Interview by Amanda Gibbins

Hope Annette Namaganda is an mWater data manager based in Uganda. She also works as the research and innovations officer for the Global Forum for Development (GLOFORD).

She recently travelled with the rest of the Ugandan mWater team to train new mWater users, as part of an early stages program in Zimbabwe.

How did you get involved with mWater?

I was finishing up with school at the University, studying public health, and then GLOFORD and mWater came in. mWater contracted me for a part-time contract collecting data within Lira district.

When data management came in, I was pleased because in all the fields that are related with health, we are continuously having data, and how to handle that data has become very important, countrywide and globally. So my experience with mWater is really taking me to heights and developing an interest in me that I think is going to be very impactful.

I started with mWater, then eventually I was absorbed into GLOFORD. Now I’m working as their research and innovations officer.

How did you find the experience of training the team in Zimbabwe?

So we were very happy when I received the invitation from Dr. Annie telling us about training in Zimbabwe. John told us it's the first time mWater was going to be starting out on mapping dams. And we were excited because in Lira and Pader we were working on mainly point water sources like boreholes, shallow wells. But this time, he was talking dams! We were very excited how it would roll out.

We had a couple of meetings to discuss how the process would go. And then we met up with Sydney Hubbard and it was amazing. We traveled to Zimbabwe and then we started out with the training. We were working closely with the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, the Department of Irrigation and the Environmental Management Authority. All these were under the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands because Zimbabwe relies heavily on agriculture for their economic development.

Interacting at an international level was really fun. We met many friends. What was really outstanding was that the people we went to train were really interested in it. This infrastructure, by the way, it was my first time seeing such a big dam, it was really something. So they told us, it is really important to always go on with the monitoring of these dams. And that's why mWater was coming on board. It was a partnership between mWater, the government of Zimbabwe and the World Bank.

I can say half of the people I interacted with were young people. They had fun, they made surveys together, and we analyzed data together. They still stay in touch whenever there is a question or two, and others have gone ahead to use the application in their academic research, and we also told them about Solstice. When you know mWater, you basically know Solstice. I get a couple of messages whenever there are some challenges they're having. Then we contact Petri and we see how to traverse them. It's really amazing. They are still being exposed to learning new things. Sometimes they also ask me things which I hadn't explored. That's when I run to Petri. Oh, he's really good. He's always available.

How many people were you training in Zimbabwe?

There were close to thirty because there were different departments. Each department was sending in representatives. There were thirty participants plus members of the World Bank.

After the training we actually went to all these dams, collecting the data together with people who were trained. And then at the end of the one week, Sydney analyzed the data and presented it to the top officials who were involved in the major decision making.

How did mWater respond to feedback in the field?

We had a tool we were supposed to be using, which was developed by the World Bank. Most of its aspects were in line with the goal it was achieving, and that was prioritization and rehabilitation of dams. But as we continued, the learners were continuously telling us some of the aspects they would love to have in the mWater application to help them map out an entire infrastructure. Because a dam can be as wide as 35m in radius, and there are dams which are not only made of one major wall but it has more than one. So, they kept on advising us on how they would love to visualize for instance, the crest wall or the dam height. Something like a weighing gauge may be 1km down from the infrastructure and then there may be a canal attached, which leads to some irrigation schemes.

We kept on developing and modifying and by the time we left, many of the things we had discussed were in mWater and others were under development, John was working on them.

Could you tell me about the work you do with GLOFORD and mWater?

The Global Forum for Development is a national NGO, which deals in mainly youth leadership and development, community health, and sexual reproductive health. It deals with child protection, poverty reduction, voice, governance and accountability, and also organizational development. Our vision is to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

In the first partnership with GLOFORD, mWater was working to collect and update the Ministry of Water and Environment database. So we would go out and collect the latest information about each water source within the region. That was in Lira district mainly, which is made up of eight sub counties. We reached out to every sub county, going to every parish, every village and every water point. We would move all around collecting the latest data about those water sources, including those which were functional and those which cannot function.

The second engagement was when the Ministry of Water and Environment asked for Pader district to be part of the mWater pilot. This time I wasn't so much in the field, I would just go once in a while for spot checking. I was by then working as a data manager. So we got a couple of young, enthusiastic, energetic people from within the local locality of Pader, who knew how to speak the language, and had been to most parts of the area.

We would then clean up the data within the mWater software, and analyze it. We created a variety of dashboards, which we would share on a weekly basis, or sometimes bi weekly with the district, because the water office became very interested with the work we were doing. In fact, they were so interested that during the training of the enumerators, they were very involved and they also certified on mWater. Very soon we look forward to going back and disseminating the results to them and giving them the authority over that data.

We are still in touch with the water office. They were happy that they were able to go to a computer, click on a water source in an area they know, see its name, and it pops up with the images, and is showing the latest information.

Can you tell me about the opportunities that mWater offered to local youth and graduates?

I'll start with myself because I was also employed by mWater at first and I was a fresh graduate. I was really so pleased with the opportunity. You know, as you're leaving university, you're not so sure what's coming but when an opportunity like that presents itself, I was really glad. The experience I got was really outstanding in that I could move out to the different areas within Lira. Right now I think I've moved to every part of Lira district.

The networks I got to form while I was moving, they're helping me now because I moved deep down into the local villages, and met with the local leaders. It has helped to synergize the work that I'm doing with GLOFORD now.

I also got a real interest in data, and enrolled for another postgraduate course.

People we employed in Pader, many of them have returned to us telling us how they've really benefited. Having mWater on a CV is superb and highly marketable. MWater gives youth and local graduates a sense of experience first and then a sense of what they can do for the country, what they can do in their lives.

What difference has introducing mWater made in Uganda?

After our findings in Pader showed that the water coverage was much lower than 95%, it drew the attention of the decision makers. And I think it is really important throughout the country. There are many districts which are suffering with the same problems. And if most of them are able to reach out and have their data updated, and also continuous monitoring of water point access, it won't be as big a challenge as it is now.

Tell me about your experience with the mWater team

I've met physically with Dr. Annie and John and Sydney. They've been amazing, and they're really cool, very hard working people. I've met Petri in calls and meetings, he’s very committed, very passionate. They are really determined on using the platform that they have to achieve sustainable data management of WASH infrastructure. Because once we have a say on that data, once we have evidence, it becomes very easy to take decisions and very easy to make the right decisions on what can be done.