Merel Laauwen Merel Laauwen

Publication alert! Reinforcing Feedbacks for Sustainable Implementation of Rural Drinking-Water Treatment Technology

  • Taking a siloed approach to decentralized water treatment will not lead to long-term access to improved water services

  • Our systems analysis reveals the broader socioenvironmental factors and feedback loops that determine the sustainability of water treatment implementation. We are able to identify leverage points: processes wherein a discrete intervention could influence wider system behavior. In other words, quick(er) wins!

  • We encourage a fit-for-purpose approach to intervention design that is reinforced through hybrid water service delivery models

  • Collaboration between facilitating actors and water users can strengthen information flows, access to financing, and management arrangements

  • Future work should prioritize health impact evidence, water quality reporting guidance, and technological capabilities that optimize trade-offs in fit-for-purpose treatment design

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Merel Laauwen Merel Laauwen

USAID Transform WASH: Reaching universal access with market-based sanitation

This learning note summarizes the findings of USAID Transform WASH's activities to explore progress towards universal sanitation coverage achieved through market-based sanitation.

The Transform WASH team knows a lot about its customers and the performance of its business partners. However, only limited information is available about non-customers. This assessment, in line with the AWS framework, aims to describe progress towards universal coverage achieved through market-based sanitation and to identify population groups that may have been left out and remain without adequate sanitation services.

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Merel Laauwen Merel Laauwen

WASHWeb: an initiative to improve the WASH data ecosystem

WASHWeb and openwashdata have formed a strategic partnership to facilitate improvements in access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) data. The openwashdata community empowers WASH professionals to engage with tools and workflows for open data and code by increasing the reuse potential of existing data and providing courses to build the required competencies.

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Merel Laauwen Merel Laauwen

Anticipatory action in communities hosting refugees and internally displaced persons: an assessment of current approaches

This paper is a global literature review of anticipatory action approaches in communities hosting forcibly displaced persons. Anticipatory action, or a set of actions taken to prevent or mitigate a potential disaster before acute impacts are felt, is an essential strategy to reduce the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. However, due to the complexity and diversity of host community environments, it has proven challenging to incorporate this approach into these contexts. This paper provides a review of the available data on water- and climate-related vulnerabilities in host communities to inform and strengthen anticipatory action approaches and climate adaptation initiatives.

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Merel Laauwen Merel Laauwen

It’s Global Handwashing Day!

Recent years have seen a rise in hand hygiene commitment and action. While great strides have been made, we must triple our current efforts to achieve global hand hygiene targets. Through strong leadership and collective efforts, we can close gaps in access and practice to achieve hand hygiene for all. Everyone has a role to play to ensure clean hands are within reach.

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Merel Laauwen Merel Laauwen

Systems mapping for water treatment at the UNC Chapel Hill Water & Health Conference

At the annual Water & Health Conference at UNC Chapel Hill, I received the opportunity to co-host a session titled, “‍Implementing passive chlorination at scale: strategies for climate resilience, service delivery, and financing”, together with researchers Saskia Nowicki (University of Oxford), Katya Cherukumilli (UC Berkeley), Megan Lindmark (University of Iowa), and organizations Aquaya, EOS International and Evidence Action.

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