Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
Provision of lifesaving and sustainable WASH services for Vulnerable Populations in South Darfur and South Kordofan states, and emergency WASH services to Tigray refugees in Gedaref State Endline
This final evaluation conducted for the project “Provision of lifesaving and sustainable WASH services for Vulnerable Populations in South Darfur and South Kordofan states, and emergency WASH services to Tigray refugees in Gedarif State." The was evaluation conducted internally by CARE staff, led by the MEAL coordinator and the MEAL team in the field with support and cooperation from the project team. The evaluation took place in the three States (South Darfur, South Kordofan and Gedarif States) where project operated. The evaluation team used different methods for data collection, including FGDs, KIIs and desk reviews.
The project contributed to the reduction of morbidity and mortality through increased access to lifesaving and sustainable WASH services for 265,914 914 people (71877 women, 69058 men, 63740 girls, 61239 boys), especially targeting vulnerable refugees, IDPs and host community members in South Darfur, South Kordofan, and Gedaref states. The project also pre-positioned essential WASH supplies for any emergency or outbreak, which exceeded the targeted 248,017 individuals.
Based on the findings from direct consultation of the project beneficiaries and other stakeholders; the project was implemented with high effectiveness and efficiency, and good signs for sustainability for most of it is interventions. The project achieved all the planned interventions, and supported targeted beneficiaries to improve access to safe water, sanitation and improve hygiene practices.
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The project contributed to the reduction of morbidity and mortality through increased access to lifesaving and sustainable WASH services for 265,914 914 people (71877 women, 69058 men, 63740 girls, 61239 boys), especially targeting vulnerable refugees, IDPs and host community members in South Darfur, South Kordofan, and Gedaref states. The project also pre-positioned essential WASH supplies for any emergency or outbreak, which exceeded the targeted 248,017 individuals.
Based on the findings from direct consultation of the project beneficiaries and other stakeholders; the project was implemented with high effectiveness and efficiency, and good signs for sustainability for most of it is interventions. The project achieved all the planned interventions, and supported targeted beneficiaries to improve access to safe water, sanitation and improve hygiene practices.
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Provision of lifesaving and sustainable WASH services for Vulnerable Populations in South Darfur and South Kordofan states, and emergency WASH services to Tigray refugees in Gedarif State Baseline
This baseline survey was conducted internally by CARE staff, led by the MEAL coordinator. The main objective is to collect information on the project's indicators and to provide baseline data generated for the intervention areas in South Darfur and South Kordofan States. The baseline data was collected in SD using both quantitative and qualitative methods. In SK, the project used endline data from the recently ended ECHO project as a baseline, as that dataset covers the same areas and same indicators. The data collection and consultation involved 253 individuals (118 females, 135 males). 123 people were consulted in SD (34 females, 89 males) while 130 were consulted in SK (84 females, 46 males).
All consulted households have no water inside houses, and they have to go to collect water from external sources. The distance to water sources varies between communities, and takes considerable time they spend fetching water. Most of households confirmed they collect more than 5 Jerri Cans of water per day, but this is not available all year. This water is not only for human consumption and use; they use it also for animal consumption and irrigating trees.
There are many problems in water sources affecting participants' access to safe water. The top rated problems are the high cost of water, continuous breakdown of water points, congested water sources, and far distance to the sources.
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All consulted households have no water inside houses, and they have to go to collect water from external sources. The distance to water sources varies between communities, and takes considerable time they spend fetching water. Most of households confirmed they collect more than 5 Jerri Cans of water per day, but this is not available all year. This water is not only for human consumption and use; they use it also for animal consumption and irrigating trees.
There are many problems in water sources affecting participants' access to safe water. The top rated problems are the high cost of water, continuous breakdown of water points, congested water sources, and far distance to the sources.
