The Nakuru Accord

Things can, and do, go wrong in water, sanitation and hygiene. In July 2018, an event at the Water Engineering Development Centre Conference in Nakuru, Kenya, “Blunders, Bloopers and Foul-ups: A WASH Game Show” inspired a call for WASH Professionals to publicly commit to sharing their failures and learning from one another. Attendees from the event and other WASH professionals have jointly developed:

The Nakuru Accord: failing better in the WASH sector

Transparency and accountability are necessary for achieving sustainable, positive impacts from water, sanitation and hygiene. As a WASH professional, I believe that we can achieve this through a culture of sharing and adaptation when things go wrong. To support this, I will:

  • Promote a culture of sharing and learning that allows people to talk openly when things go wrong.
  • Be fiercely transparent and hold myself accountable for my thinking, communication and action.
  • Build flexibility into funding requests to allow for adaptation.
  • Design long-term monitoring and evaluation that allows sustainability to be assessed.
  • Design in sustainability by considering the whole life cycle.
  • Actively seek feedback from all stakeholders, particularly end-users.
  • Recognise that things go wrong, and willingly share these experiences, including information about contributing factors and possible solutions, in a productive way.
  • Critically examine available evidence, recognising that not all evidence is created equal.
  • Write and speak in plain language, especially when discussing what has gone wrong.

Please click here if you would like to sign The Nakuru Accord.

You can download a high resolution version of the Accord and stick it on your wall/door to spread the word and keep yourself accountable

We also suggest adding to your email signature: I am a signatory to The Nakuru Accord: I believe that things can and do go wrong in WASH and I promote a culture of sharing and adaptation.

Signatories to The Nakuru Accord

Current signatories: 329 Individuals | 27 Organisations | 1 Event

*Please note that if you signed The Nakuru Accord before 17th March 2022, we need your permission to share your name on this website (as you originally only granted us permission to share your name on The University of Leeds WASH Blog). You are still being counted as a signatory, but if you would like your name to be published here, please sign again (using a new form) by clicking here.*

Acago Bernadette Virginia

Ong Adig

Dale Andreatta

Abdul Azam

Balogun Hameedat Shade

Philip Banda

Sanjay Banka

Dr Dani Barrington

BASEflow

Cara Beal

Joanne Beale

Leonel Alberto Guitian Berniser

Dr Amita Bhakta

Titilola Bright-oridami

Clarissa Brocklehurst

James Brown

Jasmine Burton

Habib Chaieb

Munyaradzi Charuka

Vincent Chireh

Scott Daniel

Martin Ede

Alisha Erwin

Rebecca Evans

Franck Flachenberg

FLUSH

Dr Mat Francis

Claire Grisaffi

Fredrick Owino Gudda

Chilala Haankuku

James Harper, PE, ENV SP

Tom Heath

John Heelham

Jan Hennigs

Lucia Henry

Hélène Higgins

Andrés Hueso González

Rick Johnston

Rangaiya Kanaganathan

Chilala H. Kapulu

Mofwe Kapulu

Tendai Kativhu

Rémi Kaupp

Abjata Khalif

Jenny Lamb

Land and Water Bolivia Ltda

Dennis Langat

Kimberly Lemme

John Macharia

Fungai Makoni 

Moses Mathenge

Martin N Mawejje

Onike Mcharo

Melese Mengistu

Chad Midnight

Mobile Alert Toilets Limited

Raesibe Anna Mothapo

Ratidzaishe Tracy Mupinga

Dr Kate Neely

Lugard Kaunda Ogaro

Ejike Okafor

Robert Osir Otieno

Aldo Yael Zamarroni Peralta

Elias Phiri

Alana Potter

Yves Etienne Rakotoarison

Hassane Dan Rani

Mohammed Rashid

Dr Kristin T. Ravndal

Brian Reed

Joseph Sabiiti

Matthias Saladin

Ruth Salmon

Sanitation Learning Hub

Sydney Sapper

John Sauer

Lars Schoebitz

Rebecca Scott

Esther Shaylor

Prithvi Simha

Dr Rebecca Sindall

Shobana Srinivasan

Puneet Kumar Srivastava

Taita Dew Purified Drinking Water

Transform International/Rotary

Uganda Civil Aviation Authority

Oghenetejiri Sweetheart Utake

Naomi Vernon

Peter Vikesland

Kimberly Worsham

WASH Solutions

Reto Way