OWN Members at UNC Water and Health Conference

It was great to see OWN Members, Professor Katrina Charles, Dr Saskia Nowicki and Dr Li Ann Ong present at the annual UNC Water and Health Conference. The conference provides a curated space where policymakers, practitioners and researchers can gather to review the evidence, interrogate the science and improve old and develop new approaches to expanding WaSH access and services. 

According to Professor Katrina Charles, the conference is a great space to generate discussions on how to integrate science into policy and practice for WASH and to learn and adapt the work academics do. She highlighted the issue of choosing metrics to improve global reporting and comparability of reporting, highlighting the work Oxford University does to develop climate resilient WASH indicators with WHO and UNICEF. Professor Charles also pointed out that metrics can have negative consequences:

"Global metrics have to be measurable and affordable to implement, but we need to consider what risks are being ignored as everyone pushes to align to new metrics." 

At the UNC Side Event: “Operationalizing the WHO small systems guidance with results-based contracts” Prof. Katrina Charles and Dr Saskia Nowicki joined Uptime, World Health Organization, Water Mission, Whave Solutions, FundiFix, The Coca-Cola Foundation and Cova, to discuss progress and recommendations for future developments in this space.