The problems facing those who plan and provide WASH services are well rehearsed – lack of resources and capacity, confused political will, incomplete decentralisation, lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities, competing sectoral interests, lack of involvement of key players in decision making, over-reliance on donors, corruption, lack of cost recovery etc. etc.

The number of those who are ‘unserved’ – without any safe service, remains obstinately high, as countries struggle to keep up with population growth. But even those who have a service, often receive it more in name than in reality: taps or pumps that work only some of the time, water of doubtful quality, little or no sanitation, lack of protection for the environment, and little or no opportunity to make their views known.

With a host of things to put right, countries need to focus attention on the key levels which must take responsibility for services. These include the decentralised governmental authorities at district or similar level, service providers and all those organisations from civil society that can lend support. Together they must form a system of governance, responsible for ensuring that safe and sustainable services are provided to all communities.

Pioneering course

It was to focus on this governance role that 25 key players in the water sectors of their countries attended a pioneering course hosted by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in Delft, the Netherlands in February 2008. They came from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Southern Sudan, Lesotho, Nepal, Indonesia and India not just to identify what is going wrong, but to share ideas of how to make it work better.

This course – Good Governance for Sustainable and Pro-Poor Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Services – has been a year in the planning, since it brings together many of the key elements that have emerged from IRC work with partners in recent years.

The course covers policy issues, participatory strategic water governance – and in particular the EMPOWERS approach developed through work in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine. It also covers financing and cost recovery, sanitation, hygiene and school sanitation and health education, transparency, support to community institutions, multiple use services (that address livelihoods as well as household use), advocacy and communication, gender mainstreaming, monitoring and evaluation and capacity development.

Over a ten day period the water specialists took in a lot of information, but they also related it to their own experiences. In groups they gradually built up over the course a presentation to address governance and sustainability issues in one district or community from their region. On the final day these were presented and evaluated.

The presentations and handouts for this course have been combined onto one elegant CD and the course is set to be repeated in Delft in the autumn of 2008.

The course was an adventure for both IRC and the participants. One of the participants for example got inspired to take action on a new WASH governance topic he had not thought of before coming to Delft: “The cost recovery framework and its institutionalisation and implementation at local level. The fact the information is compiled on a CDROM is a good thing”, he said.

Tags: capacity development, financing, gender, governance, information and communication, monitoring & evaluation, participatory management, sanitation, water resources management