West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (USAID WA-WASH) Program
YEARLY REPORT 1 October 2011 to September 2012
October 2012
West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (USAID WA-WASH) Program
Regional Office YEARLY Report 2012
Project: USAID WA-WASH Project ID: Agreement No.CA # AID-624-LA-11-0001 Report corresponding to Year 1 (FY 2011-2012)
Name of Regional Director: Lakhdar Boukerrou Presented on: October 22, 2012 Address: 01 BP 1241 Ouagadougou 01 Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Email: [email protected]
Reviewed by: Name: ______Title: ______Date: ______,20__ Approved by: Name: ______Title: ______Date: ______,20__
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ...... 1 2 Administration and Management ...... 2 2.1 Regional Office set-up ...... 2 2.1.1 Administration ...... 2 2.1.2 Finance ...... 2 2.1.3 Winrock ...... 3 2.2 Regional Office Activities ...... 3 2.2.1 Launch of the Program ...... 3 2.2.2 Contact with authorities ...... 5 2.2.3 Public Relation ...... 5 2.2.4 Development of opportunities outside WA-WASH Work Plan ...... 6 2.3 Partners collaboration ...... 6 2.3.1 Common work between partners ...... 7 2.3.2 Communication ...... 8 2.3.3 Geographical Information Systems ...... 9 2.4 Geographical areas and program synergies ...... 9 2.4.1 Geographical areas of intervention ...... 9 2.4.2 Synergies between activities ...... 11 3 Burkina Faso ...... 14 3.1 Intermediate Result A.: Increased community access to potable water and improved sanitation 14 3.1.1 Sub-Intermediate Results A.1.: Improved access to and quality of sustainable water supply services for domestic and productive purposes ...... 14 o Activity 1.1: Multiple Use Services (MUS) Provision ...... 15 o Activity 1.2: Low-Cost Boreholes ...... 17 o Activity 1.3: Provide water supply through Household Water Self Supply ...... 19 o Activity 1.4: Alternative Water Supply Source Development ...... 20 Sub-Activity 1.4.1.: Introducing 3R in Burkina Faso ...... 20 Sub-Activity 1.4.2: Strengthen the supply chain for low-cost alternative technologies ...... 21 3.1.2 Sub-Intermediate Result A.2. Improved access to and use of sustainable sanitation services (Activity 1.5 and 1.6) ...... 22 O Activity 1.5: CLTS and Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing ...... 22 3.1.3 Sub-Intermediate Result A.3. Increased adoption of key hygiene behaviors ...... 23 o Activity 1.5: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) ...... 24 o Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing ...... 24 o Activity 1.7: Safe Water Handling, Storage, and Point-of-Use (PoU) ...... 24 O Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 24 3.2 Intermediate Result B.: Improved sustainability of WASH services ...... 26 3.2.1 Sub-Intermediate Result B1. Adoption of replicable and sustainable WASH management approaches ..... 26 o Activity 2.1: Triple-S Initiative / District Sustainability Models ...... 26 o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking ...... 29 3.2.2 Sub-Intermediate Result B.2. Strengthened national and local policies and governance for WASH service delivery and management ...... 29 o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking ...... 29 O Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 29 3.2.3 Sub-Intermediate Result B.3.: Increased access to sustainable financing for WASH services ...... 30 O Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH ...... 30
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3.3 Intermediate Result C.: Increased income generation and food security outcomes of WASH investments ...... 31 3.3.1 Sub-Intermediate Result C.1.: Adoption of complementary agricultural technologies and practices in WASH programs ...... 31 o Activity 3.1: WASH Integration to enhance Food Security ...... 31 3.3.2 Sub-Intermediate Result C.2.: Increased local and national capacity to adapt to water-related climate change 32 o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change ...... 32 3.3.3 Sub-Intermediate Result C.3.: Increased availability of climate resilience information ...... 32 O Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change ...... 32 3.4 Intermediate Result D.: Strengthened national and regional enabling environment for integrated WASH. 33 3.4.1 Sub-Intermediate Result D.1.: Strengthened national and regional organizations in integrated WASH advocacy ...... 33 o Activity 4.1: Assessment/Diagnostic of Regional Institutional Capacity and Potential in the WASH Sector ...... 33 3.4.2 Sub-Intermediate Result D.2.: Increase national and regional integrated WASH knowledge management and networking ...... 39 o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH ...... 39 o Activity 4.2: Capacity Building of Regional WASH Institutions ...... 39 o Activity 4.3: Regional WASH Knowledge Management/Monitoring and Evaluation ...... 40 3.4.3 Sub-Intermediate Result D.3.: Enhanced gender mainstreaming in integrated WASH program ...... 43 o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 43 3.4.4 Sub-Intermediate Result D.4. Expanded private sector engagement in integrated WASH programs ...... 43 o Activity 4.4: Expanded WASH Regional Private Sector Partnerships / GDA Development ...... 43 4 Ghana ...... 46 4.1 Intermediate Result A.: Increased community access to potable water and improved sanitation 46 4.1.1 Sub-Intermediate Result A.2. Improved access to and use of sustainable sanitation services ...... 46 o Activity 1.5: CLTS and Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing...... 46 4.1.2 Sub-Intermediate Result A.3. Increased adoption of key hygiene behaviors ...... 47 o Activity 1.5: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) ...... 47 o Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing ...... 47 o Activity 1.7: Safe Water Handling, Storage, and Point-of-Use (PoU) ...... 47 O Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 47 4.2 Intermediate Result B.: Improved sustainability of WASH services ...... 48 4.2.1 Sub-Intermediate Result B1. Adoption of replicable and sustainable WASH management approaches .... 48 o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking ...... 48 4.2.2 Sub-Intermediate Result B.2. Strengthened national and local policies and governance for WASH service delivery and management ...... 50 o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking ...... 50 O Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 50 4.2.3 Sub-Intermediate Result B.3.: Increased access to sustainable financing for WASH services ...... 50 O Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH ...... 50 4.3 Intermediate Result C.: Increased income generation and food security outcomes of WASH investments ...... 51 4.3.1 Sub-Intermediate Result C.1.: Adoption of complementary agricultural technologies and practices in WASH programs ...... 51 o Activity 3.1: WASH Integration to enhance Food Security ...... 51 4.3.2 Sub-Intermediate Result C.2.: Increased local and national capacity to adapt to water-related climate change 51 o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change ...... 51 4.3.3 Sub-Intermediate Result C.3.: Increased availability of climate resilience information ...... 51
