Akvo

Akvo uses information and communication technology (ICT) to connect those interested in developing low-cost, appropriate, technology and sustainable solutions for low-income communities. Akvo's open source virtual platform, accessible by clicking here, offers tools and methods for the donor and lending community to be able to: search for suitable projects, evaluate projects, lend/grant money to projects, and monitor and receive reports on thousands of projects. One of the developers of Akvo explains that it "is not a 'consumer' solution. The end beneficiaries of Akvo might not even know the internet exists, though the system significantly improves conditions for them. It is all about reaching the local doers that can act as intermediaries and agents of change, providing them with the right knowledge and tools to solve problems. It's about supporting small-scale local initiatives amongst people who feel disenfranchised from the process today. But of course it's also about financiers wanting to know what would happen to grants and loans. How do you make it transparent? And how will the feedback mechanism work?" In short, by using the internet, open source intellectual property licenses, and new working practices, Akvo hopes to enable swift, easy, and transparent knowledge sharing, project matchmaking and reporting in the water and sanitation development sector.

Specifically, Akvo's vision includes:

• Akvopedia - This is an ever-evolving tool for development workers, non-governmental organisation (NGO) personnel, field workers, and others managing water and sanitation projects in their communities. Based on the belief that knowledge should be available to all, and edited by all, Akvo sees this as the place to go for collective knowledge – and the place to share one's own experience of what works and what doesn't.
• Akvo Direct - An online project and fund matchmaking system designed to create a way for those with money to browse and select projects to invest in. The idea is that organisations who seek funds for their projects will also have a place to showcase them.
• Akvo Really Simple Reporting - A web- and short messaging system (SMS)-based reporting system that lets project teams share short text updates, digital images, and film clips. The goal is to provide simpler, transparent reporting methods using practical new technologies, to the end of (hopefully) dramatically reduce the time and money that funders spend reporting on large numbers of small projects.

Here is an example of the above process, as described on the Akvo blog: "Take Earth Water, a new Akvo funding partner, signed up this week. The conversation began a week ago. Now over €20,000 is committed to a water project....Earth Water...connects the sale of drinking water in the developed world with action to provide it to those living in the most desperate situations elsewhere....The company does a lot of awareness-building about water issues, too, and the funds going through Akvo come from this activity. It pours huge effort into De Parade, a Dutch theatre festival that tours key cities around the country each summer....They sell toilet artwork to visitors, and under the seats put messages that raise awareness of the worldwide water problem....Patrick de Nekker at Earth Water is using the money raised to fund an Akvo project. 'Akvo means we can show where the money is going,' was his rationale....There is direct contact with actual projects.' Earth Water, with Parade, have agreed to fund this €20,000 Ceramic Filter Production project in Bafoussam, Cameroon...[I]t was one of the first Akvo projects we commissioned a film about, via the Africa Interactive mobile reporter team....[The filmmaker] shot the movie and uploaded the content using a mobile phone. Added on top of this project package are two follow-up film reports....At next year's Parade, Patrick and his team plan to feature those movies. While raising more money." The strategy here is as follows (in the words of one Akvo developer): "The game-changing application is one that truly engages a project funder (a church, school, individuals) in the 'story' of the project as it unfolds."

Water and Sanitation, Development Aid.

Figures cited by Akvo indicate that 40% of the world's population (2.6 billion people) lack adequate sanitation today. 1.1 billion can't access reliable, safe drinking water. Even when people want to participate in helping meet the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals stating we must halve the number of people in the world who lack clean drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, Akvo claims that "[o]ften people don't know how to participate, and they don't understand where the money they invest goes. There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to water and sanitation problems because environmental, technical and cultural contexts vary dramatically. The collective knowledge does exist to specify appropriate solutions for each situation, but it's not accessible to those who need it. And though funds are available, not enough are matched with actual projects. This applies especially to projects of a 'small' scale, of between $1,000 and $20,000. When projects occur, onerous demands to report progress quickly put a ceiling on the number of projects that can be managed, meaning progress is slow."

As of August 2008, Akvo had attracted more than Euro 70,000 of funds for field projects.