WASH Online Trainings

WASH Online Trainings

PRO-WASH actively curates online trainings to assist the global WASH community. All courses are free of cost unless otherwise specified. If you have additional trainings you think would be useful for the WASH community, please send them to us at prowash@savechildren.org.

General WASH

Introduction to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) >>
Provider: UNICEF
Languages: English

In this 30-minute online course learn the purpose and importance of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs. This course was designed for UNICEF staff and is valuable for any humanitarian and development worker at all levels to learn the basics about WASH.

Introduction to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Emergencies >>
Provider: Save the Children
Languages: English

This course introduces the role and key activities of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in emergencies, including different aspects of WASH, and how they combine to reduce the risk of disease. The course also explains how cross-cutting issues are included in WASH programming and how WASH programming is included in other sectors of humanitarian response

Global WASH Cluster (GWC) Training for Humanitarian WASH Partners >>
Provider: GWC & UNICEF
Languages: Varies

The GWC has developed a training pathway for both WASH Cluster partners and staff involved in coordination. This training pathway includes the following e-learning and face-to-face courses, most of them available in UNICEF AGORA’s catalog.

Specialist Course: Advocating for Universal WASH Services >>
Provider: IRC
Languages: English

This 8-hour course helps you to get started or boost your advocacy for sustainable WASH services for all. Get inspired. The course is full of examples of advocacy for WASH. By the end of the course, you will have created parts of a draft strategy to kick off or refresh your advocacy activities.

Fundraising for WASH for NGOs and CSOs: The Basics >>
Provider: IRC
Languages: English

How can non-governmental organizations and civil society raise the funds needed to bring water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) to all? This free 8-hour course aims to strengthen your capacity, and inspire you to raise funds for creating and strengthening universal WASH services. Fundraising is about creating opportunities for people to invest in causes they believe in. About making a powerful link between the world's challenges and your unique position to solve them.

Cap-Net: Water Knowledge for All >>
Provider: Cap-Net
Languages: Varies

Cap-Net provides online courses, tutorials and other resources on a wide range of topics including Water Governance, Sustainable Development Goals, Climate Change, Ecosystems, and Gender Inclusiveness. Many courses are free, some are self-paced so you can complete them on your own schedule, and many are also offered in multiple languages. Cap-Net is UNDP´s global network for capacity development in sustainable water management.

Water Quality and Infrastructure

Water Sampling and Analysis >>
Provider: WEDC
Languages: English

A series of educational films feature on YouTube, including a suite of four films on water sampling and analysis, a series of introductions to handpumps, and a series on the operation and maintenance of handpumps.

Introductions to Handpump >>
Provider: WEDC
Languages: English

A series of educational films feature on YouTube, including a suite of four films on water sampling and analysis, a series of introductions to handpumps, and a series on the operation and maintenance of handpumps.

Operation and Maintenance of Handpumps >>
Provider: WEDC
Languages: English

A series of educational films feature on YouTube, including a suite of four films on water sampling and analysis, a series of introductions to handpumps, and a series on the operation and maintenance of handpumps.

Learn About Drinking Water Quality Testing >>
Provider: CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) 
Languages: English, French, Arabic, and Spanish

A collection of short e-learning tools and job aids to help humanitarian and development workers test the quality of drinking water under field conditions.

Household Water Treatment

Introduction to Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage >>
Provider: Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese

In this course, you can learn about the most important water treatment methods at the household level, successful implementation strategies, and about assessing the impact of Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage (HWTS).

Learn About Drinking Water Treatment for Emergency Contexts >>
Provider: CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology)
Languages: English

A collection of short e-learning tools and job aids to help water technicians treat, disinfect and safely handle drinking water under field conditions.

Sanitation and Menstrual Hygiene

Water Safety Planning Training Videos >>
Providers: WHO
Languages: English

These training, conducted in collaboration between WHO headquarters and South East Asia and Western Pacific Regional Offices, were delivered as two virtual training events in 2020 to strengthen surveillance programs by building water safety planning (WSP) audit capacity.

Rethinking Rural Sanitation >>
Providers: WaterAid, UNICEF, and Plan International
Languages: English

Globally, over 2 billion people still defecate in the open and the majority live in rural areas. Rural sanitation programs aim to increase sustained access to and use of toilets and decrease the rate of open defecation - but there are many and varied challenges to face. This course gives guidance on rural sanitation programming to help practitioners overcome those challenges, which in turn will lead to better and more sustainable program outcomes.

MOOC: Planning and Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies >>
Provider: Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology)
Languages: English and French

In this course, you can learn more about how to plan for urban sanitation at the city and local/community levels, different sanitation systems and technology configurations, and examples of successful and failed urban sanitation systems in low- and middle-income countries.

Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries >>
Provider: Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology)
Languages: English and French

This course provides you with an overview of the municipal solid waste management situation in low- and middle-income countries. It covers key elements of the waste management system, such as its technical, environmental, social, financial, and institutional aspects. Besides understanding the challenges, you will be introduced to appropriate and already applied solutions through selected case studies.

