WASH handbook for Protracted Emergencies : Oxfam/SI Experience in Myanmar

This handbook details the activities and lessons learned of the Oxfam–Solidarites International (SI) consortium providing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in Rohingya camps and villages in Sittwe Township in Rakhine State, Myanmar, from 2017–2020. 1.1 1.2 Context Background When the project launched in 2017, there was limited guidance available on approaches and techniques to deliver WASH services in a protracted emergency, particularly in the context of a human rights crisis. The Oxfam–SI partnership (referred to as “OXSI”) piloted and tested strategies to adapt the delivery of WASH services to the specific protracted Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, while focusing on increasing engagement and ownership of the community. Relatively long–term funding – unusual for humanitarian programming – allowed OXSI the opportunity to tailor approaches, innovate solutions, increase efficiency, and optimise collaboration and the use of resources. The funding stability as well as the large scale of the programme allowed OXSI to build up a long–standing team with technical expertise and deep contextual knowledge and to focus on improving the programme by mainstreaming community engagement, gender, and accountability. Most of these processes and factors resulted in an increased value for money (VfM), especially as the consortium absorbed work in new areas during the three–year implementation.