The climate change and inclusive WASH online course

Climate change is the new operating context, and heavily impacts on delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. For those concerned with assessing and responding to climate impacts on WASH, there’s an imperative to learn rapidly across many different settings.

With support from Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Water for Women Fund, University of Technology Sydney’s The Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF) has launched a free self-paced online course on climate change and inclusive WASH. This course provides participants with a foundational understanding of the links between WASH, gender and social inclusion (GSI), and climate change. It also builds participants’ capacity to address climate impacts in WASH programming and service delivery at sub-national and local levels.

The course bridges from research evidence to practice – drawing on multiple recent UTS-ISF climate change research initiatives and partnerships, including with Water for Women partners, IDS Sanitation Learning Hub, SNV, UNICEF and others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In particular, the course:

  • Introduces key climate change and concepts about gender equality, disability and social inclusion;
  • Presents evidence on the links between climate change, GSI, and WASH drawing on UTS-ISF research and the latest thinking in the field of global environmental change;
  • Provides training on the use of practical tools to assess and respond to climate impacts on WASH in a gender and socially inclusive way; and
  • Provides an opportunity for participants to share their own thoughts and experiences on climate change, GSI, and WASH.

The online course is focused on assessing and responding to climate impacts on WASH at sub-national and local levels, so is most relevant for WASH professionals including civil society organisation (CSO) Program Managers, Project Managers, and WASH technical specialists; government staff (particularly subnational government) with WASH responsibilities; and students. The content is also of interest to central government staff and regional non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff with WASH responsibilities.

The course contains four core modules:

  1. The climate change challenge for WASH: What are the climate change problems that need to be overcome?
  2. Assessing climate impacts on WASH: How can we assess the actual and expected impacts of climate hazards on WASH at a local level?
  3. Responding to climate impacts in WASH service delivery: What actions can WASH stakeholders take to ensure WASH access is maintained or improved equitably under climate change?
  4. Building institutional capacity to support inclusive climate resilient WASH service delivery: How can CSOs and governments strengthen their capacity to support inclusive climate resilient WASH service delivery?

The course is ideal for WASH professionals and students who wish to strengthen their knowledge and skills on climate resilient inclusive WASH, and completion is rewarded with a certificate. The climate change and inclusive WASH course is open for enrolments.

With this course, UTS-ISF aims to contribute to building the capacity of the global WASH sector on addressing the impacts of climate change

Access the course