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Gender-sensitive WASH, Health/SRHR, and Nutrition support to vulnerable communities in East Darfur and South Darfur Project
This baseline study is carried out for the project "The Gender-sensitive WASH, Health/SRHR, and Nutrition support to vulnerable communities in East Darfur and South Darfur Project." The project builds on CARE learning over many years in the region, responds to the global overviews and the donor GAC interest in saving the lives of conflict affected communities, by providing urgent humanitarian assistance to 144,173 persons including females, males, girls and boys, from the host, IDPs and refugees’ communities, located in 7 localities in ED and 2 localities in SD. The key live saving activities delivery is designed with a gender sensitive perspective focusing on the health and nutrition needs of pregnant and lactating women and girls of reproductive age and children under 5. The project activities include; WASH, Health and nutrition interventions. Read More...
Comprehensive Multisector Need Assessment Gedarif State
To collect the required data on the needs of the targeted people in Gedarif State, CARE conducted a comprehensive needs assessment with a team from CIS led by MEAL coordinator. It took place in Gedarif state covering three localities, namely: Al-Galabat Shargia, Al-Mafaza and Al-Fashaga. The objective of the assessment is to assess the current situation, identify the gaps and needs of the targeted communities and recommend of key interventions that meet their real needs. Different methods were used for data collection including individual interviews with HH leaders, FGDs with representative from different community groups, Desk review of the existing information and KIIs with the authorities in relevant ministries and institutions.
• In total; 58,6% of the assessed people have access to easy safe and adequate water while 41.4% are suffering from difficulties collecting water, poor quality or the water they collect is not enough for their HH1.
• Women have the main responsibility in fetching water from the sources comprising 33.2%, followed by boys and girls comprising 24%(12% each), and men have the lowest responsibility in fetching water (17.2%).
• The lack of water sources close to the housed is one of the main causes of Gender Based Violence (GBV), particularly women, girls and youth females who facing different types of violence during collecting water particularly those who need to go far distances to collect water particularly during dry season. 21.8% confirmed that women and girls are facing problems during fetching water/
• In general; less than third of the assessed people have latrines comprising 30.1% while the majority do not have latrines in their houses (69.9%). The situation in host communities is relatively better comparing to the refugees as 86.2% of the people have latrines comparing to only 13.8% of the refugees. Read More...
• In total; 58,6% of the assessed people have access to easy safe and adequate water while 41.4% are suffering from difficulties collecting water, poor quality or the water they collect is not enough for their HH1.
• Women have the main responsibility in fetching water from the sources comprising 33.2%, followed by boys and girls comprising 24%(12% each), and men have the lowest responsibility in fetching water (17.2%).
• The lack of water sources close to the housed is one of the main causes of Gender Based Violence (GBV), particularly women, girls and youth females who facing different types of violence during collecting water particularly those who need to go far distances to collect water particularly during dry season. 21.8% confirmed that women and girls are facing problems during fetching water/
• In general; less than third of the assessed people have latrines comprising 30.1% while the majority do not have latrines in their houses (69.9%). The situation in host communities is relatively better comparing to the refugees as 86.2% of the people have latrines comparing to only 13.8% of the refugees. Read More...
Evaluation of Circuit Rider System Established in Assalaya and Bahar EL Arab Localities- East Darfur State
In the quest to address sustainability challenges in OM&M of water yards in Assalaya and Bahar EL Arab localities in East Darfur (ED), CARE supported a Circuit –Rider (CR) approach as post construction support. This study was done to evaluate the progress that has been made so far regarding the improvement in the OM&M and sustainability of
the water yards. The specific objective was to measure improvements in term of water yard break downs and the time taken to repair, community empowerment to effectively manage and operate the facility, assess the supply chain, water tariff collection and adequacy to cover O&M cost and the technology appropriateness. The study also sought
to assess the CR and WUC performance and type of training they received. Data was collected using questionnaire survey, interviews, focus group discussions and field observations and the obtained data analyzed using (IBM SPSS V.254).
