News & Learning

Setting the Pace for Better Health and Hygiene through WOBA

A few of our elderly beneficiaries

Thrive Networks is excited to announce that our Women-Led Output-Based (WOBA) program is now in full swing. After the program’s launch in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos late last year, we are pushing forward with building piped water systems and latrines for our partner communities and educating families about sanitation and hygiene. All our government and NGO partners are on board, committing funds and assigning staff for the program. WOBA has been well received and we’re constantly learning new things that will help us grow our impact.

Vietnam

In line with the national government’s policy changes for global NGO programs, we moved WOBA’s launch date from October to December. Even with our new timeline, we completed all initial meetings and secured the full support of our local government partners from our five project provinces (Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ben Tre, and Ha Tinh). We will soon finish partners’ training on our output-based aid approach and baseline surveys in our partner villages in these provinces.

Working with gender and disability experts, we gained valuable insights about households headed by women or include persons with disabilities (PWDs), children, and elderly members. We found that factors like low income, poor design, and location of services stopped them from using or accessing water and sanitation services. To better support these families, we will share a toolkit and handbook that focuses on barriers to water and sanitation and infrastructure design for PWDs by May.