Sanitation jobs at the Gates Foundation - woot woot!

The Gates Foundation has made the big commitment to sanitation we have all been hoping for and are staffing up to prove it:

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/jobs/Pages/job-search.aspx

Search for sanitation and you'll find:

Director, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene

The Director of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene will provide strategic leadership of the WS&H initiative, with a specific focus on non-piped sanitation. The Director will continue to build on the existing strategy and will be responsible for overseeing grant making and grant management, advocacy, people management and reporting of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene portfolio. The Director of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene will participate in the Global Development Leadership Team and contribute to the entire Global Development team through management and cultural leadership and a willingness to share knowledge as appropriate.

Senior Program Officer - Demand-Led Sanitation

The Senior Program Officer (SPO) will play a pivotal leadership role in the WS&H initiative, taking primary responsibility for developing, executing and managing a portfolio of high-impact grants with the goal of replicating at very large scale a sustainable approach to rural sanitation. This approach triggers demand to end open defecation and improve unsafe latrines, trains local entrepreneurs to offer affordable sanitation products and services, and improves the enabling environment supporting these activities. Reporting to the Deputy Director leading the WS&H initiative, the SPO will also contribute to developing the WS&H strategy, enhancing external and internal relationships, improving team effectiveness, and supervising Program Officers and other staff.

And others... let's get some great sanitation people up to Seattle.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship - Water is a Priority

Once again, global water scarcity remains a priority for the Skoll Awards for 2010. Remember Gary White won recently from Water.org so Skoll is serious about water.

February 17, 2010 is the next deadline, so please think about nominating water and sanitation entrepreneurs who need a little help to get them and their organizations to the next level.

Details:

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship support social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time: tolerance and human rights, health, economic and social equity, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and environmental sustainability. These issues are at the heart of the foundation’s vision of empowering people to create a peaceful, prosperous, sustainable world. Within these issues, we are particularly interested in applications from social entrepreneurs working in five critical sub-issue areas that threaten the survival of humanity – climate change, nuclear proliferation, pandemics, conflict in the Middle East and water scarcity.

Skoll social entrepreneurs are innovators who have tested and proved their approach, are poised to replicate or scale up their work to create equilibrium change and engage others with a message that resonates with individuals whose resources are crucial to advancing these solutions. The Skoll Awards are designed for leaders who contribute value to a peer network committed to continuous learning. By telling their stories, they join in the foundation’s ongoing celebration of the power of social entrepreneurs.

The Skoll Awards provide later-stage, or mezzanine, funding, subject to payment limitations described below under Budget Guidance. In most cases, the grant is provided for core support to help organizations expand their programs and capacity to deliver long-term, sustainable equilibrium change. The Skoll Awards are not intended for new or early-stage programs or initiatives. Programs submitted for consideration should have a track record of no less than three years. In addition to core support, the Skoll Foundation supports the participation of Award recipients in the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

Deadline for Applying:

Applications are accepted and reviewed on a year-round basis, with successful applicants receiving initial funding installments shortly after decisions are made. Regular deadlines (listed below and updated regularly) assist us in managing the internal review process for these applications, a process that takes a minimum of six months to be completed. Awards will be presented publicly at a ceremony at the Skoll World Forum, which occurs at the end of every March in Oxford, England.

Toilets Save Eyesight

This article deserves to be above the fold in the New York Times. Very insightful. Summary: if you want to prevent preventable blindness, you need to consider sanitation and safe water. Don't stop the surgeries, don't stop the antibiotics, and perhaps most importantly for the longrun, don't neglect the Facewashing and Environmental Sanitation parts of the SAFE strategy.

Zambia – Toilets save eyesight, new study confirms
November 16, 2009

CALGARY, Nov. 16 /CNW/ – Why in the world is an organization dedicated to the treatment and prevention of blindness spending money on toilets?

“Because believe it or not, toilets and blindness are directly connected,” says Pat Ferguson, President & CEO of Operation Eyesight. “Proper sanitation and clean water are in short supply in the developing world and that contributes to a high rate of unnecessary blindness and other serious health problems.”

A new study conducted by Zambia’s Ministry of Health and supported by Operation Eyesight found that trachoma was 28 per cent more likely to strike in households that do not have proper toilet facilities. The study, which covered five districts in Zambia, found that up to 80 per cent of the households surveyed do not have toilets.

“Trachoma is caused by a bacterium and is easily spread from person to person and by flies which breed on human waste,” says Ferguson. “So it’s no surprise that proper sewage disposal helps to prevent this horrible disease.”

Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. In parts of Zambia and Kenya where Operation Eyesight supports development projects designed to eliminate trachoma, up to 30 per cent of children age one to nine years are infected.

Without treatment, trachoma causes a person’s eyelids to turn inward so that the eyelashes constantly scrape the eyeball. It is extremely painful and can lead to permanent blindness. The World Health Organization estimates more than 80 million people are affected by trachoma and about 8 million suffer the advanced stages of the disease and are visually impaired.

Operation Eyesight’s trachoma projects are designed to both treat and permanently eliminate trachoma. The projects follow the World Health Organization-endorsed SAFE strategy which includes Surgery to treat the late stage of the disease, Antibiotics to eliminate infection, Face washing and hygiene promotion, and Environmental change including water wells and latrines to prevent re-infection.

To be effective, the ambitious projects require construction of thousands of latrines, drilling hundreds of wells, mass distribution of antibiotics and training thousands of citizens in hygiene and well management.