The evaluation results show that the project is very relevant to the village needs and State priority and has address one of the WASH sector strategic area. The most powerful success factor of the project was its ground-breaking approach to OM&M of the water facilities through introduction of the CR approach. The approach, based on the evaluation results, proved to be very effective and efficient. Despite the gap in the training of the WUC and limited services being provided by the CRs, the project has made appropriate choice by shifting from the conventional approaches to maintenance that largely been based on community alone taking on the burden of sustaining OM&M to a system that community and SWC share the roles and responsibilities. The evaluation findings also indicate that as a result of the approach, there is highly willingness to pay for further improvement, community trust on SWC has increased and social cohesion is well evidenced from sharing the water facilities by different community groups and segment. However, social mobilization and advocacy are essential components to better organize the communities, raise their awareness and sensitize decision makers, and they have not given the required attention. Read More...
the water yards. The specific objective was to measure improvements in term of water yard break downs and the time taken to repair, community empowerment to effectively manage and operate the facility, assess the supply chain, water tariff collection and adequacy to cover O&M cost and the technology appropriateness. The study also sought
to assess the CR and WUC performance and type of training they received. Data was collected using questionnaire survey, interviews, focus group discussions and field observations and the obtained data analyzed using (IBM SPSS V.254).
The evaluation results show that the project is very relevant to the village needs and State priority and has address one of the WASH sector strategic area. The most powerful success factor of the project was its ground-breaking approach to OM&M of the water facilities through introduction of the CR approach. The approach, based on the evaluation results, proved to be very effective and efficient. Despite the gap in the training of the WUC and limited services being provided by the CRs, the project has made appropriate choice by shifting from the conventional approaches to maintenance that largely been based on community alone taking on the burden of sustaining OM&M to a system that community and SWC share the roles and responsibilities. The evaluation findings also indicate that as a result of the approach, there is highly willingness to pay for further improvement, community trust on SWC has increased and social cohesion is well evidenced from sharing the water facilities by different community groups and segment. However, social mobilization and advocacy are essential components to better organize the communities, raise their awareness and sensitize decision makers, and they have not given the required attention. Read More...
Barrier Analysis Study to understand the socio-economic and technical factors affecting water yards’ sustainability in Asalaya and Bahar Alarab localities, East Darfur State
Achieving sustainable operation, maintenance and management of water supply still poses major challenges in rural areas of East Darfur State, despite the progress achieved in terms of the construction of new facilities and/or rehabilitation of non-functional ones. The main objective of this study is to identify the socio-economic and technical barriers to sustain the operation and maintenance of the water yards in Bahar Al Arab and Asalaya localities. The findings will be used to design the approaches to problems of water yards’ operation and maintenance in ED. The study investigated the technical, socio-economic/cultural factors, water tariffs and policy factors influencing sustainability of water supply for rural communities in the pilot localities. Different tools and techniques were applied to collect quantitative and qualitative data from a sample size of 1400 HHs served by 28 boreholes, 5 focus group discussions with water management committees and users, 18 community meetings and 33 questionnaires targeting key informants. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 25.
The study findings show that there is a relationship between sustainable OM&M of water supply facilities and the technical, socio-economic, socio-cultural factors and water tariffs. The study has proved that the frequent breakdown of water facilities is largely because of poor maintenance culture. Another barrier is inadequate funds for O&M due to the way water tariff was set, collected and utilized. There was lack of involvement and participation of users in all process of water supply, which resulted in a lack of ownership and no role for users to support OM&M. Despite the fact that users are not involved in setting water tariffs, the study shows high level of users’ willing to pay for any service improvement. Technical factors were found to be limited due to lack of repairing tools like crane and inadequate technical capacity of the SWC maintenance teams at the locality level to deal with various aspects of water supply. Read More...
The study findings show that there is a relationship between sustainable OM&M of water supply facilities and the technical, socio-economic, socio-cultural factors and water tariffs. The study has proved that the frequent breakdown of water facilities is largely because of poor maintenance culture. Another barrier is inadequate funds for O&M due to the way water tariff was set, collected and utilized. There was lack of involvement and participation of users in all process of water supply, which resulted in a lack of ownership and no role for users to support OM&M. Despite the fact that users are not involved in setting water tariffs, the study shows high level of users’ willing to pay for any service improvement. Technical factors were found to be limited due to lack of repairing tools like crane and inadequate technical capacity of the SWC maintenance teams at the locality level to deal with various aspects of water supply. Read More...
