The Jeroen Ensink Memorial Prize commemorates the life and work of former Waterlines’ Editorial Board member Dr Jeroen H.J. Ensink who was tragically killed in 2015. Throughout his career, Dr Ensink sought to apply science and research to improve the lives of those who in the twenty-first century still live without access to safe drinking water and sanitation. He pursued this goal via different paths – as a practising public health engineer, as a young field researcher, as a doctoral student, as a senior investigator, and as a teacher and mentor – but always with the same clear and practical focus on solving the problem. Jeroen left behind him an impressive legacy of work and he also left a very personal mark on his many colleagues and friends in the water and sanitation sector.
Launched in 2016, the annual prize is awarded for an original paper submitted to and published in Waterlines in the previous calendar year. The winner, selected by the Waterlines editorial board, is awarded book vouchers to the value of £200 (redeemable at www.practicalactionpublishing.com ), a 2 year online subscription to Waterlines for personal or institutional use, and a £100 cash prize.
A Panel consisting of four members of Waterlines’ Editorial Advisory Board (Clarissa Brocklehurst, Oliver Cumming, Patrick Moriarty and Michael Templeton), together with Jeroen’s brother, Robbert Ensink and his colleague Willem van Schaik, has deliberated over a short-list of eligible papers drawn from all those published in 2019.
The Editorial Advisory Board agreed that the award should go to the authors of the paper which (i) reflects Jeroen’s values, (ii) is of high relevance to practice or policy in the water, sanitation, waste and hygiene sectors in low- and middle-income countries, and (iii) is of high quality.
We are pleased to announce that the winners of this year’s prize are Chelsea Giles-Hansen, George Mugambi and Alexandra Machado for their paper ‘Experiences from East Africa and lessons in addressing the menstrual hygiene needs of women and girls’. The paper can be found here, It will be free to view until October 2021.
The selection committee felt that the reported study addressed an important issue in the WASH field, deployed appropriate methods through a structured research process that allowed for the iterative development and testing of their candidate kit “types”, and contributed new knowledge around the acceptability of MHM kits in different humanitarian settings. The conclusions and recommendations were not terribly surprising but they were clear, sensible and actionable, and therefore likely to support operational uptake. Dr Jeroen Ensink’s own passion was for research as a means to promote better practice rather than solely as an end in itself. Waterlines believes that the prize-winning paper will contribute to that goal.
Warm congratulations to the authors, grateful thanks to the award panel, and good reading to you!
Richard Carter and Paul Hutchings (Waterlines Co-Editors)
Clare Tawney and Chloe Callan-Foster (Practical Action Publishing)
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