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O Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change ...... 51 4.4 Intermediate Result D.: Strengthened national and regional enabling environment for integrated WASH. 52 4.4.1 Sub-Intermediate Result D.1.: Strengthened national and regional organizations in integrated WASH advocacy ...... 52 o Activity 4.1: Assessment/Diagnostic of Regional Institutional Capacity and Potential in the WASH Sector ...... 52 4.4.2 Sub-Intermediate Result D.2.: Increase national and regional integrated WASH knowledge management and networking ...... 54 o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH ...... 54 o Activity 4.2: Capacity Building of Regional WASH Institutions ...... 54 Refer to Section 3.4.2, p39 on Burkina Faso...... 54 O Activity 4.3: Regional WASH Knowledge Management/Monitoring and Evaluation ...... 54 4.4.3 Sub-Intermediate Result D.3.: Enhanced gender mainstreaming in integrated WASH program ...... 54 o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 54 Refer to section 3.1.3 p24 for the work conducted by CARE and Winrock...... 54 4.4.4 Sub-Intermediate Result D.4. Expanded private sector engagement in integrated WASH programs ...... 54 O Activity 4.4: Expanded WASH Regional Private Sector Partnerships / GDA Development ...... 54 5 Niger ...... 56 5.1 Intermediate Result A.: Increased community access to potable water and improved sanitation 56 5.1.1 Improved access to and quality of sustainable water supply services for domestic and productive purposes 56 o Activity 1.1: Multiple Use Services (MUS) Provision ...... 56 o Activity 1.2: Low-Cost Boreholes ...... 57 O Activity 1.4: Alternative Water Supply Source Development ...... 58 O Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH ...... 60 5.1.2 Sub-Intermediate Result A.2. Improved access to and use of sustainable sanitation services ...... 60 o Activity 1.5: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) ...... 60 O Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing ...... 63 5.1.3 Sub-Intermediate Result A.3. Increased adoption of key hygiene behaviors ...... 64 o Activity 1.5: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) ...... 64 o Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing ...... 65 o Activity 1.7: Safe Water Handling, Storage, and Point-of-Use (PoU) ...... 65 O Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 65 5.2 Intermediate Result B.: Improved sustainability of WASH services ...... 66 5.2.1 Sub-Intermediate Result B1. Adoption of replicable and sustainable WASH management approaches .... 66 o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking ...... 66 5.2.2 Sub-Intermediate Result B.2. Strengthened national and local policies and governance for WASH service delivery and management ...... 66 o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking ...... 66 o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 67 5.2.3 Sub-Intermediate Result B.3.: Increased access to sustainable financing for WASH services ...... 67 O Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH ...... 67 5.3 Intermediate Result C.: Increased income generation and food security outcomes of WASH investments ...... 68 5.3.1 Sub-Intermediate Result C.1.: Adoption of complementary agricultural technologies and practices in WASH programs ...... 68 o Activity 3.1: WASH Integration to enhance Food Security ...... 68 5.3.2 Sub-Intermediate Result C.2.: Increased local and national capacity to adapt to water-related climate change 68 o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change ...... 68 5.3.3 Sub-Intermediate Result C.3.: Increased availability of climate resilience information ...... 68
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O Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change ...... 68 5.4 Intermediate Result D.: Strengthened national and regional enabling environment for integrated WASH. 69 5.4.1 Sub-Intermediate Result D.1.: Strengthened national and regional organizations in integrated WASH advocacy ...... 69 O Activity 4.1: Assessment/Diagnostic of Regional Institutional Capacity and Potential in the WASH Sector ...... 69 5.4.2 Sub-Intermediate Result D.2.: Increase national and regional integrated WASH knowledge management and networking ...... 71 o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH ...... 71 o Activity 4.2: Capacity Building of Regional WASH Institutions ...... 71 O Activity 4.3: Regional WASH Knowledge Management/Monitoring and Evaluation ...... 71 5.4.3 Sub-Intermediate Result D.3.: Enhanced gender mainstreaming in integrated WASH program ...... 72 o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability ...... 72 5.4.4 Sub-Intermediate Result D.4. Expanded private sector engagement in integrated WASH programs ...... 72 O Activity 4.4: Expanded WASH Regional Private Sector Partnerships / GDA Development ...... 72 6 Conclusion ...... 73
Annex A: List of Maps and Charts ...... 74 Annex B: List of others supporting documents/reports ...... 74 Annex C: List of deliverables ...... 75 Annex D: Deliverable summary table ...... 77
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List of Tables
Table 1: Summary of water points assessed in 14 villages in two provinces of Burkina Faso for Self Supply feasibility ...... 19 Table 2: Number of local stakeholders surveyed in eight communes in the Sahel ...... 27 Table 3: Number of water point surveyed in the Sahel and period of data collection ...... 27 Table 4: Summary of water points on which cost data were collected in the Sahel ...... 28 Table 5: Potential partnerships discussed with WaterAid for the implementation of WA-WASH ...... 61 Table 6: List of the 14 villages identified by WaterAid Niger ...... 62 Table 7: Communes, villages triggered and number of households engaged on CLTS by WaterAid Niger ...... 62
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List of Photos
