Manual drilling of a new borehole using the SHIPO jetting technology
Training the local private sector in
Simple, Market based, Affordable, and Repairable Technologies
The SMART Centre Group
The SMART Centre Group is a group of SMART centres. These Centres are located in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Niger, and Nicaragua. These centres are coordinated by MetaMeta and apply the so called SMART approach which is a combination of:
- Innovation. market-based and low cost technologies (SMARTechs)
- Training. Build local capacity (women and men) in technical and business skills
- Self-supply. Reach the unserved with subsidies, others to invest themselves
With funds of the Dutch-government this approach was recently evaluated by IRC wich indicated that this approach reaches the SDG6.1 target group in small rural communities that are not reached with other delivery models and that it contribute to SDGs for Poverty, Food, Gender and Climate.
Also with a cost of $25/ person for CapEx, reaching SDG6.1 in these situation is 2 to 6 times less than reaching this target group with the conventional approach. The potential of the SMART approach is proven in several African countries and experiences and potential of self-supply is described in the book “Self-supply” and based on decades of field experience with failures but increasingly also success.
Our main principles are:
Quality in technologies
Most SMARTechs are simple but a hard lesson learned is; “Simple is not easy”. Details are important. Products disseminated via a SMART Centre need to be technically sound and approved by the SMART Centre Group.
Quality in training and management
Manuals for and trainers in production, installation etc. should be of good quality. Good management is essential and a SMART Centre should generate income and become self sustaining.
Cooperation
A SMART Centre cooperates with a local partner in each country, agrees with the vision and mission of the SMART Centre Group and cooperates with the other members.
To become a member of the SMART Centre Group, conditions apply;
Recording of the Virtual Side Event UN Water – ‘Supporting Self supply’ – 23 March 2023
SMART WaSH Solutions in times of Corona from TheWaterChannel on Vimeo.
Highlights
Webinar: Supported self-supply: case studies from four continents
MetaMeta / SMART Centre Group will participate in a webinar on 'Supported self-supply: case studies from four continents' on June 18th, at 9.00AM CEST.
Self-supply exists in almost all countries around the world and in specific times and areas can be the dominant form of service provision. Nevertheless, information on this approach typically is scattered and hard to find – mostly due to the passive role of government and the lack of reporting/monitoring mechanisms. This webinar by the RWSN Self-Supply theme will explore the case studies of formal programs to support self-supply from four continents.
As part of the webinar, Henk Holtslag will present on the experiences of the SMART Centre Group in several countries in Southern Africa and Latin America.
Register through the website here.
Slides are available here.
For the full announcement 'read more'.
MetaMeta / SMART Centre Group at the COP28
Water & Food was an important topic at the COP28 in Dubai
The senior advisor of the MetaMeta SMART Centre Group (Henk Holtslag) is a Rotarian and was invited by Rotary International to present on 2 game changing water related ideas being;
A. "2with8". Safe water for 2 billion people with $8 billion, so a 1 time $4 grant/person This is possible with HWTS (Household Water Treatment and Safe storage) and especially household water filters. Promising examples include developments in Ethiopia that has a policy to scale Self-supply that includes HWTS. Presentation / One-pager
B. Deep Bed Farming & SMART water solutions
This presentation includes the example of Malawi where over 25.000 farmers apply DBF combined with Regenerative Agriculture and so increase yields of rainfed crops like maize from 2 to 6 tonnes / ha. The government now promotes DBF and likes to scale to 1 million DBF is an option to store water so adapt to climate change. Combined with low cost wells it has much potential to provide "basic water service" (SDG6.1) in rural areas and impact SDGs for poverty, food, gender and work. Also the eternal headache of pump maintenance is largely solved with this approach as proven in Zambia and other countries. Presentation / One Pager
read more
RWSN Webinar 20 June: Water for food, for drinking, and for rural development – examples at scale
We recently participated in an RWSN-organised webinar with the title: 'Water for food, for drinking, and for rural development - examples at scale'. Together with Colin Andrews of Tiyeni and Joshua Briemberg of the Nicaragua SMART Centre, Reinier Veldman participated in a discussion on the opportunies for Self-supply in the combination with soil and water conservation, such as Tiyeni's Deep Bed Farming method.
The recording of the webinar is available on the resources page and below.
Interested to support or join?