Learning From Failure 2022
In 2019 and 2020, CARE published Learning from Failures reports to better understand common problems that projects faced during implementation. Deliberately looking for themes in failure has helped CARE as an organization and provides insight on what is improving and what still needs troubleshooting. This report builds on the previous work to show what we most need to address in our programming now.
As always, it is important to note that while each evaluation in this analysis cited specific failures and areas for improvement in the project it reviewed, that does not mean that the projects themselves were failures. Of the 72 evaluations in this analysis, only 2 showed projects that failed to deliver on more than 15% of the project goals. The rest were able to succeed for at least 85% of their commitments. Rather, failures are issues that are within CARE’s control to improve that will improve impact for the people we serve.
To fully improve impact, we must continue to include failures in the conversation. We face a complex future full of barriers and uncertainties. Allowing an open space to discuss challenges or issues across the organization strengthens CARE’s efforts to fight for change. Qualitative analysis provides critical insights that quantitative data does not provide insight into the stories behind these challenges to better understand how we can develop solutions.
CARE reviewed a total of 72 evaluations from 65 projects, with 44 final reports published between February 2020 and September 2021 and 28 midterm reports published between March 2018 and October 2020. Seven projects had both midterm and final evaluations at the time of this analysis. For ease of analysis, as in previous years, failures were grouped into 11 categories (see Annex A, the Failures Codebook for details).
Results
The most common failures in this year’s report are:
• Understanding context—both in the design phase of a project and refining the understanding of context and changing circumstances throughout the whole life of a project, rather than a concentrated analysis phase that is separate from project implementation. For example, an agriculture project that built it’s activities assuming that all farmers would have regular internet access, only to find that fewer than 10% of project participants had smartphones and that the network in the area is unreliable, has to significantly redesign both activities and budgets.
• Sustainability—projects often faced challenges with sustainability, particularly in planning exit strategies. Importantly, one of the core issues with sustainability is involving the right partners at the right time. 47% of projects that struggled with sustainability also had failures in partnership. For example, a project that assumed governments would take over training for project participants once the project closed, but that failed to include handover activities with the government at the local level, found that activities and impacts are not set up to be sustainable.
• Partnerships—strengthening partnerships at all levels, from government stakeholders to community members and building appropriate feedback and consultation mechanisms, is the third most common weakness across projects. For example, a project that did not include local private sector actors in its gender equality trainings and assumes that the private sector would automatically serve women farmers, found that women were not getting services or impact at the right level.
Another core finding is that failures at the design phase can be very hard to correct. While projects improve significantly between midterm and endline, this is not always possible. There are particular kinds of failure that are difficult to overcome over time. Major budget shortfalls, a MEAL plan that does not provide quality baseline data, and insufficient investments in understanding context over the entire life of a project are less likely to improve over time than partnerships and overall MEAL processes.
Some areas also showed marked improvements after significant investments. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL), Gender, Human Resources, and Budget Management are all categories that show improvements over the three rounds of learning from failures analysis. This reflects CARE’s core investments in those areas over the last 4 years, partly based on the findings and recommendations from previous Learning From Failure reports. Specifically, this round of data demonstrates that the organization is addressing gender-related issues. Not only are there fewer failures related to gender overall, the difference between midterm and final evaluations in gender displays how effective these methods are in decreasing the incidence of “failures” related to engaging women and girls and looking at structural factors that limit participation in activities.