Photo 1: Opening of WA-WASH regional building and Speech of the US Ambassador during the Launch Ceremony (July 2012, Burkina Faso) ...... 4 Photo 2: Pre-selection of location of Winrock intervention with local authorities (August 2012, Burkina Faso) ...... 15 Photo 3: Introductory MUS training workshop ...... 15 Photo 4: Restitution and validation workshop of the Winrock baseline survey (Sept 2012, Burkina Faso) ..... 16 Photo 5: Official presentation of the USAID WA-WASH Program and MUS Component in Oury Commune ... 16 Photo 6: Technical assessment of a traditional well in Koudougou area (August 2012, Burkina Faso) ...... 17 Photo 7: Pumps broken and broken slab on well and top of well broken by rain runoff observed during Winrock baseline survey in Boucle du Mouhoun (August 2012, Burkina Faso) ...... 18 Photo 8: Nafasoro pumps in the Mouhoun Region (May 2012, Burkina Faso)...... 21 Photo 9: Data enumerators training at Eau Vive Sahel’s offices (April 2012) ...... 26 Photo 10: IWA Validation workshop ...... 35 Photo 11: A view of some participants of the WIS XIII Summit (April 2012, Burkina Faso) ...... 42 Photo 12: Participants at the Ouagadougou GDA stakeholder feedback meeting (July 2012) ...... 44 Photo 13: CB forum – IWA presenting the preliminary findings Ghana (July 2012, Burkina Faso) ...... 53 Photo 14: Participants at the Accra GDA stakeholder feedback meeting (June 2012, Ghana) ...... 55 Photo 15: MUS training workshop for project mobilizers in Zinder (September 2012, Niger) ...... 56 Photo 16: Field visit with Roland Tapia, Wacha commune ...... 58 Photo 17: view from the baseline (Hand pump fixed every 2 months cost ;250 000Fcfa/year; Sand aquifer burying concrete well; Traditional well/runoff water infiltration) (August 2012, Niger) ...... 58 Photo 18: CLTS animation sessions in Doungass (Niger) ...... 61 Photo 19 : Household latrines for elderly people (Doungass) and with Sanplat slab (Doungass) (Niger) ...... 63 Photo 20: Equipment for hygiene promoters, following the training session in Sinder (Niger) ...... 66 Photo 21: Participants at a BPD Developing Partnerships in Practice training course held under the auspices of WAWI (Feb 2012, Niger) ...... 71
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Acronyms and Abbreviation
3R Retention, Recharge, Reuse AMB Action Micro-Barrage APDO Afram Plains Development Organisation ARG Action-Research Group BPDWS Building Partnerships for Development in Water and Sanitation CAP-WASH Capacity Building of Local/National WASH NGOs/CBOs in Africa CB Capacity Building CBO Community Based Organization CCEA Communal Committees for Water and Sanitation CHV Community Hygiene Volunteers CILSS The Inter-State Comity against Drought in the Sahel CLTS Community Led Total Sanitation CNEA National Commission for Water and Sanitation CNSS: Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale CONIWAS Coalition of NGO's in Water and Sanitation in Ghana CP Country Program CREPA Centre Régional pour l’Eau Potable et l’Assainissement CRs Country Representatives CVCA Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis DGRE Direction Générale des Ressources en Eau DPP Developing Partnerships in Practice DQA Data Quality Assessment EAA Eau et Assainissement pour L’Afrique EMMP Environmental Monitoring and Mitigation Plan ERF Environmental Review Form FIU Florida International University FLOW Field Level Operation Watch FY2 Fiscal Year 2 GDA Global Development Alliance GIS Geographical Information Systems GLOWS Global Water for Sustainability GPS Global Positioning System GWF Ghana Water Forum GWI Global Water Initiative HH Household HR Human Resource ICT Information and Communication Technologies INSD Institut National de la Statistique et de la Démographie IPs Implementing Partners IR Intermediate Result IRC International Water and Sanitation Center IWA International Water Association KAP Knowledge, Attitude and Practices KM Knowledge Management LDP Local Development Plan LGA Local Government Authorities LONAB Loterie Nationale Burkinabé LTU Local Technical Unit MAWR Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources
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MDG Millennium Development Goals MLGRD Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development MoFEP Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning MUS Multiple Use Services MWRWH Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing NGO Non-Governmental Organization NUPAS Non – US organisation Pre-Award Survey OCI Oceane Consult International ODF Open Defecation Free PANA The National Adaptation Program PHAST Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation PMP Performance Monitoring Plan PN-AEPA Programme National d’Approvisionnement en Eau Potable et Assainissement PoU Point-of-Use Water Treatment PPA Partner Project Agreements PPT Power Point Presentation PROMACO Programme de Marketing Social et Communication pour la Santé PRONET Professional Association Network in the North RAIN Rainwater Harvesting Implementation Network REJEA Journalists Network for Water and Sanitation RHCC Rain water Harvesting Capacity Center RO WA-WASH Regional Office ROECCR USAID Regional Office Environmental and Climate Change Response RTB/TV Radio Television du Burkina RWH Rain Water Harvesting SASO Sahel Solidarité SHC School Hygiene Clubs SMT Senior Management Team SNV Netherlands Development Organization SP/CONEDD Secrétariat Permanent du Conseil National de l’Environnement et du Développement Durable SPONG Secrétariat Permanent des Organisations Non Gouvernementales SWA Sanitation and Water for All ToR Terms of References UNDP United Nation Development Program UNESCO-IHE United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization - Institute for Water Education USAID United State Agency for International Development USAID /W-AFR United State Agency for International Development / West Africa USEPA United State Environment Protection Agency VARENA-ASSO Association pour la Valorisation des ressources naturelles par l'auto-promotion VDS Association Des Volontaires Développement du Sahel WA WASH West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme WAA WaterAid America WAB WaterAid Burkina Faso WAG WaterAid Ghana WA-NET West African Network WANi WaterAid Niger WAWA WaterAid West Africa WAWI West African Water Initiative WIS Water Information Summit
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WSA Water and Sanitation for Africa WUA Water Users Association
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report covers the activities for the period of October 2011 to September 2012. The initial efforts concentrated on setting-up the Regional Office and the hiring of the administrative and technical staff. At the same time, the squeleton staff started working on the Work Plan and the Performance and Monitoring Plan. A first draft of these documents was submitted to USAID/W-AFR in October. These documents were revised and subsequently submitted to USAID/W-AFR in January.
