The report of the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group’s (ABCG) Freshwater Conservation and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (FW-WASH) working group’s consultative meeting held in October 2016 at the Africa Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi is now available here .

The meeting was a buildup on earlier work by the task group that identified the need for FW-WASH integration guidelines to reduce the impacts of infrastructure development and pollution on freshwater ecosystems. Participants agreed that creating a FW-WASH Community of Practice would greatly support and enhance integrated programming. The plan to launch such a Community of Practice was discussed at the meeting including the various web based platforms available to meet the group’s needs.

Participants shared trends, current practices, challenges and successes in implementing freshwater conservation and WASH programs in their various institutions. The meeting participants included WASH professionals from the Kenya Water and Sanitation Civil Society Network, Kenya WASH Alliance, Millennium Water Alliance Kenya, Wetlands International Kenya Program, Kenya Meteorological Department, Kenya Water and Health Organization and the African Wildlife Foundation.

An online Community of Practice on LinkedIn was launched in March this year in line with the meeting recommendations. The overall aim of this community is to establish integrated learning and knowledge sharing between FW-WASH practitioners in a supportive and collaborative environment.

For more information about this work please contact Jimmiel J Mandima, African Wildife Foundation, at jmandima@awf.org