Another key finding from this year’s analysis is that projects are improving over time. For the first time, this analysis reviewed mid-term reports in an effort to understand failures early enough in the process to adjust projects. Projects report much higher rates of failure at midterm than they do at final evaluation. In the projects where we compared midline to endline results within the same project, a significant number of failures that appeared in the mid-term evaluation were resolved by the end of the project. On average, mid-term evaluations reflect failures in 50% of possible categories, and final evaluations show failures in 38% of possible options. Partnerships (especially around engaging communities themselves), key inputs, scale planning and MEAL are all areas that show marked improvement over the life of the project.
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As always, it is important to note that while each evaluation in this analysis cited specific failures and areas for improvement in the project it reviewed, that does not mean that the projects themselves were failures. Of the 72 evaluations in this analysis, only 2 showed projects that failed to deliver on more than 15% of the project goals. The rest were able to succeed for at least 85% of their commitments. Rather, failures are issues that are within CARE’s control to improve that will improve impact for the people we serve.
To fully improve impact, we must continue to include failures in the conversation. We face a complex future full of barriers and uncertainties. Allowing an open space to discuss challenges or issues across the organization strengthens CARE’s efforts to fight for change. Qualitative analysis provides critical insights that quantitative data does not provide insight into the stories behind these challenges to better understand how we can develop solutions.
CARE reviewed a total of 72 evaluations from 65 projects, with 44 final reports published between February 2020 and September 2021 and 28 midterm reports published between March 2018 and October 2020. Seven projects had both midterm and final evaluations at the time of this analysis. For ease of analysis, as in previous years, failures were grouped into 11 categories (see Annex A, the Failures Codebook for details).
Results
The most common failures in this year’s report are:
• Understanding context—both in the design phase of a project and refining the understanding of context and changing circumstances throughout the whole life of a project, rather than a concentrated analysis phase that is separate from project implementation. For example, an agriculture project that built it’s activities assuming that all farmers would have regular internet access, only to find that fewer than 10% of project participants had smartphones and that the network in the area is unreliable, has to significantly redesign both activities and budgets.
• Sustainability—projects often faced challenges with sustainability, particularly in planning exit strategies. Importantly, one of the core issues with sustainability is involving the right partners at the right time. 47% of projects that struggled with sustainability also had failures in partnership. For example, a project that assumed governments would take over training for project participants once the project closed, but that failed to include handover activities with the government at the local level, found that activities and impacts are not set up to be sustainable.
• Partnerships—strengthening partnerships at all levels, from government stakeholders to community members and building appropriate feedback and consultation mechanisms, is the third most common weakness across projects. For example, a project that did not include local private sector actors in its gender equality trainings and assumes that the private sector would automatically serve women farmers, found that women were not getting services or impact at the right level.
Another core finding is that failures at the design phase can be very hard to correct. While projects improve significantly between midterm and endline, this is not always possible. There are particular kinds of failure that are difficult to overcome over time. Major budget shortfalls, a MEAL plan that does not provide quality baseline data, and insufficient investments in understanding context over the entire life of a project are less likely to improve over time than partnerships and overall MEAL processes.
Some areas also showed marked improvements after significant investments. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL), Gender, Human Resources, and Budget Management are all categories that show improvements over the three rounds of learning from failures analysis. This reflects CARE’s core investments in those areas over the last 4 years, partly based on the findings and recommendations from previous Learning From Failure reports. Specifically, this round of data demonstrates that the organization is addressing gender-related issues. Not only are there fewer failures related to gender overall, the difference between midterm and final evaluations in gender displays how effective these methods are in decreasing the incidence of “failures” related to engaging women and girls and looking at structural factors that limit participation in activities.
Another key finding from this year’s analysis is that projects are improving over time. For the first time, this analysis reviewed mid-term reports in an effort to understand failures early enough in the process to adjust projects. Projects report much higher rates of failure at midterm than they do at final evaluation. In the projects where we compared midline to endline results within the same project, a significant number of failures that appeared in the mid-term evaluation were resolved by the end of the project. On average, mid-term evaluations reflect failures in 50% of possible categories, and final evaluations show failures in 38% of possible options. Partnerships (especially around engaging communities themselves), key inputs, scale planning and MEAL are all areas that show marked improvement over the life of the project.
