James Kisekka (C) received award from Titia Wouters (L) & Dick Bouman (R)

From November 20th – 24th, leaders of 26 VIA Water funded projects gathered in Accra, Ghana, to share skills and learn from each other and from facilitators. The seminar touched upon different topics including leadership, communication and marketing, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management, and project management in general. At the start of the seminar, project leaders made a 1-minute pitch of their project, while knowledge sharing between and among projects continued throughout the seminar.

At the end of the seminar, project leaders were asked to nominate the most innovative among the projects represented. Together with a project promoting smart public toilets in Ghana, Rain4sale Rwanda emerged joint winner of the “most innovative project award”. Among other attributes, the project leaders felt Rain4sale Rwanda involves “a great business model, connecting rainwater harvesting to making profits from what is received free”. The project aims to provide proof of concept that rainwater harvesting can be a self-financing and profitable business.