ANTANANARIVO - The U.S. Government, through the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Rural Access to New Opportunities in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (RANO WASH) project, has donated $18,000 of computer equipment, including desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, and teleconferencing equipment, to the Ministry of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene.

This support is the second donation of computer supplies from the U.S. government to the Ministry of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. USAID made its first endowment of $11,000 in equipment in October 2019.

“The COVID-19 crisis revealed a need for additional materials to strengthen governance in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector,” said USAID’s Health, Population, and Nutrition Office Director, Sophia Brewer. “This equipment will strengthen the ministry’s information management system, enhance teleworking capacity, and improve coordination between the national and regional levels of governance.”

The Minister of the Ministry of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Mme. Voahary Rakotovelomanantsoa, welcomed the donation from Director Brewer in a ceremony at the ministry attended by members of the ministerial cabinet, the WaterAid representative in Madagascar, Hantaniaina Rabesandratana, the RANO WASH Chief of Party, Sebastien Fesneau, and members of the RANO WASH consortium.

Equipment from the first donation, and some from the second, is already being used in six regions of Madagascar - Alaotra Mangoro, Amoron’i Mania, Atsinanana, Haute Matsiatra, Vakinankaratra, and Vatovavy Fitovinany – as well as at the central ministry office in Antananarivo. These six regions are priority areas under USAID’s RANO WASH project as each experiences chronic shortages of drinkable water. Ministry staff have used the computer hardware to coordinate the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

RANO WASH is USAID’s largest water and sanitation program in Madagascar. Over the course of five years, the U.S. Government is providing $30 million to improve water access for hundreds of thousands of people in 250 rural communes in the six regions of Madagascar identified above.