Participants from government ministries expressed interest in integrating the course into their capacity building efforts Photo by IRC WASH
Attendees emphasised the importance of collaboration when disseminating the WASH and Nutrition Nexus: The Basics course, as well as the integration of WASH and nutrition initiatives.
Published on: 30/09/2025
“While taking the course and learning about malnutrition, I went to my six-month-old baby and measured his mid-upper arm circumference to check if he is malnourished or normal. The course is that informative and knowledge-giving,” said Zewdu Seifu, who completed the WASH and Nutrition course. He shared this reflection during the WASH and Nutrition Nexus: The Basics validation and launch workshop held on September 25, 2025, in Addis Ababa.
The 2.5–hour WASH and Nutrition Nexus: The Basics course is the result of a broad collaboration. Max Foundation, IRC WASH, Plan International, the Seqota Declaration Programme, the Government of Ethiopia, Right2Grow, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Healthy Village Ethiopia consortium all contributed their expertise, ensuring that the content reflects practical experiences and proven strategies from a variety of contexts and implementation scales.
The workshop brought together representatives from the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Education, and Water and Energy, as well as the Ethiopian Water Technology Institute and partner organisations working in water, sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition. Presentations on the WASH Systems Academy and the newly developed course, including its Amharic translation, sparked lively discussion among participants.
Attendees emphasised the importance of collaboration when disseminating the course and integrating water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and nutrition initiatives.They recommended that the course be offered to leaders at the national level and to professionals at regional, zonal, and woreda levels, highlighting the value of its foundational concepts for shaping future WASH and nutrition programs.
Government representatives pledged to integrate the newly developed and translated WASH and Nutrition Nexus: The Basics course into their capacity building efforts, and further recommended translating the course into additional local languages to broaden its reach. They also emphasised that blended training of trainers (ToT) sessions would strengthen the capacity of these ministries to cascade knowledge to the woreda level, thereby addressing existing knowledge gaps.
The translated course is now available on the WASH Systems Academy.
