How did we do it

Case study on the development of RCNN products
Resource Centre Network Nepal
February 2007

1. Summary:

Resource Centre Network Nepal (RCNN) a loose network of national and international NGOs was established in 2003 to facilitate knowledge sharing through information collection and dissemination and to promote and improve water supply and sanitation services in Nepal. International Water and Sanitation Centre the Netherlands (IRC) has been instrumental to start the initiative and bring together concerted effort of six network members.

Among the various RCNN activities undertaken some of the key are information needs assessment at district level, publication of Blue Pages, leaflet and posters on tube well spare parts, Life Skill Based Health and Hygiene Education Manual-Nepali, Water Portal development, training for RCNN members and workshops at district and national level. An agreement among members was reached in December 2003 to coordinate publication of following products based on their working areas of expertise:

Proposed product Key responsibility Output
Blue pages -II NEWAH Produced and distributed
Life Skill Based Health and Hygiene Education Manual Nepal Red Cross Society Produced and distributed
Information leaflet on tube well spare parts availability * NEWAH Produced and distributed
Manual on water quality testing kits/ Jal Pari - Documentary ENPHO Documentary Produced
Water Portal Development * RCNN members Development process initiated-needs further inputs

Following two products are considered for this case study:

a) Information leaflet and posters on tube well spare parts *
The leaflet preparation work was undertaken by NEWAH according to the above mentioned plan and based on IRC supported RCNN information need assessment in 2003 which, identified non-availability of good quality spare parts as one of the problem especially in the Nepal's Tarai (lower flatlands. The objective was to introduce linkage between the users and the local suppliers in the concerned districts.

Ratan Budhathoki from NEWAH coordinated draft preparation, field testing and finalisation of the leaflet. The draft was shared with NEWAH Technical Division, WaterAid Nepal (Anita Pradhan), NEWAH Regional Manager, Maintenance section staff (C. N. Chaudhary), community representatives, District Development Committee (DDC) staff and Divisional Engineer (DE) of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Divisional Office (DWSDO) Siraha. Comments and feedbacks collected through workshops and a questionnaire was incorporated before finalisation. Bharat Adhikari, Communication Officer of NEWAH professionally supported with editing, layout, design and picture selection. The final draft was circulated to RCNN members for review and comments. As a result a leaflet providing information about importance of tube well maintenance and availability of spare parts in the districts were published and distributed in August 2005. Posters were also produced in a local language to make them user friendly (Maithali) based on recommendations from the workshops.

One of the important learning of the process is that 'the products in local language with image/ picture and colour' are very reader friendly. It required limited number of reading to clearly understand the messages on the posters and leaflet,

b) Water portal * - WWW.Nepal.watsan.net
Upon request of RCNN members a three day workshop on 'Common Database and Nepal Water Portal' was organised in Nepal with the professional support of Cor Dietvorst from 25- 28 April 2005. Participants were informed and clarified about the eZ publish and content management system. Inspired, the RCNN members agreed on few actions to upload information resources in the water portal (space provided by IRC).

The second workshop cum orientation on the 'Portal Development' facilitated by Cor Dietvorst and Ewen Le Borgne of IRC in November 2005 as a follow up to the first workshop was participated by 12 RCNN members. It concluded with an action plan and identified key responsible person/organisation to coordinate indicated responsibilities (on how to upload content and work together on action plan addressing portal management issues - governance, responsibilities, sustainability etc).
2. Information collection process:

Product a)

Visit to Siraha and Dhanusa districts - The district WATSAN stakeholders, two local hardware suppliers and a tube well site were visited in Siraha from 25-28 January 2005 to discuss the spare part problems of Nepal no. 6 tube wells in the district, collect feedback and explore ways to support communities with useful information. The suppliers informed about the availability of required spare parts in their outlets and expressed willingness to support in the information sharing process. A visit was carried out in Dhanusa from 9–11 March 2005 where the findings were somewhat similar to the previous visit.

Development of the Leaflet and Posters
NEWAH decided to bring out an information leaflet on tube well spare parts to share knowledge, skills and details of nearby suppliers of required tube well spare parts. A draft was prepared by NEWAH and supported by Technical Division staff on technical aspects. Comments and inputs were received from Anita Pradhan, WaterAid Nepal. The leaflet covers the following topics:
• General tube well information
• Under what conditions and how tube well water gets contaminated?
• How to keep tube well water clean?
• Points for tube well maintenance
• Detailed information on outlet locations of Nepal No. 6 tube well spare parts in Central cities of Eastern Nepal

Workshops in Siraha and Dhanusa
The draft leaflet was pre tested among government, non government stakeholders and users in the district in an information sharing interaction workshop from 16-17July 2005 in Siraha. It was distributed to participants for observation and comments. Then a questionnaire was circulated to collect feedback for improvement to make it more reader friendly and simple in language. A similar workshop was organised in Dhanusha (Janakpur) from 27-29 July 2005.

The leaflet was found useful for implementation level users. However the participants pointed that it may not be user friendly to grassroots level users especially at individual households. It was recommended that the information be prepared in leaflet and poster form and in the local language (Maithali) Sanitation related messages were asked to be incorporated.

Publication of Leaflet and Posters
The draft was shared with technical and several other staff in the NEWAH Eastern Regional Office and RCNN members. Some important inputs provided were as follows:
• information about frequently required tube well spare parts with diagrams
• process of installing spare parts with illustrations
• list of information on drinking water projects where Nepal no. 6 tube wells are installed
• More input was given by NEWAH and WaterAid Nepal since NEWAH assigned for the task and involved in the Tarai areas. Other RCNN members provided comments on the draft content, pictures selection and making information simple.

