The focus for the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) in 2018 was the approval, by the RWSN Executive Steering Committee, and subsequent launch of the new RWSN Strategy (2018-2023); renewal of the co-funding agreement with SDC, and the development of the RWSN Young Professional Engagement strategy. The RWSN Executive Steering Committee also started a review of RWSN’s governance arrangements as recommended by the 2017 external evaluation of the network.
Membership of the network continued to grow - from 10,082 to 10,883 between January and December 2018, an increase of 8%.
RWSN also organised a number of thematic knowledge-sharing and networking activities, including an online course, webinars and e-discussions, and participated in face-to-face knowledge-sharing and networking events. Almost 1700 members participated in the RWSN webinar series, which included 29 weekly dedicated sessions in four languages. Recordings and related documents are available for viewing and sharing on the RWSN website and on video platforms.
RWSN also ran several capacity-building activities, including a successful online course on professional management of water well drilling (March-May 2018).
RWSN published the following in 2018, all available on the RWSN website:
- UNICEF and Skat Foundation/ RWSN (2018) Forage d’eau: vers la professionnalisation d’un secteur
- RWSN (2018) Social accountability for rural water services: Synthesis of e-discussion
- RWSN (2018) Inclusive Rural Water Supply Management Innovations: Summary of the Rural Water Supply Network’s Leave No-one Behind Group E-Discussion 12th November – 4th December 2018
Specific in-country activities include local capacity building initiatives for entrepreneurs in Tanzania and Zimbabwe and training on drilling supervision in Zambia.

RWSN continued to strengthen the links between research and practice on groundwater by disseminating the outputs from UPGro (Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor) and REACH research to the membership as well as fostering direct linkages between groundwater experts and water supply professionals. A major new partnership agreed in 2018 was with The Water Institute at the University of North Carolina support the Mapping and Monitoring Theme through a focus on knowledge sharing around the collection and use of water quality data and mapping for decision-making.

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