By Patrick Moriarty, IRC Water and Sanitation Centre and John Sauer, Water For People What is it that IADB’s Max Valasquez Matute in Honduras finds ‘only a bit short of a miracle’? The decision by seven INGOs to align their programming in Honduras in support of an Everyone Forever movement aimed at delivering full coverage in sustainable rural water, sanitation and hygiene services. Whether there was divine intervention or not, the meeting we attended on the 24 May between the assembled board members of the Millennium Water Alliance and the Mesa de Cooperantes (the donor coordination platform) of the Honduran WASH sector was pretty unusual – and very exciting. The MWA represents most of the biggest North American INGOs, and as such a huge combined total of WASH sector activity. We conservatively estimated that their aggregate contribution to Honduras’s WASH sector in the last five years was more than 20 million $US. Not only do Catholic Relief Services, CARE, IRC Water and...

Transparency in philanthropy and aid matters immensely. Aid effectiveness can be radically enhanced by being more open about results – good and bad – through the creative use of data and non-promotional storytelling. Organizations can improve and innovate if they value data and use it to change the way they operate and implement, as I have argued elsewhere. And I believe that the more open the data the better the response will be as long as the data is understandable, outcome focused and analyzed. It’s not about throwing some unspecified quantity of data on a wall and saying “see, there's our data.” That is not really transparency. That is about covering one’s proverbial bottom. “Data puke” is becoming the norm, and it is not really leading to the goals of aid transparency: better programming, better aid effectiveness, and better sector coordination. We can and must do better. We can ask agencies to explain their data, to help us understand how they interpret...

In 2009, Water For People entered into an agreement with Blantyre Water Board (BWB) to provide facilitation services for an investment totaling just over $5million received as a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and a grant from the European Union to the BWB to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions in the 21 Low Income Areas (LIAs) of Blantyre. Access issues had persisted since the late 1990s, when there were an alarming number of disconnections of community-managed water kiosks in peri-urban Blantyre due to non-payment of water bills to BWB. Party-politicization of water was another serious issue, with frequent cases of kiosk and water revenue being controlled by political parties. In some cases, politicians ensured water kiosks constructed were on plots of land belonging to party loyalists. Relevant public authorities with full jurisdiction to act succumbed to ruling party pressures as it was safer to not to act. In a bid to solve this water crisis, Water...

Meet Jennifer James! Our first Blogger Out to Change The World. Jennifer is an extraordinary example of one individual out to change the world. Last year, Jennifer founded Mom Bloggers For Social Good, a site dedicated to highlighting compelling stories of social good through a talented network of passionate Mom bloggers across 17 countries. Simply put, Jennifer’s job is about working with other amazing mothers to spread good vibes, highlight true impact and show that you CAN change the world! With so many amazing places to visit and countless stories to tell, we spoke with Jennifer and together decided that this fall we will visit Water For People’s India country program. From the women entrepreneurs who have become mobile mechanics to repair broken water points to the development of water and sanitation in Bihar, the largest in population size and poorest Indian state, we know that India holds incredible stories for Jennifer and her readers. Stay tuned to Water For People and Mom...

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted entries for our "A Blogger Out to Change the World" opportunity. Submissions came in from a wide variety of people including journalism students to foodie bloggers. The talent of our amazing supporters is inspiring to us. We have selected a blogger to travel with Ned and have notified them; their name will be announced next week. However, all the entries were extremely impressive. Seriously impressive! And you got us thinking about other opportunities. For those that applied to the "A Blogger Out to Change the World Opportunity," we will be notifying you in the next day or so with information. We think there is a much bigger opportunity here than one trip for one person to change the world. You have opened our eyes to the 'gang' of bloggers out to make this happen! Thank you! We are so excited about what is to come. We hope you are up for joining us.

Everyone Forever. It's clean, it's simple, it's catchy. Just ask the Rwandan dentist – one of only 11 in the whole country – I met on the plane on a recent flight. It’s the first thing she noticed on my business card. "I like this" she says pointing at the words under our logo – Everyone │ Forever. The only problem is it’s not quite so clean or simple in reality. Nowhere near black and white. And that’s why I love it. Kisaro sector in the Rulindo district of the Northern Province in Rwanda. We hiked down a steep embankment to see the source of this newly flowing sector-wide system. In order to appease the community around a newly protected source – who saw the water as theirs – a "tariff-free" tap was installed next to the source tank. The source was protected and the water directed across 26 kms through two pumping stations and piped to the people throughout the whole of the sector. Unfortunately in the last month, with no management system in place for this tariff-free tap, it...

I presented "#Socent Punk: A Personal Journey Explaining Life and Social Entrepreneurism through the Lens of Punk Rock" for the second time, with modifications, at the University of Colorado's Business School last night. The professors and students were supportive, warm and engaged which makes me smile. The point of the presentation is to bring life, some personality and hint of aggression and mix all that with fearless energy to radically change things to the general discussions on social entrepreneurism. The presentation focuses on the messy journey through mosh pits and difficult upbringings that reeks of resilience. My playlist, which continues to evolve, included the following: "Fix Me" Black Flag"Incomplete" Bad Religion"He's a Fuck Up" Reno Divorce (could easily have been "Mommies Little Monster" or "Story of My Life" by Social D but this one felt right last night)"The Answer" Bad Religion (my vote for required listening in all college development courses)"Survive" Rise...

The Bolivian Municipality of Arani is driving to reach full coverage, and like their neighboring municipalities implementing "Cobertura Total Para Siempre" ( Everyone Forever ), they are not simply installing water services in a village and assuming everyone has access to that water system. Arani is not counting water systems, they are focused on water services to all families. Arani is focused on whether all permanent residents of the municipality are accessing piped, treated water. This includes those furthest from the water system, those who are poorest and those who move into a village after the system was installed. Everyone. So how do they know who has water and who does not? Simple, municipal staff have gone house to house in every village in the municipality and determined whether a family was connected or not. If connected they paint a water drop on the outside of the house (pictured below). If not, the house has no water drop. If the system fails then the family...