Planning and Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies >>
Provider: Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology)
Languages: English and French

This course provides you with an introduction to integrated sanitation planning, both on a citywide scale and for specific contexts such as informal settlements. You will become familiar with different sanitation planning frameworks as well as different systems and technologies relevant along the sanitation value chain. You will learn why systems thinking is crucial for urban environmental sanitation, and how to apply key terminology and important concepts.

Introduction to Faecal Sludge Management >>
Provider: Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology)
Languages: English

This course starts with an overview of what fecal sludge is and introduces you to the engineering fundamentals and required information for the design and selection of technologies. The course dedicates a complete week to presenting the full picture, in addition to technology, that needs to be considered for sustainable solutions. It concludes with a focus on current research and innovations in technologies, to provide an understanding of the most up-to-date options.

Learn About Sanitation for Emergency Contexts >>
Provider: CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) 
Languages: English

A collection of short e-learning tools and job aids to guide sanitation officials regarding emptying, transport and treatment/disposal (fecal sludge management) appropriate for humanitarian contexts.

Menstruation in a Global Context>>
Provider: ColumbiaX
Languages: English

This free online EdX course reviews menstrual health and hygiene research, programming, & policies from around the world. The objective of this course is to provide learners with a foundation on the global menstruation movement that aims to ensure that the menstrual needs of everyone, everywhere are met. We will review cutting edge menstrual health and hygiene research, programming, and policies being implemented around the world. Through a series of lectures and examples from global experts, participants will gain knowledge and skills on approaches for MHH program design and implementation, research, monitoring and advocacy, with an emphasis on the needs of low-income and vulnerable populations around the world.

WASH Systems Thinking

WASH Systems Academy >>
Provider: IRC
Languages: English

The WASH Systems Academy is an online learning platform developed to empower professionals around the world with the knowledge and tools they need to create lasting water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services for all. This foundational course consists of 9 interactive and engaging sessions dedicated to topics such as the origins and rationale for systems strengthening approach, hygiene promotion, service ladders, how to leave no one behind—among many other topics.

WASH Systems Strengthening: The Basics >>
Provider: IRC
Languages: English and French

This course covers the basic concepts of WASH systems strengthening. It's about understanding how to achieve sustainable WASH service delivery for all and how to function effectively in the process. It will help you understand the WASH systems strengthening approach.

Specialist Course: Building Blocks of Sustainable WASH Systems >>
Provider: IRC
Languages: English

When WASH systems are strong and resilient they deliver services that meet people's needs. When they are weak, services are poor, unreliable or fail altogether. The WASH systems strengthening approach looks at the WASH system as a whole, through the lens of 9 critical "building blocks" as monitoring, finance and policy and legislation. Each session in this course focuses on one of these building blocks of a sustainable system.

Specialist Course: Finance for Sustainable WASH Systems >>
Provider: IRC
Languages: English

A lack of finance is one of the main reasons for unsustainable services, leaving many people without access. Through this 16-hour course, you will learn how to attract more funding for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services and how to use existing funds more efficiently and effectively. The course is self-guided and self-paced and will be made available for free on WASH Systems Academy.

Social and Behavior Change

Social Art for Behavior Change: The Basics >>
Provider: IRC and One Drop
Languages: English and French

This 12-hour course will provide you with a better understanding of the Social Art for Behaviour Change™ (SABC) approach created by the One Drop Foundation, a key element of One Drop's A•B•C for Sustainability™ model.  This course will teach you how to connect emotions to new ideas and break down barriers and, ultimately, how art can change lives.

Learn About Behavior Change >>
Provider: CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology)
Languages: English and French

WASH interventions require people to change their behaviors to adopt new technologies and practices. This isn't easy. We know that successful WASH interventions are guided by evidence-based behavior change theories and are adapted to be context-specific. This collection of online learning activities and job aids helps to demystify behavior change and gets you started on incorporating effective approaches to behavior change in WASH interventions.

Water, Women, and Jobs: Breaking Barriers to Female Employment in Water >>
Provider: World Bank Group
Language: English

Women and other excluded groups are starkly underrepresented in water jobs. Moreover, they face many barriers to starting and advancing their careers in the water sector, However, there are many practical actions that a water institution can introduce to enhance diversity and inclusion in its workforce, retain staff, attract the best possible talent and thereby strengthen its operations and performance. This online course guides participants through the steps of identifying barriers that prevent women from participating and advancing their careers in the water sector and equips them with approaches and tools to address those very barriers. At the end of the course, participants will gain deep understanding of what can be done to improve women’s opportunities to access better jobs in water.

Sanitation

Market-Based Sanitation: The Basics >>
Provider: WASH Systems Academy
Language: English

This course brings together the latest thinking from around the world and has been developed by IRC, with the support of USAID Transform WASH, in collaboration with PSI and Water For People. It will equip you with insights and tools on the role of Market-Based Sanitation in creating the strong systems needed for universal and lasting sanitation services. This 12-hour course provides an introduction to Market-Based Sanitation for creating sustainable sanitation services for all.