Laura Burns

Laura Burns is the Regional Program Officer - Latin America for Water For People. She received her MA in International Development from the University of Denver in 2013. She previously held the position of Programs and Operations Fellow with the Grameen Foundation where she managed partner projects and oversaw project implementation. Prior to being the Regional Program Officer for Latin America, she held this position for Africa and Asia. Laura Burns will facilitate a panel called “4 Districts, 5 Years: Results and Lessons in Delivering Sustainable WASH Services”, where WFP will present experiences establishing sustainable and universal service delivery in four rural districts where they have worked over the past five years. WFP representatives will present examples from four districts across Africa and Latin America, demonstrating progress toward reaching Everyone in their districts. They will walk through milestones, challenges, and lessons learned with engaging local governments and partners, building and rehabilitating sustainable infrastructure and systems, developing governance norms, conducting a comprehensive monitoring process, and declaring that they have successfully reached Everyone. Panelists will also discuss the ongoing costs for achieving these substantial outcomes.