Interview by Amanda Gibbins

We interviewed Bwambale whilst he was in the field facilitating some training with 100 young people in Lira, Uganda.

Bwambale is a data manager for mWater in Uganda. He recently travelled to Zimbabwe with two other mWater managers, to train Zimbabwean personnel in the mWater app and portal.

Could you tell me more about your job?

I work with GLOFORD Uganda as a design, monitoring and evaluation officer. My major core roles are to do with data monitoring, data evaluation, impact monitoring, but also issues to do with research and innovations in the department. I also do more of the resource mobilization for the organization, and also documentation of change stories, and of our successes.

With mWater, my time has been quite exciting. Dr Annie entrusted me with that responsibility while I was still in school. I've been working as the data manager in Lira and Pader district. My responsibilities are to train data collectors, deploy them, and then do quality control of the data, and other activities assigned to me by the CEO of mWater.

Could you tell me more about your visit to Zimbabwe with mWater?

Well, okay, let me start with the exciting aspects of it. One, it was my first time flying on a plane…

So growing up, I kept hearing stories of the plane, and how you’re flying on top of the sky, and it’s so beautiful. When you’re above the clouds you look down and the cities look like diamonds and pearls during the night. And I was like, ‘wow, when do I get this experience?’. So then Annie contacted me to say she wanted us to travel to Zimbabwe. When she confirmed that we would travel by plane, I was very excited, how could I miss out on this opportunity?

It was quite interesting, quite exciting to be up there on the plane flying to Zimbabwe, a foreign country. And it was not only the first time flying but also the first time getting out of Uganda because I've never gotten out of my country. So it was a great experience, and I got to meet new friends in Zimbabwe. It was also so exciting to know that the people in Zimbabwe appreciated the app, but also they appreciated our skills in delivery and the knowledge that we had of the application.

How did you go about training the new team?

In Zimbabwe, our main deliverables were two: to train the team, and then to help the team do some data collection. The team we were talking to were technical, and also very excited to know how they could better manage their information in regards to dams.

So we were training them on dam management, dam systems, and mapping in mWater. Our training was first generic; on the application, its user functions, how to create, maneuver and explore the different parts of the mWater application, how to collect data. We also trained them on the DRP tool for the dam. The first few days were class based sessions, but very practical. We explored the app with the audience, so they could follow from their phones or their computers and carry out operations or actions as you instruct.

Sometimes we discovered new things, learning from people as we were training them. Everyone learns, everyone is involved. And everyone becomes a master at the end. I'm very confident that the people that we trained right now are very competent and able to train others.

You don't need any technical or advanced skills with computing, coding, water engineering, software or computer ICT. Fortunately mWater has a provision to translate into many other different languages so you can explore the app in whichever language you understand, and self teach yourself.

We had one very interesting lady called Moline. She was always ahead of us because she would go back in the evening and do more reading or explore the app more. So by the time she came to class the next day, she already knew where we were going and what to do.

The third and fourth day, we went into the field and did practical dam monitoring. We'd train the team on how to find the dam, and if they couldn’t, how to create it on their mWater app. We also taught them how to access a form, update a form and submit it back to the managers.

Some key issues that came out from the training were to do with confidentiality and data security. Most of the trainees were bothered by that, but in our explanations we showed them how you can secure the mWater app. We showed them the permission levels and how you can limit actions by unauthorized users. And when we did this, we were able to raise their confidence. They started to believe that mWater is a secure application, and any organization can manage their data and protect it from unauthorized use.

The team was so excited and interested in the application and they learned very fast. We had one gentleman called Elvis from the World Bank who was so creative. He wanted to innovate a lot in the application, he had many ideas for things to include or visualize.

We had members from all the Departments of Agriculture, who were interested to know how you could use the application to map agricultural farmland, show the spread or dispersions of farmland, and use it to map boundaries.

The people from the Department of Irrigation were interested in mapping irrigation systems to show how the irrigation networks operate. We will be discussing if we can make it possible in the future for them to visualize the networks online using mWater.

The dam mapping exercise itself was very hectic. We had to move more than 100 - 200 km a day, going to the site and coming back. By the time you reached a dam you were really tired, and then you were moving around the dam, getting to different aspects of the dam to include in the system. And coming back, usually you come back late and very exhausted and some days we used to have a debrief.

But besides that, I think we had a very exciting journey. Very interesting team, built very strong friendships. I was also able to use it as a form of tourism opportunity. I saw a lot of beautiful parts of Zimbabwe - the rocks, the hills, the dams, and their people. There are a lot of wonderful people in Zimbabwe.

