Four young Southern partners from Ghana, Honduras, Nepal and Uganda started training for one month at IRC mid September 2010 as part of a new PSO funded Southern Youth Zone Programme from 2010 to 2012. The programme aims to strengthen the knowledge and skills of eight young professionals involved in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Resource Centre Networks. After the training at IRC the young professionals go for nine months to a local RCN in another country. The Uganda young professional goes to Ghana, the Ghana young professional goes to Uganda, the Honduras one to Colombia, the Nepalee one to India.

The training will be given by IRC facilitators as well as external specialists. The extensive programme will focus on enhancing the young professionals’ knowledge in at least one particular content area. It will also improve their skills for facilitating learning in the sector. This will contribute to enhanced capacities for knowledge sharing and learning of the resource centres involved. It also aims to help inter-regional sharing and learning.

PSO is an association that consists of 60 Dutch development organisations. The association focuses on capacity development at civil society organisations in developing countries.

First four young professionals

Here is an overview of the first four Young Professionals and the partner organisations involved in the exchange programme:

• Integrated Development Society Nepal (IDS Nepal), Kathmandu, member of the Resource Centre Network Nepal sends Bimala Khanal to the Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO) in Gandhinagar, India.
• Fondo Hondureño de Inversión Social (FHIS), Tegucigalpa, Honduras, member of the Red de Agua y Saneamiento de Honduras (RAS-HON) sends Carlos Humberto Mejía Martinez to the Instituto Cinara in Cali, Colombia.
• NETWAS Uganda, in Luzira, Kampala, Uganda sends Michael Jonga to the Resource Centre Network Ghana (RCN Ghana) in Accra.
• Resource Centre Network Ghana (RCN Ghana) in Accra sends Ida Aba Coleman to NETWAS Uganda, in Luzira, Kampala, Uganda

The second round southern exchange partners will be selected at a later stage. We are building on our earlier Junior Professional Officers (JPO) exchange programme for young water and sanitation sector professionals from 2004 to 2006. That programme strengthened the capacities of 12 JPOs in generating and sharing knowledge: four from the IRC in the Netherlands and eight from partner resource centres.