The planned activities are based on the Results Framework (RF) developed in collaboration with USAID/WA and USAID/W-AFR. The RF of this program includes four Intermediate Results (IR) and 13 sub-Intermediate Results. This set of results is in line with some of the USAID/W-AFR ROECCR Results Framework.
After the approval of the Work Plan, while some activities were started, not all activities were started in Year 1. IRC, BPD, IWA, SKAT, Winrock and FIU were able to start some of their activities, however others did not. The major challenge we faced this year, from a technical stand point, was the harmonization of the activities among the partners and the choice of the geographical areas of interventions in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger.
A meeting in July brought all the partners to Ouagadougou to address some of these concerns and to formulate the capacity building framework of the program. The July meeting was an opportunity to officially launch the program with the presence of the US Ambassador, Dr. Anne Dix, USAID/W-AFR Regional Environment Director and over one hundred guests. Activities such as Self-Supply, Multiple Use Services (MUS), Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), Service Delivery Approach (SDA) and decentralization, Point- of-Use Water Treatment (PoU), food security etc. are at different stages of either contract negotiations, assessment or have actually started on the ground.
In Year 1, we have contributed to the accomplishment of some of the IRs. More specifically, we have completed the following major activities: (1) Capacity gap assessment in Burkina Faso while the Ghana, Niger and Senegal will be completed in Q1 of Year 2; (2) Identification of geographical areas of intervention for MUS, PoU and Self-Supply; (3) Baseline survey for SDA, MUS, gender activities; (4) Self-Supply feasibility study and (5) Capacity Building Forum, a regional activity that brought together all the implementing partners and local stakeholders from the three countries to develop a Capacity Building Framework.
Because of the relationship we have developed with the various news outlets in Burkina Faso, the implementation of a number of activities such as the 13th Water Information Summit, the Capacity Building Forum and the MUS workshop received good news coverage. In Year 2, we intend to develop the same relationship with the news outlets in Ghana and Niger.
Mali is not a priority right now given the political instability and the possibility of military intervention in the northern half of the country. The situation in Mali is having an impact on activities in Northern Burkina Faso as well. The government of Burkina Faso through the Ministry of ‘Administration Territoriale, Décentralisation et Sécurité’ is asking international NGO personnel, and particularly expats, not to travel to the northern part of the country because of the risks of kidnapping and attacks. This might have an impact on planned activities in the Sahel Region.
In Year 2, we intend to have all the partners on the ground and activities will be going in earnest. The meetings and exchanges that took place in Year 1 between partners will be essential in the harmonization of Year 2 activities. We are in the process of hiring a country coordinator for Niger, while the one in Ghana is already operational. This will ensure that the program is running smoothly and that activities are well coordinated.
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1 Introduction
This Annual report covers the first year of implementation of the USAID West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Program (USAID WA-WASH), from October 2011 to September 2012. USAID WA-WASH is implemented by a consortium of 10 international partners (BPD, CARE, FIU, IRC, IWA, RAIN, SKAT, UNESCO- IHE, WaterAid and Winrock). By May 2012, all the contractual agreements were signed between FIU, the leading partner and the other partners. That created some delays in the activities of the first year, which were plan from Q2.Nevertheless, most of the partners speed up the process and, for some of the partners, activities took off during Q3 and Q4.
USAID WA-WASH was planned to be executed in four West African countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger. Due to the events that took place in Mali in March 2012 (military coup d’état and country occupation by Islamic armed groups) and because very few activities had started before March, no activities took place in Mali this year. Therefore this report has a section for each country where the activities have been performed namely Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger.
The context under which USAID WA-WASH Program activities are being implemented is outlined in the Program Result Framework (see Result Framework in Annex A01). The Program activities are presented for each intermediate / sub-intermediate result and for each country separately in this report. In the first section of this report, we discuss the administrative and management aspects of the program including the collaboration set up among the implementing partners and the non-technical activities (program launch, public relations, etc.).
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2 Administration and Management 2.1 Regional Office set-up
One of FIU’s main tasks for the first year, as the leading partner in the implementation of USAID WA-WASH, was to set-up a Regional Office. Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso was chosen, as it is geographically centered. At the beginning of October 2011, the Regional Director was in place and started to hire a local-based team to start setting up the office. A number of initial activities were undertaken to allow for a smooth start in the administration and management of the program.
