For the past three years (2015-2018), Conservation International and the Jane Goodall Institute have pilot tested innovative projects that integrate freshwater conservation and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in South Africa and Uganda, respectively.

On September 6, 2018, Colleen Sorto, Director for Development Partnerships at Conservation International, and Peter Apell, Programs Director at the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda, presented the lessons learned from the implementation of ABCG’s activities to integrate Freshwater Conservation and WASH under the Global Health Linkages thematic area.

Lessons Learned

1. WASH activities create incentives and co-benefits for conservation
2. Gender analyses provide insights about roles and responsibilities relating to WASH and conservation that help with integration, resulting in more effective programming
3. Community education campaigns foster sustainability and ownership of conservation and WASH approaches
4. Monitoring and Evaluation of these integrated projects is challenging but essential for demonstrating project impact
5. Community-led project decision making and local policies support sustainability of the efforts
6. Flexible funding to supplement and address unexpected challenges can make your impact go further

Event Resources

Click below to watch the webinar recording from the event.

Featured Speakers

Colleen Sorto is the Director for Development Partnerships at Conservation International. She has more than 11 years’ experience leading and managing innovative integrated landscape planning and field-based partnerships with development organizations. She leads ABCG’s task group on linking freshwater conservation and WASH and provides strategic and technical guidance to Conservation South Africa pilot project under this task.

Peter Apell is the Programs Director at the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda. Peter is a primatologist with more than 10 years’ experience in integrated conservation and development, and wildlife health and management programs in Uganda.

This event was hosted by the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group as a part of its Washington DC speaker series, which aims to foster information exchange and lessons sharing among cross-sector practitioners. To participate as a featured speaker, please contact Evelyn Namvua at enamvua@abcg.org and view the Guidelines to Speakers here.