Online course: Climate change and inclusive WASH

Summary

• Level: intermediary – prior knowledge of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) recommended
• Time commitment: 4 modules, approximately 7 hours
• Learning product: online course (free, self-paced)
• Sector: WASH, Climate Resilience, Gender and Social Inclusion
• Language: English
• Certificate available: Yes

This course is hosted by the University of Technology Sydney’s The Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF).

Introduction

Climate change is the new operating context, and heavily impacts on delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. For those concerned with assessing and responding to climate impacts on WASH, there’s an imperative to learn rapidly across many different settings.

This course provides participants with a foundational understanding of the links between WASH, gender and social inclusion (GSI), and climate change. It also builds participants’ capacity to address climate impacts in WASH programming and service delivery at sub-national and local levels.

This online course will provide you with a foundational understanding of the links between Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI), and climate change, and will develop your capacity to address climate impacts in WASH programming and service delivery at sub-national and local levels.

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The online course will:

• Introduce key climate change and GEDSI concepts;
• Present evidence on the links between climate change, GEDSI, and WASH drawing on UTS-ISF research and the latest thinking in the field of global environmental change;
• Provide training on the use of practical tools to assess and respond to climate impacts on WASH in a gender and socially inclusive way; and
• Provide an opportunity for you to share your own thoughts and experiences on climate change, GEDSI, and WASH. 

Institutional background and trainers

This course is hosted by the University of Technology Sydney’s The Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF), with support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Water for Women Fund. The course bridges from research evidence to practice – drawing on multiple recent UTS-ISF climate change research initiatives and partnerships, including with Water for Women partners, IDS Sanitation Learning Hub, SNV, UNICEF and others.

The course content was created by Dr Jeremy Kohlitz, Tamara Megaw and Prof Juliet Willetts.

Who is the course for?

The online course is focused on assessing and responding to climate impacts on WASH at sub-national and local levels, so is most relevant for WASH professionals including civil society organisation (CSO) Program Managers, Project Managers, and WASH technical specialists; government staff (particularly subnational government) with WASH responsibilities; and students. The content is also of interest to central government staff and regional non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff with WASH responsibilities. The course is ideal for WASH professionals and students who wish to strengthen their knowledge and skills on climate resilient inclusive WASH.

With this course, UTS-ISF aims to contribute to building the capacity of the global WASH sector on addressing the impacts of climate change

Course content

The course contains four core modules:

1. The climate change challenge for WASH: What are the climate change problems that need to be overcome?
2. Assessing climate impacts on WASH: How can we assess the actual and expected impacts of climate hazards on WASH at a local level?
3. Responding to climate impacts in WASH service delivery: What actions can WASH stakeholders take to ensure WASH access is maintained or improved equitably under climate change?
4. Building institutional capacity to support inclusive climate resilient WASH service delivery: How can CSOs and governments strengthen their capacity to support inclusive climate resilient WASH service delivery?

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course participants should have the skills to:

• Describe key climate resilience concepts and evaluate how climate impacts on WASH services affect existing programming
• Identify gaps in knowledge on climate resilience that must be addressed to inform the work of policy-makers and program implementers
• Apply technical, project management, stakeholder engagement and analysis skills to building climate-resilient inclusive WASH programs
• Monitor and evaluate climate-resilient inclusive WASH programs
• Assess required financial and human resources for climate-resilient inclusive WASH services
• Design activities for climate-resilient inclusive WASH programs