WASHCost global data meeting kicked off

The meeting has the objective to agree on ways to organize, codify, store and share research data within WASHCost. It is expected that by the end of this five-day meeting (25 February - 2 March 2010), participants would come to a shared agreement how to organize and store data in a transparent and accountable manner that enables people to track and show what the information research results are based on.

Speaking at the meeting, Catarina Fonseca, WASHCost Project Director, said: “the successful conclusion of this meeting will allow us to conduct any form of analysis, including a cross-country analysis, thus, answering to the four research questions at international level."

WASHCost is a 5-year research project on water, sanitation and hygiene life-cycle costs in rural and peri-urban areas which aims to clarify the costs involved in the whole structure of the service. The project's objective is to provide decision makers, relevant information on unit costs that can be used in the planning and budgeting process.The project is funded through IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in the Netherlands and implemented in four countries, namely Burkina Faso, Ghana, India and Mozambique.