“These projects are large and costly,” says Ferguson, “But the benefits are enormous. In addition to preventing unnecessary blindness, the SAFE strategy dramatically reduces other serious diseases, helps keep children in school and saves women the need to walk many kilometers in search of water, which is usually unfit for human consumption.”

Operation Eyesight is working in close partnership with the governments of Kenya and Zambia and is a member of GET2020, the World Health Organization initiative to eradicate trachoma from the entire world by 2020. For more information about Operation Eyesight’s trachoma projects, visit www.operationeyesight.com.

Operation Eyesight is a Canadian international development organization dedicated to preventing and treating blindness throughout the world for more than 45 years – primarily in South Asia and Africa. We help local medical professionals provide comprehensive, sustainable eye care and community development for the people of the world who can least afford it. Since 1963, Operation Eyesight has restored sight to more than two million people and provided blindness prevention services to nearly 33 million others. For more information, visit www.operationeyesight.com.

Global Blindness – Every five seconds, one person in our world goes blind and a child goes blind every minute. More than 90 per cent of the world’s blind people live in developing countries, where day-to-day life is already challenging and blindness is a direct threat to life. About 80 per cent of this blindness is preventable or treatable.

Source – NewsWire

Summit on the Summit

Just in case you haven't seen this yet, definitely check out the Summit on the Summit:

http://www.summitonthesummit.com/

Ridiculously well-designed website for a great cause.

Check out the "Sponsor a Foot" feature and write them a big check.

"Water, Conflict and Cooperation" - Panel this Wednesday 12-2pm

Please join Catholic Relief Services and the Environmental Change and Security Program for a discussion entitled:

“Water, Conflict and Cooperation: Practical Concerns for Water Development Projects"

on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 from Noon to 2:00pm at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Lunch will be provided at 11:30AM.

The presentations and discussions will be on emerging conflict issues in international water development projects. Issues of water scarcity, access to water supplies, pollution of water sources and transboundary water management are increasingly the basis of water disputes, political manipulation and, in worst cases, outright conflict. In the course of these disputes, traditional community practices and human rights often are ignored and the natural environment may become degraded. The challenge to the development community is to ensure that peacebuilding principles of equity, justice and reconciliation are applied to water conflicts to prevent and, if necessary, mitigate these situations. The panelists will explore the incorporation of peacebuilding interventions in water projects. A new CRS publication Water and Conflict (PDF here), highlighting many of these issues, will be provided for participants.

Event Information:

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
5th floor Board Room (Food is allowed in this room)
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004 USA

PLEASE NOTE: The attendee overflow space will be in the 6th floor boardroom. Food is not allowed in this room.

Registration is required for this event. RSVP to ecsp@wilsoncenter.org with your name and affiliation. If you are interested, but unable to attend the event, please tune into the live or archived webcast at www.wilsoncenter.org. The live webcast will begin approximately ten minutes after the posted meeting time. You will need Windows Media Player to watch the webcast. To download the free player, visit:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download.

Location:

Woodrow Wilson Center at the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW ("Federal Triangle" stop on Blue/Orange Line), 6th floor Moynihan Board Room.

A map to the Center is available at www.wilsoncenter.org/directions.

Note: Due to heightened security, entrance to the building will be restricted and photo identification is required. Please allow additional time to pass through security.

Water.org is hiring - DC and Kansas City

It seems like this blog is turning into a job-posting site, but I imagine that's a proxy indicator for a growing water and sanitation sector so no complaints.

Two more from Water.org (Gary White and Matt Damon's shop):

Program Manager. We are looking for an experienced and highly skilled Program Manager to work with our International Programs team and manage our Haiti program, among other duties. Master’s or Ph.D preferred, as well as knowledge of French, at least two years of relevant work experience in Haiti, and at least five years of relevant experience with development, water and sanitation, microfinance, and/or nonprofit organizations. This full-time position will be based in Kansas City, MO, with significant travel to Haiti and Central America. Open until filled. Read the full job announcement.

Partnership Manager. We are also looking for a highly-qualified Washington, D.C.-based Partnership Manager that will be responsible for the overall development, implementation, and promotion of relationships with U.S. government and other large-scale institutional donors, among other duties. Master’s level degree highly desirable, with at least 5-10 years in public or private nonprofit environment, including proposal development and writing for significant international projects as well as private and public grants. Relationships with U.S. government and other bi/multi-lateral institutional donors active in international development essential, and 1-2 years overseas experience in a developing country desirable. This position is full-time and will work with our International Programs team. Open until filled. Read the full job announcement.

Imagine H2O is hiring...

Very interesting job opening at Imagine H2O in the Bay Area:

Imagine H20 is a non-profit seeking to accelerate adoption of new water technology in the marketplace. The organization does this by:

• Education
• Awareness
• Building a stakeholder community
• Sponsoring various prize competitions

Imagine H2O’s first prize involves Water Efficiency and the contest is underway now. Funding is currently coming from The Royal Bank of Canada for the first three years.

Imagine H20 is looking for a COO who is:

• entrepreneurial but operational – ideally, someone who has worked at a startup
• a good communicator (has to be the public face of the organization)
• can inspire volunteers and can command respect at the Fortune 500 level (existing sponsors are major companies) and who can manage a staff of volunteers
• able to fundraise (and who likes doing it/has done it) via non-profit experience, sponsorships, or even angel and VC funding experiences)
• passionate about the struggle to provide clean water to people (needs to convey the mission passionately to all stake holders all the time)
• able to work in San Francisco

Please send me a note for the complete description if you want, or reach out directly to:

Daniel McGrath
danielm {{at}} conceptc.com