Engineers without borders – academic day OXFAM GB Jenny Lamb Water & Sanitation Engineer Advisor 18 th September 2014

Page 2 Session Objective To present an overview of the following: -What issues are calling out for NGO-academia collaboration? -What might a successful collaboration look like? -Examples, their failures and lessons

Page 3 World figures million people in the world don’t have access to safe water. This is roughly 1 in 10 of the world’s population 2.5. billion people don’t have access to adequate sanitation, 1 in 3 of the world’s population Over 500,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. That’s over 1,400 children a day. This baseline is further exacerbated in an emergency e.g. Before the Haiti earthquake 80% had no access to safe sanitation, and after Haiti a dire situation

Page 4 Diversity of Oxfam’s work.... WASH – water, sanitation & hygiene EFSL – emergency food security and livelihoods Protection Gender Policy & Advocacy Campaigning Trading Logistics – warehouse in Bicester Fundraising

Page 5 Oxfam’s work.....

Page 6 What issues are calling out for joining of the NGO & academic world Problem statements such as ‘low cost desalination’ and ‘faecal sludge treatment & disposal’ Increasing the number of engineers interested in the humanitarian sector (short term & long term) Diversify our graduate engineering competencies – a combination of civil, structural, project management, self starter, and theoretical & practical minded Quality assurance Foster links between the North & South Universities; linked to this development of an ‘Academy for humanitarian WaSH engineers’ Professional Certification – a bridge between CIWEM/ICE for humanitarian WaSH engineers?

Page 7 Characteristics of a successful collaboration Something tangible! e.g. -A technical brief, guideline -An approach -A piece of equipment Research initiatives: NGO, academics & MSc students Secondments Capacity building (2 way) Technical working group tasked with a particular subject matter e.g. Faecal sludge management, Desalination

Page 8 NGO & academia collaboration Day to day professional collaboration: LSHTM, Surrey, WEDC, Cranfield Uni of Surrey – up flow clarifier, water treatment WEDC – co authored the ‘Excreta in Emergencies MSc dissertations with Cranfield & WEDC University a)Tsunami – well cleaning / saline intrusion b)South Sudan – urban sanitation (sanitation marketing) c)Liberia – well chlorination d)Bio additives MSc group work with Cranfield University – no toilet option, and faecal sludge treatment-disposal Latrine lining prototype with University of Newcastle No toilet prototype with University of Edinburgh (product designers) Cranfield University – present at working group with academics, engineering consultants examining student retention, teaching content etc.

Page 9 Collaboration lessons & failures How to take the prototypes to the next level developed by the University product designer students? What next for the students after they have completed MSc – our & their expectations Fore mentioned research (well cleaning, saline intrusion, urban sanitation etc) – have all led to enhanced knowledge by our field staff, and the WaSH sector Faecal sludge treatment MSc group work – in hindsight should have had chemical-process engineers involved. Pitching to the right audiences (short term & long term)

Questions.....