InM, in collaboration with Water.org, implemented an in-country exposure visit during 12-13 December 2021 in Rangpur and Thakurgaon districts which was participated by InM’s WCAD partner organisations. As a part of learning and gaining field-level operational experience on the WaterCredit Adoption (WCAD) programme, the exposure visit was organised by InM. It may be mentioned that the WCAD programme is currently being implemented by InM. Two successful partners of Water.org namely TMSS and RDRS were selected for the visit. These two partners are successfully implementing the WaterCredit programme for several years through which they have gained useful experience to share with other partners.
Under the WCAD programme, the participant partner organisations included IDF, SETU, BASA, BEES, CODEC, PMUK, SFDW, CDIP, DISA, and SDC; two senior staff from each partner participated in the exposure visit. InM facilitated the visit for creating opportunities for mutual learning by WCAD partner MFIs through which the partners got an opportunity to share their ideas and experiences regarding challenges and practical measures that could be adopted to facilitate effective implementation of the WCAD programme.
The objective of the visit was to learn WASH activities of Water.org partners, types of water and sanitation products being adopted in the plain land, awareness raising and borrower selection process, area selection criteria, loan disbursement process and related activities, WaterCredit loan celling, technical assistance, staff and beneficiaries training and capacity building process, water and sanitation product installation and maintenance process etc. In addition, RDRS and TMSS WaterCredit programmes were also discussed and on-sight visits were made to the programme areas. For InM, the aim was to create a strong bridge among the partner organisations so that all MFI partners could gain practical knowledge, ideas and experience from successful partners of Water.org.
During the exposure visit, the participants attended group meetings, courtyard sessions, and visited households to observe WASH interventions and share experiences of the borrowers. During the discussion sessions in the Kobirajhat branch of RDRS in Thakurgaon and Bhabanipur branch at Badorgonj of TMSS in Rangpur, overall implementation process and achievement of the programme, challenges in implementing WaterCredit programme, strategies to overcome the challenges, threats and opportunities, programme monitoring and evaluation process, programme outcomes/impacts, reporting system etc. were discussed.
Furthermore, the participants also gained experience from classroom trainings/visits, discussion with branch managers on WSS loan disbursement process, with field officers on programme monitoring, with higher officials about management strategies and feedback, opportunity of WaterCredit programme etc. A total of 20 participants from InM WCAD partner MFIs participated in this exposure visit which enabled them to gather useful field level experience on overall WaterCredit programme implementation. With successful ending of the visit, the participants seem to have instilled useful motivation and practical knowledge to adopt new leanings to implement and achieve the WCAD programme goals for respective organisations.
