From Nextbillion.com, an article on Akvo.org - a water and sanitation collaboration and funding website. Definitely make sure to check out the akvopedia site… very interesting.
With this long overdue post I want to direct your attention to an innovative, relevant and increasingly active platform called Akvo.org. Its topic area is one of obvious relevance to the NextBillion audience: drinking water and sanitation in the developing world. It’s overdue because I learned about Akvo quite some time ago, back when I was working with Al Hammond, Jim Koch and the Global Social Benefit Incubator team on a review of community-scale, enterprise based approaches to these challenges. I choose to write about it today to join them in announcing the investment that of Rabobank recently made in the project and to finally put a check next to it on my list!
Akvo’s platform serves three main purposes: First, it facilitates the flow of funds and resources to water and sanitation projects in the developing world; in Akvo, you’ll be able to find hundreds of projects in many countries with detailed descriptions of their funding needs, executing organizations, etc. Once you donate to the project of choice you’ll be curious to see how it performs and grows over time, of course. Well, project performance metrics is Akvo’s second pillar of work through a methodology called Really Simple Reporting. Finally, through Akvopedia, it facilitates the transfer of skills and knowledge among existing projects and basically anyone interested in learning more about the different technologies and approaches that address the challenges of water and sanitation.