Social Impact Project for Strengthening WASHNet’s Impact Reporting, Storytelling and Communication Capacity

Project Description and Impact

WASHNet Sierra Leone is a civil society alliance working to promote sustainable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services through evidence-based advocacy, capacity strengthening, and community engagement. Over the years, WASHNet has implemented a range of national and district-level programs in partnership with government institutions, donors, and development partners. These include the ongoing Strengthening WASH Systems for Health project and other sector initiatives focused on accountability, systems building, and climate-resilient WASH services.

While WASHNet has made significant contributions in the WASH sector, there is a growing need to strengthen how the organization captures, analyzes, and communicates the results and impact of its work. Current reporting processes often emphasize activities rather than outcomes, and key lessons from the field are not always packaged in a way that effectively informs partners, donors, and policymakers.

To address this gap, WASHNet is seeking technical support to enhance its internal capacity for impact reporting, storytelling, and communication. This support will help ensure that the organization’s evidence, learning, and community voices are presented more effectively; contributing to stronger visibility, improved donor engagement, and more impactful advocacy across the WASH sector in Sierra Leone.

Learning Opportunity

By working with WASHNet, the experteer will gain firsthand insight into how national NGOs in Sierra Leone operate within complex development systems. They will experience how community-level evidence is linked to national advocacy, policy influence, and sector coordination; particularly in the WASH and health sectors.

The experteer will also learn from a team that works daily at the intersection of governance, service delivery, and citizen accountability. This setting provides a unique opportunity to understand how local actors adapt communication and storytelling to low-resource contexts while maintaining credibility and impact.

In addition, the experteer will develop a deeper appreciation of how partnerships, culture, and context shape communication strategies, and how local stories can be transformed into powerful narratives that drive systems change.