SNV, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) and UNESCO-IHE have entered into a partnership arrangement with UN-Habitat for the implementation of the capacity building component of the Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation (LVWATSAN) Initiative. Other components of this initiative are: project design, planning and implementation; and follow-up investments.

UN-HABITAT, launched the LVWATSAN Initiative in 2004, in association with the Governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to address the water and sanitation needs of the population, particularly the poor, in the secondary urban centres around Lake Victoria.

The six thematic areas on which capacity will be built are: pro-poor governance; local economic development; utility management; urban catchment management; advocacy and awareness raising; and gender mainstreaming and inclusion of vulnerable groups.

In the first phase of the capacity building component, ten towns will be involved, among which are Homa Bay and Kisii in Kenya, Bukoba and Muleba in Tanzania and Masaka and Kyotera in Uganda. Mutukula, on the Uganda-Tanzania border, will be the seventh town in the first phase. In all, a total of 24 towns will be involved.

Web site: UN-HABITAT LVWATSAN Initiative web page

Source: UNESCO-IHE, 10 Dec 2008

Tags: advocacy, africa, capacity development, gender, governance, urban wash