2.1.1 Administration
On the administrative side, a lot was achieved during the first year, with a specific focus on Burkina Faso, where the Regional Office is based. The main achievements were:
Registration of FIU Research Foundation as the entity doing business in Burkina Faso. This required many meetings and visits to the Ministry of Administration Territoriale, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance to move the process forward. Search, interview, selection, preparation of contract and hiring of the regional office thematic coordinators and support staff. Search and identification of office space with subsequent signing of the lease with the landlord for a facility that will house the Regional Office staff and partners’ staff. Submission of a request to the Ministry of Economy and Finance for tax/duty exemption for the Program. Identification of and negotiation with vendors for the acquisition of IT equipment, office furniture, office supplies, etc. Search, identification and signing of a retainer with a local lawyer in Burkina Faso to help with legal issues. Purchase of IT equipment, office furniture and Program vehicles (two cars and one motorcycle). Transfer of equipment (generators), office furniture, vehicles (two cars) from USAID WAWI project in Mali to the Regional Office in Ouagadougou. Identification of a security company and hiring of such company. Identification of an insurance company for both property and local staff health insurance. Selection, preparation of contract and hiring of the Country Coordinator for Ghana. The selection for Niger is in process. Identification and selection, contractual arrangement for interns/students: 11 students did/are doing their internship within USAID WA-WASH office during the first year. Financial and Management review from USAID/W-AFR was undertaken in July to help with a more efficient administrative and financial management of the Program.
2.1.2 Finance
On the financial side, the Regional Director and his team made sure to get ready for the implementation of activities by:
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Visit, identification and selection of a banking institution and opening of a bank account. Setting finance/accounting procedures. Undertaking Non US organisations Pre-Award Survey (NUPAS) in order to establish contract with local partners to implement some of FIU’s activities. Five NGOs were surveyed during the first year (Burkina Faso - two and Ghana – three). A NUPAS for one organisation in Niger is planned for the beginning of Year 2.
2.1.3 Winrock
As the Regional Office set-up was moving forward, Winrock staff started to join the RO team in May 2012, sharing the Regional Office space and later having their own office within the Regional Office building. Winrock had a longer startup phase than anticipated in Burkina Faso. The sub-award between Winrock and FIU was signed beginning of April 2012 and the activities in Burkina Faso began with the arrival at post of the Winrock / USAID WA-WASH Project Director, Patrice Beaujault on May 13, 2012. Mr. Beaujault is in charge of (1) the Winrock activities for the USAID WA-WASH program in Burkina Faso and (2) the supervision of Winrock activities for USAID WA-WASH in the other three countries.
Once the Winrock Project Director was in place, the main preparatory activities during the first year (May – September 2012) of project implementation in Burkina Faso and Niger have been as follow: Set-up Winrock office, with the support of the Regional Office. Supervised / coordinated the beginning of the activities in Niger: Winrock Project Director contributed and finalized the recruitment of the Winrock Country Project Director for Niger and made a trip to Niger from June 17 to 23 to get the activities started there with the newly hired Niger Country Director. Trained Winrock Project Directors (Patrice Beaujault and Honoré Biaou) on Project management according to Winrock and USAID rules at Winrock headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. Recruited seven of the project staff in Burkina Faso; Recruited 13 staff in Niger with only one staff vacancy to fill in FY 2013.
2.2 Regional Office Activities
2.2.1 Launch of the Program
The official launch ceremony was held on July 16, 2012 at the Regional Office. It marked the official kick-off of USAID WA-WASH activities in West Africa. The ceremony was presided by the US Ambassador to Burkina Faso, His Excellency Mr. Thomas Dougherty. Among the guests of this important event, were Mr. Abdoulaye Combari, the burkinabè Junior Minister in charge of Agriculture, Mr. Constant Ouédraogo, the Head of the Cabinet of the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, members of the diplomatic corps, parliamentarians and many other guests, including representatives of various organizations, partners, NGOs, academic institutions and the private sector. 114 persons attended the ceremony. The guests were welcomed by USAID WA-WASH Regional Director, Dr. Lakhdar Boukerrou and Dr. Anne DIX, USAID/W-AFR Regional Environment Director. The ceremony was divided into three main sequences: (1) Speeches; (2) Ribbon cutting ceremony and (3) office facility’s visit.
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Four speeches were pronounced at the ceremony. The Regional Director remarks presented all USAID WA- WASH Program. From the funding flow to the goal, objectives and partners involved. Then H.E.M. Thomas Dougherty US Ambassador to Burkina Faso stressed that the US government recognizes the crucial importance of access to water, sanitation and hygiene. In that respect, President Barrack Obama is engaged to concentrate an important share of American aid to the development of Africa in the fields of public health, food security, and the reduction of the impacts of climate change. The Ambassador also noted that the US is proud to work in partnership with Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger. The two representatives of the Burkinabe Government mentioned the pertinence of USAID WA-WASH Program activities. They confirmed that the objectives of the Program are in line with the concerns of the Burkinabe Government regarding the access to water, sanitation and hygiene, and the adaptation to climate change. They also stressed that the Program comes at the time when food security is becoming a major issue in the region. On behalf of the Government of Burkina Faso and the people of the beneficiary countries, Mr. Abdoulaye Combari, Junior Ministry in Charge of Agriculture thanked USAID and the American people for the support.
