IRC and two local partners have started a project to strengthen WASH governance in the West Nile sub-region of Uganda, by strengthening and supporting dialogue between elected leaders and technical staff, NGOs, CBOs and businesses in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector. Its main objective is to help to create accountable and responsive WASH services for rural communities in Moyo, Adjumani and Nebbi districts and in Amuru sub-county.

Main implementing partners

Three partners are working together, using European funding (EuropeAid/ 126-522/M/ACT/UG). Ceford, an experienced local NGO based in Arua Town and with field offices in Adjumani, Nebbi and Moyo, will work on capacity development with local government and NGOs, ensuring follow-up between learning sessions. NETWAS will function at national level, responsible for knowledge management and documentation, amongst other things. The project will be fully documented to make it easier to scale up successful approaches. IRC brings its experience in decentralised learning from other African countries.

The 22- month, 250,000 Euro project will bring service users, providers and planners together in learning platforms that facilitate and encourage them to exchange experience about WASH services and learn together to harmonise, coordinate, implement and scale up local actions.

Testing practical solutions for improved service delivery

This will significantly contribute to provision of effective, affordable, equitable and sustainable services that are responsive to community demands, and especially to the poorest and most vulnerable groups. The various stakeholders will collaborate on action research to test out practical solutions for improved service delivery. They will share good practice and test it out in this local context, including ideas developed in other projects outside the targeted districts and sub-counties. Successful approaches and best practices developed in this project will potentially be used for scaling up services in other districts and at national level.

This is not a stand-alone project. It will link into the decentralisation framework in the country, specifically with existing decentralised platforms for planning and policy-making for water and sanitation. This will help to strengthen feedback mechanisms to national institutions and platforms, eventually influencing WASH sector policies and guidelines.

Tags: africa, governance, learning alliances, participatory management, rural wash