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Provision of life-saving WASH services to the Rohingya refugee population in Ukhiya and Teknaf Upazila, Cox’s Bazar District.
Applying both quantitative and qualitative tools and approaches, the KAPB was conducted. It covers 777 respondents' households from camps 15 and 16. After quality checking, 757 household response was finalized. Among them, 242 household survey was for Camp 16. All data collection was done with mobile in KoBo. The samples were drawn stratified random sample process. First, the sample size was determined following the most common statistical formula, then stratified. The objectives
of the study are as follows: 1) To know the present situation context on WASH; 2) To identify the targeted respondent's current Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, and Behavior (KAPB). Read More...
of the study are as follows: 1) To know the present situation context on WASH; 2) To identify the targeted respondent's current Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, and Behavior (KAPB). Read More...
BASELINE EVALUATION FOR THE KENYA RESILIENT ARID LANDS PARTNERSHIP FOR INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PLUS (RAPID+) PROGRAM
The baseline evaluation was conducted in the five Counties of Isiolo, Turkana (Turkana West Sub-County only), Wajir, Garissa, and Marsabit, in the month of April 2022. A mixed-method study approach was used entailing: a desk review of secondary literature; quantitative household interviews of 1970 household heads; Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) of 40 County Governments staff and private sector stakeholders from the water, livestock, and rangelands resources
development sectors; and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with community members and leaders as managers and users of water and rangelands resources Read More...
development sectors; and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with community members and leaders as managers and users of water and rangelands resources Read More...
ETUDE DE BASE : Projet Walindé
L’Extrême Nord du Cameroun est confronté depuis plusieurs années à des problématiques structurelles. La vulnérabilité des ménages à l’insécurité alimentaire, au réchauffement climatique ou encore aux épidémies, a été exacerbée par la crise sécuritaire autour du Lac Tchad, ayant causé un déplacement important de population.
Elle est la région la plus pauvre du Cameroun, avec 74% de la population vivant sous le seuil de pauvreté (mois d’1,125€/jour) contre 37,5% au niveau national (INS : 2014). De plus, l’incidence de la pauvreté est plus élevée en milieu rural (66%) qu’en milieu urbain (7%).
L’Extrême Nord dispose d’une faible couverture en services de base, notamment en matière d’eau et d’assainissement. D’après l’UNICEF, le taux d’accès à l’eau potable dans le Nord du Cameroun est de 53% contre 73% dans le Centre du pays (UNICEF : 2017). En 2017, seuls 16% des écoles dans le Mayo Tsanga et 24% dans le Mayo Kani – les deux départements d’intervention – disposent d’un accès à l’eau. Le ratio latrine par élève est compris entre 249 pour le Mayo Kani et 352 pour le Mayo Tsanga, soit 5 à 6 fois plus que les standards fixés par l’UNICEF. Le nombre restreint d’infrastructures adaptées, telles que les latrines sexospécifiques, constitue un frein à la scolarisation des enfants notamment des jeunes filles.1 L’absence d’intimité pour changer ou nettoyer les protections menstruelles, de matériel hygiénique, ainsi que les tabous autour des menstruations poussent de nombreuses filles à quitter l’école lors de leurs règles.
Dans les zones rurales, la présence de dispositifs de lavage de mains (DLM) fonctionnels au sein des écoles reste rare, ce qui limite fortement le lavage des mains des élèves et des enseignants ainsi que la mise en pratique des mesures de prévention contre la COVID-19. Faute de moyens, d’infrastructures et de formations, les enseignements relatifs à l’eau, l’hygiène et l’assainissement ne se traduisent pas systématiquement par le changement des comportements.
