Professional Management of Water Well Drilling Projects and Programmes – Online Course 2018
Development of curriculum and materials, and running an online course on professional management of water well drilling projects and programmes.
Country:
Switzerland with global reach
Project Period:
2018
Services Provided:
Name of Partner Organisations:
UNDP Cap-Net & AGW-Net
Name of Staff involved and functions performed:
Project Manager: Kerstin Danert
Project Staff: Stephanie Theis & Martin Laeng
Name of Client(s)
UNICEF
Description of the Project:
The first online course on the professional management of water well drilling projects and programmes enabled 84 participants from 43 countries to improve their skills and knowledge, as well as learn from each other. The course comprised five modules, covering groundwater information and siting; costing and pricing; procurement and contract management; borehole drilling and supervision; institutional frameworks and dialogue and action to raise drilling professionalism. The course was hosted by UNDP Cap-Net on their Virtual Campus, an online learning platform. Participants were provided with a combination of reading materials, videos and presentations for each module.
Three types of activities (i.e. quizzes/questionnaire, discussion forums and written assignments) enabled participants to engage in depth with the subject matter, reflect on their own experiences and consider the effectiveness of policies and practices within their own organisations and more widely in the country (or state) in which they work. The final assignment included interviewing stakeholders and defining actions that (i) they themselves would like to undertake to improve drilling professionalism in their organisation or country and (ii) that the organisation that they work with should undertake.
The online course provided not just an opportunity to train the participants, but also to learn from them; and about realities faced and good practices. The submissions by the participants provided a unique opportunity to collate information on the prevalence of groundwater databases and groundwater mapping initiatives; drilling associations; regulations, manuals and guidelines and concerns about groundwater, including salinity. Insightful short stories about siting, supervision and payment were also captured.
Project report – Danert, K and Theis, S (2018) Professional Management of Water Well Drilling Projects and Programmes, Online Course 2018, Report for Course Participants, UNICEF-Skat Foundation Collaboration 2017-2019, Skat Foundation, St Gallen, Switzerland available here