The four page leaflet was published in August 2005, incorporating all the possible suggestions and comments including a part on "Do you know?" which covers facts on water and sanitation published by WHO and the fact that if only the drinking water systems are maintained regularly that MDGs on water and sanitation can be met. It also contains the contact addresses for further information. A Nepali and Maithali poster containing the same information was also produced and these products have been disseminated at community level. http://www.newah.org.np/our%20publications.htm

Product b)
The first workshop (April 26-28, 2005) included topics such as:
• Content Management System
• What is a portal?
• Exercise web portals,
• User and RC perspectives, what to include?
• Design site map (aim, users and users needs, thematic structure, resource structure, target group structure)
• And action plan
Eleven participants from six organisations participated in the session facilitated by Cor Dietvorst from IRC at NEWAH. At the end of the workshop the RCNN members agreed to develop a water portal and share with organisation heads once it started working The members uploaded information in the proposed site map particularly about RCNN, hygiene promotion, policies, disaster management and technological options.

During the second workshop practical sessions were emphasised and clear assignment with roles and responsibility to each member was agreed. The RCNN team worked together and uploaded the information as far as possible. A lot of work is needed on the content production and uploading of www.nepal.watsan.net

3. Key lessons learned:

People do not give priority to information and feel that there are vested interest behind seeking information. Just sending questionnaire to the local level is not sufficient. Several follow up is necessary to collect responses.

A main learning from tube well spare parts leaflet and posters preparation process is that pre-test is essential and helps to produce relevant products for the target groups particularly at community level,. Receiving feedback from users made it possible to develop posters in local language with pictorial options.

Professionally supported joint effort, equal commitment, common understanding amongst key members/organisations, adds value to the purpose, gives meaningful output and increases team spirit, trust and ownership to produce a joint product

A lead is required for facilitating the process and for regular follow up to bring together collective inputs.

Limited facilitation skill slows down decision making and accomplishing the agreed action.
Clear communication and transparency is essential in a team work and requires adequate time to come to a conclusion and produce result.

4. Quick wins:

Users requiring the spare parts and organisational heads were positive towards sharing of such resourceful information. Once the output was produced, it became visible and created value of the joint effort.

Actions have to be planned on the basis of demand not only needs of the targets groups. They should be linked to regular (core) activities of the participating organisations, so that the internalisation (sustainenance) process can take place.

Attitude, skill and experience of involved staff play an instrumental role to lead to desired outputs and products.

5. Challenges and risks:

Assessing the impact of leaflet and posters have not yet been done as follow up. Thus measuring effectiveness on how the information has helped users to easily access the spare parts in local markets has not been possible.

Validation of product and maintaining regular flow of information in the circle is challenging. , Most communities do not have access to electronic information and sharing information through other means takes time.

Slow internet connection and limited skill of involved personnel to use the information technology within the RCNN member organisations is a limitation .

Information sharing culture in the sector is limited. Producing number of products on an individual basis could lead to duplication of efforts.

6. Time line:

The tentative time taken on developing content for TW spare parts was roughly (two weeks) including consultation with other members, questionnaire preparation and finalisation (two weeks), workshop preparation – invitation, follow up and organisation took two weeks. The work did not taken place continuously. On the whole the leaflet and poster preparation was undertaken from July-August 2005.

7. Remaining questions that need to be resolved:

Information leaflet and posters were distributed to communities and local suppliers but the impact of that information source and its usefulness to the users has not been assessed as yet.

Relevant and latest content development, validation and administration of WWW.nepal.watsan.net requires dedication and professional input from RCNN.

Fact Box
Overall purpose: Producing such information products increases and provides access to relevant information to targeted groups. Many people at the community level do not perceive information as a resource and lack access to bulky reports and abstract information in local languages. Thus the RCNN efforts focuse to package/repackage reader friendly information in Nepali and local languages as far as possible. This allows qualitative information sharing and enhancing the level of awareness on local water and sanitation issues among users and sector stakeholders.
Relation to local RC process: NEWAH was the focal organisation in the development of leaflet and posters. WaterAid Nepal and other members contributed in the draft peer review. This process allowed RCNN members to coordinate work independently and receive inputs from others by sharing information.

Target group and involved stakeholder(s): Water and Sanitation Users groups, users, local hardware suppliers and local NGOs were the target groups for the products. NEWAH HQ Technical Division, regional office maintenance staff from, Biratnagar were involved for content development and DE of DWSDO, Communication Officers of DDC – local government representative (Siraha and Dhanusa) and tube well users for feedback collection.

• Key monitoring indicators (if any):

Human and financial resources required: Leaflet and Posters for tube well spare parts USD 1100.00. Time for coordinating and finalising work in terms of human resource took two months. The cost was about USD 1000.00 (average $ 500.00 per month).

Regarding the water portal development, the contributions were received from RCNN members. Staff cost has not been calculated actually. Each member (from six organisations) has contributed overall two months roughly.
Contact details:
• First Name Last name: Ratan Budhathoki on behalf of RCNN
• Position: Knowledge Management and Advocacy Manager, NEWAH
• Organisation: Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH)
• Email address: ratan@newah.org.np
• Telephone (facultative): 00977 1 4377107, 4377108
• Website (facultative): www.newah.org.np
Further references:
.Examples: http://www.newah.org.np/our%20publications.htm