Photo 1: Opening of WA-WASH regional building and Speech of the US Ambassador during the Launch Ceremony (July 2012, Burkina Faso)
The Ribbon cutting ceremony was executed by H.E.M. Thomas Dougherty (US Ambassador to Burkina Faso), Dr. Lakhdar Boukerrou (USAID WA-WASH Regional Director), Mr. Abdoulaye Combari (Junior Minister in Charge of Agriculture), and Constant Ouédraogo (Head of the Cabinet of the Minister of Agriculture and Sustainable Development). To conclude the ceremony, a visit of USAID WA-WASH Regional Office facility took place.
The launch ceremony was covered by the Burkinabe major media outlets (print and visual):
National Television of Burkina Faso (RTB/TV). National Radio of Burkina Faso (RTB/Radio). Website of the National Television of Burkina Faso (RTB-Web) Impact TV. Canal 3 TV. BF1 TV. State owned newspaper Sidwaya. Private newspaper “Le Pays”. Private newspaper “l’Observateur Paalga”. Private newspaper “Le Soir”. Burkinabe Press Agency.
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2.2.2 Contact with authorities
After the registration of FIU Research Foundation in Burkina Faso, contacts with the national authorities started in earnest. The first year, the Regional Office focused on the Burkina Faso. An initial meeting with the Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources took place in February at the regional office to discuss the Burkina Faso Work Plan and the way forward. Subsequently, a meeting took place with the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources (MAWR) in March. This meeting was followed by an official presentation of the Program to the members of the MAWR Cabinet (over 30 members). The Regional Director accompanied by the Thematic Coordinators made a presentation to the Members of Cabinet, followed by a 30 minute Q&A period. The objectives of this meeting were to present USAID WA-WASH and insert the Program into the framework of the MAWR strategy. The representatives of MAWR expressed strong interest in working with USAID WA-WASH. The presentation was well received and consultations with the relevant agencies took place over the course of this first year.
The other authorities we met several times during the year include: the Minister of Environment, the Director General of the Meteorology, the Permanent Secretary of the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (SP/CONEDD), the Director General for Water Resources (DGRE) and the Director General of the National Office of Water and Sanitation (ONEA). Representatives of these organizations were invited to the various workshops and meetings organized by WA-WASH.
Meetings were organized in June 2012 in Accra by USAID/WAFR for the Regional Director to visit various government agencies, international organizations and other donors to present the program activities that will take place in Ghana.
We conducted a visit to Mali unfortunately the coup happened three days after the arrival of the WA-WASH staff member there. So very little contacts were made with government representatives there.
2.2.3 Public Relation
This year, the program received good press coverage as a result of various PR activities in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy and the partners. Press releases were sent directly to press houses or through the US Embassy to inform them of events organized by WA-WASH. During 2011-2012, the program received press coverage for the following activities:
13th Water Information Summit held April 11-13, 2012 (Articles in Sidwaya, l’Observateur Paalga, Le Pays and Le Soir); WA-WASH official launch held July 16, 2012 (Articles in Sidwaya, Le Pays, l’Observateur Paalga, le Soir and was covered by TV with RTB, Impact TV, Canal 3 and BF1); Capacity Building Forum held July 16-18,2012 (Articles in Sidwaya, l’Observateur Paalga); Multiple Use Services of Water Delivery held August 16-17, 2012 (Articles in Sidwaya and Le Soir and on TV with the National Television of Burkina Faso (RTB)). A press conference was organized July 20, 2012. It was an opportunity to exchange with the press around subjects related to water, sanitation, hygiene, food security and climate change. The newsmen took advantage of this opportunity to learn more about WA-WASH activities in West Africa, the Capacity Building Forum and partners’ meeting. The four major events organized by WA-WASH during 2011-2012 have been narrated through success stories. These stories were sent to Miami for posting on the website. In addition, a gallery of photos has been created and it is in process of being posted on the web.
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2.2.4 Development of opportunities outside WA-WASH Work Plan
In addition to the work that was needed to succeed in the accomplishment of the Program, other opportunities are being explored to give WA-WASH more visibilities and increase the impacts of the investments made by the Program. These opportunities include:
Development and implementation of the Regional Office Staff Professional Development Plan: small trainings sessions have been organized for staff members on specific topics throughout the year. Elaboration of a Concept Note for collaboration with the Commune of Dori. This collaboration will allow USAID to contribute greatly to help over 25,000 people gain access to potable water and thus to the achievement of the MDGs in the Dori Commune. This proposal has been included in the Year 2 Work Plan. Elaboration of a Concept Note to provide technical support to Water Management Agencies. The main objective of this activity is to provide technical assistance to Burkina Faso Water Management Agencies. This proposal has been included in the Year 2 Work Plan. Elaboration of a Concept Note for graduate students and internships. This proposal has been included in the Year 2 Work Plan.
Also, several meetings which have created visibility for the Program were attended by the Regional Office staff including:
US Embassy Ouagadougou – The Regional Director participated in two high level meetings at the US Embassy following the invitation by the USAID representative there. In addition, WA-WASH is being represented at the Quaterly meetings as well. High Level Forum for Water and Sanitation for All in Africa – This Forum was organized by WSA (formerly CREPA). The Regional Director was invited to chair the first-day afternoon session on Bridging the Capacity Building Gap. National Water and Sanitation Forum – The Regional Director and the Partnership Manager participated in the Forum organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Burkina Faso. The participation led to contacts being made with various government agencies and other stakeholders in the sector. Hosting of USEPA and USAID El Salvador team. Hosting of a USAID / Washington Climate Change specialist. Meeting with various public and private entities including Loterie Nationale Burkinabé (LONAB), CNSS (Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale), 2IE and University of Ouagadougou. In addition, members of the Regional Office staff attended two training workshops organized by USAID:W- AFR, on Reg 216 and financial management.
