2022 Seed Grant Award Problem Statements 

Water / Sanitation

Problem #15:  In Kédougou, Senegal, Accessing Clean, Safe Water is Increasingly Difficult due to the Effects of Climate Change, Placing Adolescent Girls at Further Risk of Dropping Out of School and Marrying Early

Country/Region of execution: Senegal
Collaborating Organization: Plan International USA
Plan International USA is a girls’ rights organization. Powered by supporters, Plan partners with adolescent girls and children around the world to overcome oppression and gender inequality, providing the support and resources that are unique to their needs and the needs of the communities, ensuring they achieve their full potential with dignity, opportunity, and safety. Plan programs reflect the priorities and needs of young people across their life cycle. Our holistic approach leverages learning and cross-sector programming as core strategies to tackle structural drivers such as poverty, gender inequality, and education. Guided by local experts, in partnership with global education and development sector leaders, we embrace adaptive learning and leverage innovation as a core strategy for promoting equity and resilience.
Problem Statement Description:   Education around the world is facing a generation-defining emergency: climate change. This is especially true in Senegal, where increasing droughts have exacerbated chronic water shortages. In Kédougou, only 21% of rural households have access to clean water, mostly through manual pumps that are often broken. During the dry season, the falling water table can leave people without access to clean water for up to three months. This places an increasing burden on adolescent girls, 87% of whom are responsible for water collection at home. When they must venture further for viable water sources, they have less time for school. The likelihood that girls drop out increases. Having solar water pumps would alleviate this burden, making their tasks easier and allowing more time to devote to their studies. Plan’s GirlEngage Senegal program works with 600 secondary school girls in the Kédougou region, building their sense of agency and self-efficacy as they advocate for girls’ education. Our life skills training program, coupled with community engagement projects and advocacy campaigns, directly contributes to SDG 4. GirlEngage features girls as central drivers of change. Aligned with SDG 5, girls have an active role in creating a gender transformative environment that meets their needs. Plan has successfully worked with the DeBoer Lab at Purdue University to co-create a low-cost power and light source that is renewable and scalable for use to learn at home. This successful collaboration has organically led to the identification, by the girls themselves, of water scarcity as an additional concern. Our current workaround green energies can be a springboard for co-creating a solution to ensure the availability of a sustainable water source (SDG 6). Technical support from colleagues within Purdue’s Engineering department is essential to position girls as equal partners in engineering, a sound solution to address this challenge.