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Innovating and Adapting in a Payment-By-Results WASH Programme: The SWIFT experience
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Oxfam led a consortium called SWIFT which ran a risky payment by results (PbR) programme in the fragile contexts of DRC and Kenya. The programme sought to provide sustained access to water, sanitation and hygiene for almost one million people over four years. During the four years, SWIFT faced a number of issues including the novel contracting approach; increasing financial risk for implementing partners; tight timelines for delivery of infrastructure and behaviour change interventions; and challenges in the wider context, such as drought in Kenya and population displacement in DRC. 
But apart from the funding mechanism, was SWIFT innovative or adaptive? We asked implementing teams the question: if, and how, innovation and adaptation took place during the first phase of the SWIFT programme, and what the lessons might be for implementing organizations that seek to deliver large-scale, challenging and high-pressure programmes under a PbR arrangement. 
This study looks at what innovation took place, why it took place, what it solved and what helped or hindered the innovation or adaptation.
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SWIFT Story of Sustainable Change: SWIFT supports Kasitu in DRC to become a 'healthy village'
No full textThe ‘Healthy Villages and Schools’ approach is a step-by-step process of village mobilisation that is supported by DRC’s Ministry of Public Health and UNICEF. Under the SWIFT programme, Oxfam is supporting Kasitu to implement the approach through local partner Centre de Promotion Socio Sanitaire (CEPROSSAN).
CEPROSSAN has rehabilitated Kasitu’s water source and capped it to provide safe, sustainable water. It has helped the community set up a water users’ committee, whose job it is now to maintain the spring, and a ‘healthy village’ committee to monitor and encourage progress. Four community motivators trained in hygiene awareness now visit each household to check that good hygiene behaviour is being practised.
Residents have already noticed a fall in the incidence of sickness, leaving them with more time and energy to cultivate crops, and are using money that previously paid for clinic visits to fund school fees instead.</p
SWIFT Story of Sustainable Change: Working with a local utility to bring water to Kabokorit, Turkana
No full textResidents of Kabokorit in Turkana, Kenya, used to rely on 'scoop holes' dug in a river for their water. Water-borne diseases were common, and each trip took around three hours.
Under the SWIFT programme, Oxfam has been supporting local utility KAWASEPRO to improve the water infrastructure, and residents can now access clean water from three kiosks in the village.
Find out how the lives of Rose Akuwam and her family have changed as a result, and how Oxfam continues to work with KAWASEPRO to build capacity and ensure the long-term sustainability of the system.</p
SWIFT Story of Sustainable Change: Handing over a new water network to a community in South Kivu, DRC
No full textThe residents of Katungulu used to have to make a two-hour round trip to a contaminated river to collect water. Defecation took place mostly in the bush; the few latrines were dirty and poorly maintained; and hand-washing with soap or ash wasn’t practised. Diarrhoea, malaria and water-borne diseases were rife.
Under the SWIFT programme, Tearfund has been working with the residents of Katungulu to implement the government-approved ‘Healthy Villages and Schools’ approach to village mobilization. Sickness in the village since it received access to clean, safe water and since the ‘healthy village’ process began has dropped sharply. Having taken over responsibility for the new network, the community is determined to ensure its long-term sustainability.</p
SWIFT Story of Sustainable Change: Promoting health and well-being through a club in Katchungwe, DRC
No full textIn Katchungwe, a semi-urban village in South Kivu, defecation used to take place mostly in the bush. Hand-washing with soap or ash wasn’t practised, the importance of hygiene in preparing food wasn’t understood, and discarded rubbish rotted in the roads. Sickness and disease were widespread. Now, however, thanks to the Community Health Club set up through the SWIFT programme by Tearfund with the support of Africa AHEAD, the village has been transformed.
The Community Health Club is a free, voluntary club which holds weekly discussions on health and hygiene topics and sets practical assignments. Members have already seen the benefits of adopting the new behaviours in terms of a drop in the incidence of sickness, and are sharing what they have learned with their neighbours.</p
SWIFT Story of Sustainable Change: Working with a local utility to get much-needed water to residents of Lodwar, Turkana
No full textThe town of Lodwar is the driest spot in the arid county of Turkana in northwest Kenya. Getting water to the town’s residents is the responsibility of a private utility, the Lodwar Water and Sanitation Company (LOWASCO), and has long been a problem.
Under the SWIFT programme, Oxfam has been working with LOWASCO to address the challenges it faces: mapping the water supply to put together funding proposals, installing solar-powered pumping systems to avoid high running costs, and increasing the utility's management capacity.
Now, more than 30,000 residents have access to clean, safe water at their homes. Read about the difference this has made to Regina Aemun and her family, who are enjoying better health, better food, and being able to bathe whenever they want. </p
Introducing the SWIFT Tool for Environmental Assessment and Risk Screening for Rural Water Supply
No full textAchieving long-term increases in rural water-supply coverage depends on many factors. A new tool developed for the SWIFT Consortium supports environmental assessment and risk screening activitiesfor rural water supplies in low-income contexts. When conducting a detailed hydrogeological survey is not an option, the SWIFT tool provides simple guidance to help identify and mitigate environmental risks to long-term water availability and quality.</p
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