4

Outreach Campaign Boosts Impact of Job Creation Program

USAID’s Job Creation through Essential Service Delivery (JCESD) Program hit the ground in the summer following the Egyptian Spring, as the economy slowed, investments froze, and laborers struggled to �ind work. The regions of Upper Egypt, which already suffered from a poverty rate of 40% or more, were among the hardest hit. USAID and its partner the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater saw an opportunity to create short term jobs while expanding and rehabilitat-ing drinking water delivery networks, and JCESD was born.

The program, now underway in eight Upper Egyptian governorates, totals LE 45,150,000 in value and consists of small-scale, labor-intensive infrastructure works aimed at extending or upgrading drinking water delivery networks. Key projects include replacing pipelines, upgrading old networks, and �ixing and installing valves, new lines, and house connections. Many projects enable households to be connected to the network for the �irst time.

But the JCESD program doesn’t stop there. With new service comes new responsibility for households to protect and conserve water resources, and an opportunity for the water sector stakeholders to raise awareness of key environmental and health issues. USAID, in close partnership with the regional water utilities, launched a public outreach campaign in communities served by the JCESD projects. The campaign focused on the three themes of: 1) water conservation; 2) public health and hygiene, and 3) USAID’s role in creating jobs and improving service. In Beni Suef and Sohag, the pilot regions for the JCESD program, campaigns were led by governorate-level coordinating committees made up of local of�icials, water and sanitation utility representatives, and community leaders. Informed by rapid assessments of the targeted communi-ties, and involving local NGOs and community leaders, campaign activities included school and youth events, women’s groups, and seminars for men and religious leaders.

Though the campaign events and celebrations have come to a close, the impact of the JCESD program will be felt for years to come by the households with access to safe drinking water. In the words of the Beni Suef utility’s Chairman, General Henry Aazer, “This program has helped communities in my governorate get back to work. At the same time, the program is investing in critical household water connections. In addition, the campaign provides us a valuable communication channel for disseminating water use and conservation messages in homes.”

Fo r Wate r & Was tewate r Holding Company

WATER AND WASTEWATER SECTOR SUPPORT PROGRAM

Program HighlightsFebruary 2012

Water & Wastewater Sector Support Program Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development

Implemented by Chemonics International Inc.10 Rustum Street, 7th floor Garden City - Cairo, Egypt

www.egyptwwss.org

The USAID-funded Water and Wastewater Sector Support (WWSS) program (2008 – 2012), is strengthening the capacity of national and regional Egyptian water and wastewater companies to deliver quality services in a cost-effective fashion. By providing technical support in utility management, the project team is assisting the companies to implement recent Government of Egypt reforms aimed at improving operational performance and attracting private investments to the sector. To increase the financial and commercial viability of the utilities, the Chemonics team is working with our partners to: improve managerial, technical, and operational efficiency; develop and implement capital investment planning and project monitoring and management mechanisms; and build the capacity of staff and managers.

JCESD projects at a glance

Contract value (LE 000)

Est. number of bene�iciaries

Est. labor component

Completion to date

Pipes laid to date (m)

Labor days generated to date

Sohag

6,700

69,555

22%

58%

44,545

13,985

JCESD Projects at a Glance

5,297

210,500

22%

89%

41,517

12,441

Assuit

5,310

23,554

21%

20%

19,780

6,935

Minya

5,778

22,901

21%

18 %

20,800

5,173

Qena

5,296

32,650

21%

0.5%

1,300

200

Aswan

5,723

19,359

21%

0%

Sinai

5,448

56,850

24%

0%

Luxor

5,648

16,575

25%

0%

Beni Suef

Taking Hygiene Messages to Villages

Since women, by and large, manage day-to-day household activities, they were a critical audience for the campaign’s water-related messages. Our rapid assessments in the targeted communities revealed a variety of opportunities for awareness raising about the safe disposal of wastewa-ter and the proper storage of drinking water. These and other themes were incorporated into a program of women’s seminars implemented in the targeted villages during the campaign. Local NGO outreach workers led a total of 22 seminars and more than 100 women’s awareness group meetings in the nine communities in Beni Suef and Sohag, reaching more than 1,000 women. USAID-branded campaign posters were present, and participating women received soap and other giveaways from campaign representatives.

Enlisting village men to spread the word about JCESD

The campaign did not spare the men of the villages, who play an important role in spreading the word on the street. Campaign workers held seminars for local men – a total of 12 in Sohag – to update them on the status of JCESD projects, and to discuss the importance of water conservation.

Mobilizing village women

Religious leaders preachabout water conservation

In Sohag, governorate-level campaign planning meetings revealed an enthusi-asm on the part of religious leaders to participate in the campaign’s activities. The local water and sanitation utility jumped on this opportunity and invited 32 priests and sheikhs to the Company for a meeting, where they discussed the JCESD program and the campaign’s messages of conservation and hygiene. The Chairman of the Sohag Water and Wastewater Company implored the participants to promote the campaign’s themes, and a number of priests and sheikhs agreed to integrate the messages into their sermons.

23

To inject a little fun into the otherwise education-focused campaign, we organized and sponsored football tournaments in Sohag and Beni Suef, where teams of youth from JCESD-targeted communities competed in more than 15 matches hosted at local youth centers. In Sohag, more than 350 people attended the �inal match between the teams from al-Harif and Benga, where the Chairman of the Water and Wastewater Company gave a speech, thanking USAID for its support on the JCESD program and hitting the campaign’s theme of conserving water resources. All participants sported campaign t-shirts, and the champions from al-Harif received a USAID-branded trophy.

Football tournament

School awareness program

Beni Suef street theater In discussions with campaign outreach workers, youth from participating villages voiced concerns about a number of water-related hygiene issues facing their communities, including safe disposal of wastewater and use of polluted water for washing kitchen and household utensils. The youth brainstormed ideas for raising awareness on such issues, and agreed to hold community theater events in the streets of their respective villages. The youth presented their ideas, and the problems they identi�ied in their communities, to a local cultural center who prepared a play incorporating the themes and rehearsed it with the young volunteer actors. Publicized at the mosques and through home visits, the three street theater events were attended by approximately 350 villagers and were followed by discussions with the audience.

Engaging Youth in Water Conservation Efforts Treatment plant visits

Community youth were one of the campaign’s primary audiences, and the WWSS outreach team engaged them where they hang out most: in schools and on football �ields. Working hand-in-hand with 30 teachers from 10 schools in the targeted communi-ties in Sohag, campaign outreach workers designed, planned, and oversaw extracurricular, water-themed activities reaching nearly 6,000 students. Trained and equipped with activity manuals, the teachers led their students in drawing, puppetry, story-telling, and science projects focusing on water and conservation. The program culminated in a celebra-tory event in the Beni Amar Primary School in the Taha District, where students from all participating schools came together to present their art products, songs, plays, experiments, and puppet shows, and to sign a pledge to preserve water in their communities. The event was well attended by students and teachers, as well as community leaders, educational directorate of�icials, and the local water and wastewater utility. The Chairman of the water utility praised the students for their work and expressed his hope that such awareness-raising programs will be continued in the future. The program was replicated in Beni Suef, reaching nearly 5,000 students in 9 schools in the communities receiving assistance under the JCESD program.

To educate youth in the JCESD-targeted communities, our water utility partners invited them to their treatment plants for an educational program and tour. In the governorates of Beni Suef and Sohag, a total of nine visits took place, where water utility of�icials described the process of water treatment and emphasized the need for conserving water resources. More than 200 youth took part, and brought USAID-branded t-shirts and hats back to their communities to continue to spread the campaign’s messages.