5 World Bank Webinars for FREE

The World Bank and the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) are hosting a weekly webinar series on the water sector. The webinar series is open to anyone who has access to the internet via a smartphone, tablet or a computer. 11 webinars were scheduled and 6 have been conducted so far. The topics that have been covered are

1. Myths of the Rural Water Supply Sector
2. Rural Water Supply and  Sanitation Challenges in Latin America for the Next Decade: Lessons from the International Seminar “Cusco+10”
3. Actions to Attract Investment to African Rural Water Supply
4. Govt.of Finland CoWASH  Program in Ethiopia
5. WASH and Equity
6. PPPs in Madagascar’s Rural Towns

The session recordings and presentations are available at http://water.worldbank.org/node/84117

Several interesting topics have been lined up for the forthcoming talks as well. See table below:

Date	Topic	Speaker/s
5/15/2012	Life Cycle Costing Approach	Catarina Fonseca - Project Director, WASHCost, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre Analysis and use of the full costs of sustainable, equitable, and reliable water services
5/22/2012	Grundfos LifeLink Payment System and Solar Technology	Rasoul Dashtbani Mikkelsen - Funding and Partnership Manager, Grundfos LIFELINK A/S Spencer Ochieng - General Manager, Grundfos LIFELINK (Kenya) Ltd. An innovative business model for Africa, Asia, and Latin America based on a solar pumps, mobile phones, and mobile banking technologies
5/29/2012	Sustainable Groundwater Development for Rural Water Supplies	Sean Furey - Water & Sanitation Specialist based at Skat, in Switzerland, and part of the RWSN Secretariat. RWSN wants groundwater to be understood and used for the benefit of everyone, in perpetuity. The three sub-themes are ‘Handpump Technology’, ‘Cost Effective Boreholes’ and ‘Cost Effective Groundwater Management’.
6/5/2012	Human Right to Water and Sanitation	Catarina de Albuquerque - UN Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation
6/12/2012	Self Supply: Supported Household Investment in Rural Water Supply	Sally Sutton - Hydrogeologist, SWL Consultants André Olschewski - Water, Sanitation and Environmental Management Specialist, RWSN/Skat Foundation Increasing access through encouraging households to invest in their own supplies

For those who are interested, the webinars offer not only useful information about various issues within the water sector across the globe but also offer opportunities to network and build contacts within the industry. Personally, I have also found interesting insights from the question and answer sessions after the presentations and also the periodic micro-surveys that are conducted such as the one featured in the screenshot below:

If you’re interested in participating, register at http://water.worldbank.org/node/84117 and don’t forget to schedule it into your calendars. Do drop me a line if you happen to join after reading this blog. Will be delighted to make your acquaintance. See you there!