Could you tell me more about the work that GLOFORD and mWater do around youth employment in Uganda?

Okay. So, the mWater methodology is quite interesting. The method of deployment is based on local available resources, local manpower, and local graduates within the communities. This has been very, very empowering, very successful in terms of improving young people's livelihoods and skills, and also aptitude in terms of learning new tools and new applications.

In Lira district, mWater worked with Lira University and GLOFORD to form a partnership or collaboration. We trained more than fifty young people. This included young graduates. These were brought into the system by GLOFORD, and the university was also able to give us some young students who were still in the process of studying.

They joined in the training and some of them actually went ahead to qualify to do the data collection. I think they earned a lot of skills and income for that.

Among the people that were trained, we were able to sieve down to around thirty young people, including many young graduates and also some students who were still in university. It was a diverse range of young people from various departments: public health, water and engineering, social sciences, and computing. These are the people that collected data in Lira.

They did household surveys where they collected household data from about 3200 water points, and they mapped more than 1500 households.

One of the young people was able to pay her tuition with the money that she earnt from mWater. But I also know others who went ahead to get to work with Aquaya, which also had come to Lira at that time. Dr Annie was able to connect some young people and some of them have progressed through that very chain of connections and are working with organizations like the UNHCR in the refugee areas, and on issues to do with water system mapping, and quality improvement in general.

Far more exciting, through that very system, we got Hope Annette Namaganda. She's now a manager and recently she got the opportunity to fly to Zimbabwe with us. So for the first time, flying out of Uganda! It was quite exciting and for a young person like her and someone like me also, it's a great experience. So I believe mWater’s system of hiring, recruitment and employment is very, very efficient and very good for us.

Could you tell me more about mWater’s work with young people in Pader District, Uganda

After Lira, we did a great job and were able to move on to work in Pader district, using the same approach. But the difference was that we did not work with a public institution, because Pader district has very few public institutions that are functional and up to speed. So we couldn't find an institution to work with.

But we put up an advert that called in for young people and we got more than 190 young people who applied. They had diverse skills - there were nurses applying, clinical officers, and a clergyman; a man of God was there collecting data for mWater.

Out of all those that applied, we managed to sieve out the best fifty, who we subjected to two days training. After that, we got the best twenty and were able to deploy them in the field to collect data, which they did over a period of three or four weeks. And I'm so happy that we were able to engage these young people. Just like Lira, four were still at the university, some were already in the communities not having much to do and looking for work. This was a great opportunity. Some actually used the money they got from mWater to start up farming businesses. And the certificates they got from mWater were able to help them situate jobs somewhere else. So this is quite a great experience. And I'm very proud to share and say that mWater has done great.

How is mWater being used in Lira and Pader now?

The system that mWater uses also capacitates districts and cities and town boards to be able to use this tool to manage their own data locally. We empower users of this app, or the custodians of this data, especially the district water committees. Some of the district water officers and people from the ministries, especially the Ministry of Water, have been trained in this application and tool.

Interestingly, the biostatisticians of Lira district are actually using the tool to collect health related data. There is a program here in Uganda called the House Improvement Programme, who go into communities and collect household information to do with sanitation, water supply and hygiene. They have been working on developing that survey to use in mWater.

I know some people who are using mWater for their master's research in areas related to health, and some students from Lira University have been reaching out to use the application to collect data.

At GLOFORD, we use the application to collect WASH related data, but also to do some internal data collection. Recently I conducted an internal capacity assessment for the staff using the mWater tool. We did mapping of persons with disabilities using the tool. It's a tool that can do a lot of work.

University professors at Lira University have gone ahead to adopt mWater into their own research. So I've had different professors, from the Department of Management Science, Department of Education and Public Health, reach out to me to guide them on the mWater tool and how they can use it more for their data collection.

Could you tell me more about the impact of the Lira data results?

The results were quite fascinating, and thought provoking. It brought attention to a lot of details that were not being considered. For example, the household data looked at issues to do with household distribution, and access to water. And the results were actually so interesting that the city officials wanted to see how they could visualize the distribution of water points and households, to use this data for water improvement. During the discussion, a lot of recommendations were put up with regards to how this information can inform planning. An official from the district planning office said that they would use the information and data from the household survey to inform their planning for the next year in terms of distribution of water services, and also hygiene programming.

There were also issues raised in regards to the big differences between the national statistical data on household hygiene and the data presented in the household survey results. At the end of the second day we had to bring in officials who were in charge of service delivery to explain the deviations.

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Binepe Bwambale - Experiences of training mWater use