Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation May -June 2014 Vol.9 No.3 | Page 24

People
Barbara Schreiner’s appointment to HLPE
The United Nations Committee
on World Food Security has
announced the appointment of
a High Level Panel of Experts
on Food Security and Nutrition
(HLPE), a Project Team for
the report on Water and Food
Ms Barbara Schreiner
Security. Ms Barbara Schreiner,
the Chairperson of the Water
Research Commission (WRC) Board, was amongst the 6
experts appointed for this mammoth task.
The appointment follows an announcement made by the
committee in its 40th session wherein it requested the
HLPE to prepare a report on Water and Food Security for
its 42nd session in 2015.
These experts will also focus their attention on the
sustainability of irrigation systems, the salinization
of agricultural land and reduction of the quality of
groundwater. The panel will also give appropriate
recommendations on food security policies and coordinate
the participation of actors in different fields, at all levels
and with a long-term perspective.
Barbara Schreiner will bring in her expertise drawn
from participating in various positions in the South
African water sector. She spent 12 years working for
the Department of Water Affairs as Deputy DirectorGeneral for Policy and Regulation. Her contribution in the
water sector has largely been on policy implementation,
transboundary water management, and gender, poverty
and development.
Team Sanivation Wins Best Toilet Award!
From the
Centers for
Disease
Control and
Prevention
– Best
toilet award
goes to…a
group of
Georgia Tech
(Left to right) Jasmine Burton, Brandie Banner and
undergraduate
Erin Cobb
students called
Team Sanivation!
The students have been working with our Global WASH
team and the nonprofit Sanivation and won the prestigious
InVenture Prize for their design of the Safi Choo Toilet.
Some say this award is the most esteemed (and hardest to
earn) that Georgia Tech has and was presented on live TV
20

Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • June 2014

People
on Wednesday. InVenture is an annual contest that rewards
undergraduate students for big innovations that aim to
solve the world’s problems and attracted 560 students this
year.
Team Sanivation received $20,000, a free U.S. patent filing
by Georgia Tech’s Office of Technology Licensing, and a
spot in this summer’s class of Flashpoint, a Georgia Tech
startup accelerator program. They also received the $5,000
People’s Choice Award.
Stockholm Prize
Professor John
Briscoe has been
named the 2014
Stockholm Water
Prize Laureate for
his unparalleled
contributions
to global and
local water
management,
Professor John Briscoe inspired by an
unwavering
commitment to improving the lives of people on the
ground.
Professor Briscoe has become known for his passionate
commitment to sustainable economic development, his
disrespect for constructed boundaries between sectors and
people, and for his insistence that the voice of people who
are affected – from the