2.3 Partners collaboration
In addition to setting up the Regional Office, collaboration between the partners took place to determine how the work will be shared and how partners can work together. The main achievement took place in July
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with the Launch of the program in Burkina Faso and the first shared events between all the partners: the Capacity Building Forum and the partners’ meeting.
One change of partner will happen in Year 2 (October 2012 – September 2013). Indeed, SKAT Foundation decided to stop working on the WA-WASH program. The Self Supply activities will be implemented by FIU, through the local partner (Varena Asso) identified by SKAT.
2.3.1 Common work between partners
In collaboration with the partners and during Q1 and Q2, the Regional Office team has accomplished the following: Preparation of the four country Work Plans and associated documents for Year 1 (October 2011 – September 2012). Preparation and revision of the Administrative and Technical Management Plan. Preparation and submission of the Performance Monitoring Plan. Preparation and submission of the Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan.
All these documents were revised at the end of Year 1, with the input from the partners. The documents for Year 2 were also developed and submitted to USAID in early October 2012.
The Regional Office organized five partners’ meetings in Ouagadougou. The objectives of these meetings were to meet key partners and USAID staff, review USAID compliance issues, finalize the detailed Work Plans and budgets for Year 1. All meetings included participation from USAID/W-AFR. These meetings led to the preparation and the submission of the Country Work Plans and the PMP. Furthermore, the third meeting was followed by a field visit to potential sites in Burkina Faso:
The first meeting was held October 12-14, 2011 with the participation of Winrock, WaterAid, UNESCO- IHE, CARE, IRC. The main output was the setting up of a Task Force to prepare the indicators and indicators reference sheet. The Notes can be found in Annex B01.
The second meeting was held November 15-17, 2011 with the participation of Winrock, WaterAid, UNECO-IHE, CARE and IRC. The main discussions points were to address USAID/W-AFR concerns and strategize on how to redevelop the Work Plans by country and add components such as Food Security. The notes can be found in Annex B02.
The third meeting was held January 30th to February 1st and saw the participation of WaterAid Burkina and other local partners (PROMACO, GWI, OCI, SOS Sahel and VARENA). It was followed by a field visit on February 6-7, 2012. The main discussion was on Burkina Faso WorkPlan. The field visit took place in Darsalam, Commune of Ouagadoudou; Oury and Sanfo (Balé Province in Boucle du Mouhon Region).
A partners meeting was organized in late April but only SKAT and USAID W/AFR were present to discuss the implementation areas and Work Plan. It was decided that a planning for partners meeting should be established for the length of the program.
The fifth partners’ meeting took place July 19-20, 2012 in Ouagadougou. In addition to the previous objectives, USAID procedures, harmonization of the implementation of the program, and sharing action plans at the country level for Year 1 were discussed. Baseline survey and deadline were also discussed at this time. This meeting allowed participants to identify partners on the basis of their intervention areas and laid the foundation for planning activities for Year 2. This meeting was
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attended by representatives of all partners as well as USAID representatives. The notes can be found in the Annex B03.
BPD facilitated the meeting. It was proposed that BDP shall continue with the facilitation of future internal WA-WASH Partners’ Meetings because the Regional Office staff cannot be the moderator and contributor to the meeting at the same time. For future meetings, BPD will perform the following tasks:
Meeting preparation – BPD shall support the WA-WASH RO and partners to negotiate and develop the meeting agenda for each of the semi-annual partners’ meetings. Facilitation – BPD shall manage the facilitation of the partners’ meeting – this includes engaging with specific WA-WASH partner representatives, Country Coordinators and KM Managers for their input and with RO staff to support their own facilitation skills development. Reporting – The note taking / rapporteur role shall be done by RO staff whilst BPD facilitates the meeting. Those notes will form the basis of a report, produced by BPD, of key discussions and action points from each meeting.
The main milestone for the partner’s collaboration took place in July 2012 in Ouagadougou with three events that saw the participation of representative from all the partners:
Official Launch of the WA-WASH program (see section above). Capacity Building Forum to start coordination and harmonization of all the partners’ activities regarding Capacity Building (see Activity 4.1.3, p38). Partners’ meeting (discussed above).
2.3.2 Communication
One main ingredient for collaboration among the partners is good communication and sharing of information. The main objective of USAID WA-WASH Public Relations/Communication Department is to give visibility to the Program, assure that progress and accomplishments are regularly and effectively communicated and that USAID is given proper credit recognition. The Regional Office Public Relation/Communication officer provided some tools to the partners to allow for smooth and uniform sharing of information. In this aspect and in addition of the Branding and Marking Plan templates, these tools include: 1. WA-WASH brochure in two languages (English/French), this document is a one-page summary of the USAID WASH Program. Around 2,000 brochures have been distributed to various stakeholders. 2. WA-WASH Fact Sheets: These are overviews of the Program thematic areas. So far ten Fact Sheets have been prepared in English and French. 3. WA-WASH invitation card: it contains some pictures reflecting WA-WASH activities and the logos of all partners. It is used for invitations to WA-WASH events. 4. WA-WASH Power Point Presentations (general and detailed): They give an overall view of WA-WASH Program activities. The presentations are presented in English and French.
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In addition, the RO provided some specific instructions to the partners for the following: 5. Procedures for US Embassy involvement in Program activities, 6. USAID WA-WASH wide media rules, 7. Action Memorandum Template, 8. Press Release Template, 9. Briefing Memorandum Template, 10. Guidelines and procedures for submitting ‘success stories’. To facilitate communication among the partners, a Knowledge Management team has been set-up by IRC (see Activity 4.3.1, p40).
