Member Profile: East Meets West Foundation


Member Type
IMPLEMENTOR
Summary
Also shown on map.

East Meets West Foundation (EMW) has been working with the people of Vietnam to build a peaceful and prosperous future. Currently the largest non governmental organization (NGO) working in Vietnam today, EMW has built a reputation of implementing high quality programs and projects that make a lasting impact on thousands of children and families living in poverty.

Date Founded 1998-09-06
Primary Focus Drinking Water - Community
Secondary Focus Sanitation - Community
History of Water Projects
Related work not on PWX.

EMW has been leading clean water and sanitation efforts in Vietnam for decades and hopes to bring OBA innovation to Cambodia along with its partners. Recently East Meets West has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve sanitation and hygiene practices among the rural poor to benefit 1.7 million people in 344,000 households and 290 communes in Vietnam and Cambodia

Through major funding from AusAID and World Bank, EMW has enabled over 30,000 households access to clean water as well as 10,000 household sanitation facilities and further expects to scale-up to 100,000 more households by 2015.

The project planning and development approach begins by discussing selection of potential beneficiary communities with the local authorities using clear and agreed upon selection criteria, and then making initial visits to prospective communities to discuss the goal, objectives, and procedures for planning, constructing and maintaining simple piped water systems in selected communities.

Once agreements are made between the responsible parties (participating communities, local authorities, and EMW), water source selection and testing, engineering design, procurement of goods, materials and equipment, and construction proceeds, with very strong community involvement in virtually all aspects of planning and system development.

EMW has successfully coordinated its activities to ensure the necessary cooperation and active support from the local authorities. This is in part due to the limited geographic focus of the program, so that there has been ample time to develop good working relationships with the local authorities especially in Quang Nam Province. This is critical to ensure the success of development programs in Vietnam.

Organization Background

East Meets West (EMW) recently signed a Grant Agreement with the World Bank administered Global Partnership for Output Based Aid (GPOBA) for US$ 3 million to build about 75 piped water systems in the Central region of Vietnam over a three year period. An adjunct activity is the recently initiated community-based hygiene and sanitation behavioral change program, wherein EMW provides a 25% subsidy for individual household sanitary pour-flush latrines costing about $100 each.

East Meets West has recently been appointed to the chairmanship of the NGO Water and Sanitation Forum in Vietnam. EMW's Water Sanitation and Environment Specialist Rick McGowan has been appointed as Chairman.

Annual Water and Sanitation Budget
(in USD)
$1,924,742
Annual Non-Water
Budget
(in USD)
$10,882,398
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