Pour répondre à cette situation, le projet de CARE Cameroun envisage de mettre en oeuvre le projet intitulé « aider les autres », ou « Walindé » en langue Fulfuldé, dont l’objectif global est de renforcer l'accès aux services de bases en matière d'eau, d'hygiène et d'assainissement (EHA) et aux services informels d'épargne et de crédit dans la région de l'Extrême Nord du Cameroun. De manière spécifique, cet objectif se traduit à travers l’amélioration la couverture en eau potable et l’accès aux services d'épargne et de crédit pour les femmes et les jeunes dans les communes de Mokolo, Hina, Yagoua, Kaélé.
CARE est intervenu dans les communes de Mokolo et Hina (Mayo Tsanga), Yagoua et Kaélé (Mayo Danay), respectivement dans le cadre des projets RESILIANT (2017-2020), COOPERER I et II (2016-2017 / 2019-2020). La continuité de ces programmes est actuellement assurée par les projets PEREN (Mokolo et Hina) et COOPERER III (Yagoua et Kaélé), qui visent respectivement (1) au renforcement de la résilience des populations vulnérables face aux crises alimentaires, (2) à l’amélioration de l’accès aux services sociaux de bases et aux opportunités économiques. Read More...
Elle est la région la plus pauvre du Cameroun, avec 74% de la population vivant sous le seuil de pauvreté (mois d’1,125€/jour) contre 37,5% au niveau national (INS : 2014). De plus, l’incidence de la pauvreté est plus élevée en milieu rural (66%) qu’en milieu urbain (7%).
L’Extrême Nord dispose d’une faible couverture en services de base, notamment en matière d’eau et d’assainissement. D’après l’UNICEF, le taux d’accès à l’eau potable dans le Nord du Cameroun est de 53% contre 73% dans le Centre du pays (UNICEF : 2017). En 2017, seuls 16% des écoles dans le Mayo Tsanga et 24% dans le Mayo Kani – les deux départements d’intervention – disposent d’un accès à l’eau. Le ratio latrine par élève est compris entre 249 pour le Mayo Kani et 352 pour le Mayo Tsanga, soit 5 à 6 fois plus que les standards fixés par l’UNICEF. Le nombre restreint d’infrastructures adaptées, telles que les latrines sexospécifiques, constitue un frein à la scolarisation des enfants notamment des jeunes filles.1 L’absence d’intimité pour changer ou nettoyer les protections menstruelles, de matériel hygiénique, ainsi que les tabous autour des menstruations poussent de nombreuses filles à quitter l’école lors de leurs règles.
Dans les zones rurales, la présence de dispositifs de lavage de mains (DLM) fonctionnels au sein des écoles reste rare, ce qui limite fortement le lavage des mains des élèves et des enseignants ainsi que la mise en pratique des mesures de prévention contre la COVID-19. Faute de moyens, d’infrastructures et de formations, les enseignements relatifs à l’eau, l’hygiène et l’assainissement ne se traduisent pas systématiquement par le changement des comportements.
Pour répondre à cette situation, le projet de CARE Cameroun envisage de mettre en oeuvre le projet intitulé « aider les autres », ou « Walindé » en langue Fulfuldé, dont l’objectif global est de renforcer l'accès aux services de bases en matière d'eau, d'hygiène et d'assainissement (EHA) et aux services informels d'épargne et de crédit dans la région de l'Extrême Nord du Cameroun. De manière spécifique, cet objectif se traduit à travers l’amélioration la couverture en eau potable et l’accès aux services d'épargne et de crédit pour les femmes et les jeunes dans les communes de Mokolo, Hina, Yagoua, Kaélé.
CARE est intervenu dans les communes de Mokolo et Hina (Mayo Tsanga), Yagoua et Kaélé (Mayo Danay), respectivement dans le cadre des projets RESILIANT (2017-2020), COOPERER I et II (2016-2017 / 2019-2020). La continuité de ces programmes est actuellement assurée par les projets PEREN (Mokolo et Hina) et COOPERER III (Yagoua et Kaélé), qui visent respectivement (1) au renforcement de la résilience des populations vulnérables face aux crises alimentaires, (2) à l’amélioration de l’accès aux services sociaux de bases et aux opportunités économiques. Read More...