provinces for supportive supervision and ensuring the appropriate implementation of project activities by the project implementing partners.
2. Initiative for Hygiene, Sanitation and Nutrition (IHSAN)
SSDA has been also awarded a two-year contract for the capacity building of IHSAN project implementing partners in CLTS Roll-Out Program. Part of this contract, SSDA will provide technical support to IHSAN project IPs including CHA, IRC, AKN and HADAAF through:
- Launching the inception phase
- Conducting CLTS trainings (basic, intermediate and advanced)
- Hygiene behavior change trainings
- ODF verification and certification trainings
- Coaching/mentoring and feedback sessions
- Follow up visits and feedback/ supportive supervision
3. Study on “Sustainability of Open Defecation Free Status of Communities”
SSDA, with funding from UNICEF Afghanistan, is implementing a three-month project to carry out studies on “Sustainability of Open Defecation Free Status of Communities” and “Safe Handling Disposal and Reuse of Human Waste” in eight provinces of Afghanistan where most of the communities were declared as ODF before 2012. SSDA covered 606 communities in these provinces which include Badakhshan, Bamyan, Daikundi, Kapisa, Laghman, Logar, Nangarhar and Takhar.
The overall purpose of this study is to evaluate the sustainability of CATS/CLTS to find out what percentage of rural communities revert to open defecation and also to identify the factors associated with the sustainability of ODF and with slippage. And as well as to generate knowledge in order to modify the approach and design of specific interventions of the CLTS program and thus achieve the safe handling, disposal and re-use of human waste in rural Afghanistan.
SSDA engaged a pool of international researchers from Pragamtix Research Firm in India to lead the study process. The findings/ report of this study will be uploaded once it is published.
4. Evaluation of WASH in Schools
One of the studies SSDA has been awarded the contract for, by UNICEF, is the project entitled “Evaluation WASH in Schools” which was implemented in five zones of Afghanistan between 2012-2014. This is a three-month project.
The main purpose of this evaluation is to make abroad and representative assessment of program, performance in term of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainably and upscaling and to extent possible determine impacts stemming from the program. The evaluation will be done in following areas:
- Soft component of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program (hygiene education)
- Hard component of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program (design and latrine construction, drinking water facilities, hand-washing facilities)
This evaluation is planned to cover 108 Schools (WINs and Controlled) in eight Provinces including Balkh, Bamyan, Herat, Khost, Laghman, Qandahar, Samangan and Takhar, where WASH in Schools Program was implemented in 2012-2014 by UNICEF. A pool of international researchers is employed to lead the evaluation process.
SSDA is keen interest in posting the findings/ uploading the report on its website once published.
- One-year Project titled “CLTS Implementation”
- Two-year project titled “Scaling up Organic Cotton Production in Afghanistan”
- Capacity building of like-minded organizations