Partner Exchange Meeting 2013 Environmental Sustainability Event and

10year Celebration

in Amsterdam, the Netherlands December 10, 2013 to December 12, 2013

Background

Since RAIN Foundation was set up in 2003 the focus of our programme has been twofold: on the one hand on

implementation of rain water harvesting (RWH) projects to provide safe drinking water and on the other hand on

the setup of Rainwater Harvesting Capacity Centres (RHCC) – centres that coordinate the on-the-ground

implementation and act as knowledge hub and lobby and advocacy partner. RAIN’s ambition is to mainstream

RWH and to disseminate knowledge and experiences with RWH. Since 2003, RAIN has been active in Senegal,

Burkina Faso, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Nepal. In the past years, RAIN has organized yearly RHCC

meetings to discuss opportunities for upscaling of its activities in country programmes and to exchange

experiences and knowledge between the different countries.

Now, ten years after the start of RAIN Foundation, the scope of our work has shifted considerably: from

concentrating on water for drinking water mostly on household level, we have gradually moved towards Multiple

Use Services (MUS) and towards a catchment perspective (3R) with an environmental sustainability focus. Our

current focus is on the integrated use and management of the rainwater potential within a landscape for

domestic and productive use as well as restoration of the natural environment. Our way of working also evolved:

from managing implementation programmes we are now more focused on mobilising and strengthening a range

of existing rainwater harvesting networks to undertake collective action and on providing a knowledge hub via

rain4food.net. This exchange platform incites people from all sectors to come together, learn and share good

practices of RWH.

We believe that in the past decade a basis has been created for RWH to be taken to the next level and that our

current efforts will help boost the global RWH movement. Strategic partnerships now need to be forged to

facilitate water harvesting in all its dimensions.

Objective

The yearly RHCC meetings have been very valuable in terms of improving ourselves at what we are doing in the

countries and also in terms of creating a team spirit between RAIN PMU and RHCC’s from all over the world.

However these RHCC meetings are always, by character, rather inward looking: focused on local implementation

by RAIN´s partner network and confined by donor related scope limitations. This year, we will limit the internal

meeting to half a day in which internal programme issues with our RHCCs and main partners will be discussed.

This meeting is for RAIN partners only.

This year, instead of having a regular RHCC meeting, we want to broaden our focus. The objective of the Partner

Exchange Meeting 2013 is to bring together strategic partners from out of our global network to see how we

can jointly further upscale rainwater harvesting.

During two days the discussion will be dedicated to:

o Upscaling water retention, reuse and recharge (3R) at catchment level to creates a win-win situation in terms of

both environment and socio-economic wellbeing.

o Developing a RWH programme which boosts business development while it ensures at the same time

environmentally and socially sound practices.

o Moving from NGO driven programmes to Public Private Partnerships.

o Active and open knowledge sharing on rainwater harvesting.

The invited strategic partners to the Partner Exchange Meeting 2013 (PEM2013) have a strong interest in

rainwater harvesting in combination with environmental sustainability, WASH, food security and business

development and all have different areas of expertise within this realm. Some are active on a national level and

are more practical field oriented while others are active on an international or more thematic level. Bringing

together these different perspectives on the common goal of sustainably upscaling rainwater harvesting for water

and food security and environmental protection will inspire us all to develop innovative and positive ideas to

reach that aspiration.

During the PEM2013, we will strive for practical execution with quick wins at hand. Next to developing a shared

strategy, we will also develop a joint agenda and activity plan 2014 -2015.

On Thursday, the participants will join and be inspired by an excursion to a Dutch example of RWH. In the

evening, an Environmental Sustainability Event is organised by RAIN Foundation, in collaboration with the Dutch

WASH Alliance (www.washalliance.nl) and with Pakhuis de Zwijger, platform for creation and innovation

(www.dezwijger.nl). This event will be an interactive debate, open to the large public, on environmental

sustainability of water projects, shedding light on water from a circular economy perspective and on reverse

innovation. Some of the participants of the PEM2013 will be asked to participate actively during this E-event, by

showcasing their experiences as examples for Amsterdam or by being part of a panel.

The PEM2013 will be closed with the celebration of RAIN’s 10-year anniversary, celebrating a past decade of

achievements and a coming decade of aspiration!

Agenda outline

December 10, 2013 December 11, 2013 December 12, 2013

@RAIN Office @RAIN Office @Polderdak @Pakhuis de Zwijger

09.00 - 12.30: part1 PEM2013

09.00 - 12.30: part3 PEM2013

09.00 - 13.30: excursion

Lunch included Lunch included 13.30 - 19.00: free/no programme

13.00 - 17.30: part2 PEM2013

13.00 - 17.30: part4 PEM2013

19.00 - 22.00: Environmental Sustainability Event

Evening: free (dinner own choice and expenses)

Evening: free (dinner own choice and expenses)

22.00 – 01.00: RAIN 10 year party

Participants

# country organisation keywords Who Position web

1 Burkina Faso

VDS Food security. RWH. Natural resource management.

Abdouramane Diallo Program Manager

http://vds-burkina.net

2 Nepal BSP Nepal /RHCC

Lobby, RWH policy development, knowledge exchange. RWH and biogas. RWH and microfinance.

Indira Shakya Board Member BSP Nepal; Program Manager RHCC

www.bspnepalrhcc.org

3 Kenya SASOL Sand dams Mutinda Munguti CEO www.sasolfoundation.co.ke

4 Uganda JESE Sustainable agriculture and natural resource management.

Teddy Twine Program Manager

www.jese.org

5 Ethiopia Ripple Knowledge management, research and capacity development in WASH and food security

Deres Abdulkadir CEO www.rippleethiopia.org

6 Mali Helvetas SI Mali/ RHCC

WASH, RWH. Yacouba Diallo Program Manager

7 Kenya ICRAF/ Searnet

RWH linking and learning. Maimbo Malesu Programme Coordinator

http://worldagroforestry.org/projects/searnet/

8 Somalia RAAS Rainwater harvesting capacity development, lobby and implementation

Ahmed Mohamed Abdi

CEO www.gharainwater.org/somalia-raas/

9 Burkina Faso

iDE Burkina Faso

Enterprise development in WASH and food security. Rural marketing. MUS.

Laurent Stravato Country Director

www.ideorg.org

10 Ethiopia HoA-REC&N Regreening, landscape restoration

Almaz Tadesse Programme Coordinator

www.hoarec.org

11 Senegal Caritas Kaolack

Programme management RWH, RAINCap project, innovation

Gilbert Sene Program Manager

www.caritas-senegal.org

12 India Akvo Asia Hub

WASH Wiki. Openaid. Mobile phone based FLOW field monitoring. Really Simple Reporting.

Amitangshu Acharya Program Manager

www.akvo.org

13 India Rainwater Club

India, RWH, knowledge sharing, innovation and sustainability

Srikantaiah Viswanath

CEO www.rainwaterclub.org

14 Nepal Helvetas SI Nepal

Water Use Master Plan and 3R. Food security.

Juerg Merz Country Director

http://nepal.helvetas.org

15-21

NL RAIN rainwater harvesting entire team www.rainfoundation.org; www.rain4food.net