Last week marked a critical turning point in the life cycle of the Nigeria WASH in Schools grant application. I have made a point of the fact that this grant is the last of a long series of similar grants, some of which have already been approved and completed. So, the application and submission process should have been easy. Or at least it appeared that way. Apparently, at just about the time Patty Hall and I began collaborating on getting the grant submitted, RI concluded that while all Global Grants have always needed to be designed with Sustainability in mind, the standard for what constitutes “sustainable” needed to be adjusted upward.
I understand this. All along, as I have gone from club to club asking for financial support for our grant, people have been asking questions, such as, “How do you know that the equipment you install and the training you deliver will result in continued proper maintenance and use of the equipment?” Or, “What makes you think that you will be able to change long-standing customs and behaviors that have not placed value on sanitation and hygiene?” Then, there’s, “How do you know the local PTAs at the schools will really be able to afford to supply hand soap and cleaning equipment for the long term?”
To all these questions, I have thus far answered that five years of training and support is a lot, and we have to have some faith that after all that training and mentorship by local Nigerian Rotarians, their efforts to introduce new attitudes and practices will be rewarded with durable commitment to change. But even as I’ve said these things, I’ve understood that there is some likelihood that the new ways just wouldn’t stick. Our efforts at sustainability are better in most cases than those of well-meaning predecessors who have installed wells, toilets, storage tanks, etc., before us. But many of their projects have ultimately failed, and that’s why we’re involved now.
Patty and I wondered aloud why the grant immediately preceding ours had not received final approval at the RI level. Getting in touch with Nancy Gilbert, who has been shepherding that grant through the approval process from her location in Canada, we learned that RI had asked her those same kinds of questions, and was requiring that she supply much more detailed information about the training and how the PTAs would fund their commitments. But most importantly, they were asking for training and sustainability plans individually tailored to each school, and with time horizons of not five years, but ten.
So, the rules have changed, and a higher standard has been established. The Canadian-sponsored grant has been modified, submitted, and approved. Our Rotarians in Nigeria and their Implementing Partner (the non-profit, PIND) have worked hard at complying with the new rules and have developed four of the five individualized training and sustainability plans needed for inclusion in our grant request. Meanwhile the money from local clubs has been raised, and we are poised to resubmit a grant that we are confident will be approved.
To top it off, on April 16th and 28th, Anoop and I will attend Grants Management and Global Grants workshops, and in so doing, will qualify our club as a Global Grant sponsor in 2020. So, it is a very exciting time for this grant and, I hope, for our club.