Awards
CGSW Proposals Win World Bank Development Marketplace Awards
The innovative work of the Center for Global Safe Water (CGSW) was recognized by the World Bank's Development Marketplace, which selected two CGSW projects as winners of the 2006 Global Competition. The Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program of the World Bank that funds innovative, small-scale development projects that deliver results and show potential to be expanded or replicated.
Both winning CGSW proposals describe collaborative projects that use income-generating local enterprises to increase access to safe water and improved sanitation in poor communities. In Bolivia , CGSW will work with the Fundación Sumaj Huasi Para la Vivienda Saludable and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop low-cost sanitation models, generate demand for sanitation in local communities through social marketing, and establish small businesses to provide improved sanitation services. During the 2 years of initial implementation, 200 families are expected to adopt improved latrine models that are both effective and affordable, and the small businesses developed by the project will become self-sustaining enterprises as they continue to market and provide sanitation services to their local communities. The proposal was developed by Dr. Christine Moe, CGSW Principal Investigator, Robert Dreibelbis, CGSW Research Coordinator, CDC collaborators Dr. Enrique Paz and Dr. Rachel Kaufmann, and Engineer Juan Carlos Suntura of Fundación Sumaj Huasi.
The second proposal builds on and expands the already established Rotary Safe Water Project in Kenya's Nyanza Province . The goal is to decrease water-related illnesses and generate income for rural women through sales of household water treatment and safe storage products. Collaborators include CGSW, the Rotary Club of Atlanta, and CDC. By the end of the second year of implementation, the project aims to mobilize 700 local women's groups to teach fellow community members about home-based approaches to safe water, establish 1,500 vendors of affordable water treatment products, and provide a safe water solution to 200,000 persons. The proposal was developed by Trish Anderson, CGSW Project Coordinator in Nyanza Province, Dr. Richard Rheingans, CGSW, and Dr. Rob Quick, CDC.
The two CGSW projects are among only 30 winners selected from more than 2,500 proposals submitted to the prestigious global competition. The winners will share $5 million for initiatives to provide clean water, adequate sanitation, and access to energy in developing countries. The Kenya project was awarded $128,400, and the Bolivia proposal awarded $198,700. To add to the honors, the Bolivia proposal also won the highly respected World Bank Infrastructure Staff Award, voted on by central and in-country World Bank infrastructure staff, including the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program and the World Bank's Energy and Water Department. CGSW featured in Public Health magazine.