2.3.3 Geographical Information Systems
The Geographical Information Systems (GIS) component of the Program seeks to deliver products on activity locations to understand and facilitate decision-making trough spatial representations. The initial works consisted of designing the WA-WASH information system with detailed description of the procedures that build it and the GIS guidelines which have been sent to the WA-WASH partners.
The hard and the soft system is now put in place and composed of one desktop, one laptop, three GPS units and Arcgis and Eziexplorer software. In term of achievements, maps on the Program geographical intervention areas in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger have been produced. In addition, thematic maps related to water point and water system distribution have been developed.
To contribute to the Program capacity building efforts, three Master students from the University of Koudougou benefited this year from GIS (GPS and Arcview) trainings at the Regional Office. These students are currently doing there thesis work at USAID WA-WASH.
2.4 Geographical areas and program synergies 2.4.1 Geographical areas of intervention
Burkina Faso
The partners in Burkina Faso have selected geographical areas of intervention based on different criteria. The focus is on six regions in the Western and Northern part of the country (see Map A03, A04 and A05 in Annex A).
Winrock, SKAT, and FIU (through their local partners PROMACO) decided to focus on regions were access to safe water is the lowest. Boucle du Mouhon is the region with the lowest potable water use rate (39.8% households1). This situation can be explained by a relatively high water table in the region, and with people getting access to surface water easier then groundwater.
Winrock and SKAT wanted to work in region were people easily access water to provide improvement to their water sources. Therefore they examined the regions’ with a focus on Boucle du Mouhon, Sud Ouest and Centre-Ouest.
1 Annual survey of households living conditions (2007).
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The choice by Winrock and PROMACO of the suburban area of Ouagadougou consists of rural communes in the Centre region. This is justified by the fact that these areas even close to Ouagadougou, the capital city do not benefit from the same advantages as the urban area itself. It can become a good showcase of what the program WA-WASH is doing.
WaterAid has chosen the commune of intervention in line with their previous experiences in Burkina Faso and concentrated their work in the West of the country, to align with the other WA-WASH partners.
IRC field activities in Burkina Faso are oriented toward the development and testing of various service delivery models. These activities are taking place in the Sahel region. The reasons for selecting this region are:
1. The Sahel is the only region in Burkina Faso where the 2000 WASH reform is fully implemented. The local institutional framework, which separates regulatory and management responsibilities is in place. Local decision makers (at communal and community levels) are aware and trained to reflect on the quality of the service provided and the limitations of village and/or communal scale to improve the sustainability of water provision.
2. A large set of diverse management models has been tested for five years and stakeholders (local authorities, water users association, small private operators, NGOs) are interested in developing / improving management skills and functions at scale, to provide water services that last.
3. Functionality of water points is a major issue. In the Sahel, there is no alternative water for users and the investment cost of any water point is high (underground water, depth 60 to 100m).
4. There are large infrastructure projects to support the testing and replication of cost-effective management models at scale. Eau Vive, one of IRC partners implements large infrastructure projects in the Sahel (funding received from AFD and EU €4 M, 2011-2015).
Furthermore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources through its Direction Générale des Resources en Eau and the Regional Directorate will support the initiative in the Sahel region and facilitate the replication at scale in the Sahel and other regions of the successful management models tested.
Niger
In Niger, WaterAid has selected Tahoua, Tilabery, and Dosso because they are the regions with the lowest availability of water and sanitation. In addition, they have the highest level of poverty and a high incidence of water related diseases.
Winrock and Animas Sutura based the selection of the region on the previous experience of work. The intervention village selection is based on the work done under WAWI in Niger. Under WA-WASH, Animas planned to reinforce the utilization of Aquatab, while expanding it to the villages in the same regions (see Map A06 and A07 in Annex A).
Ghana
In Ghana, all the partners will be working in the Northern part of the country because the access rate to water and sanitation services are the lowest in the country. The intervention villages are located in the Northern, the Upper East and the Upper West regions (see Map A08 and A09 in Annex A).
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Mali
Mali is not a priority right now given the political instability and the potential of a military intervention in the northern part of the country. For the time being, we have to wait and see how things develop there before we can prepare a revised Work Plan for Mali and decide on the geographical areas of intervention.
2.4.2 Synergies between activities
Knowledge Management Approach
Our approach is to bring out how knowledge management can lead to change through face to face meetings, social network, and information repository (see chart in Annex A10). The combination of these building blocks with actions like activity implementation, information collection and facilitation produces knowledge used to build capacities. The overall goal is to improve capacities, expecting that this leads to improved sector performance. During the first year, the implementing efforts were oriented towards the application of this approach.
While our knowledge management approach has not been fully implemented (knowledge platform not ready), we have started to put in place a knowledge management framework (see Activity 4.3.1, p40). This consists of blogs, sharing activities in a common calendar accessible by partners.
The knowledge platform will offer a space for interactions among the partners to help harmonization of all activities in the program implementation. It is expected to see on this platform, analytical documents and joint reports showing the synergies between the components of the Program, taking place in the same geographical areas.
Sustainability of WASH Provision
One of the program focus is to ensure that the services brought to the households are sustainable (See chart in Annex A11). During the first year, efforts were made to harmonize partners’ approach to capacity building with the organization of a workshop will all partners (see Activity 4.1.3, p39). The beneficiaries of capacity building activities include officials, practitioners and project planners from local to national and regional levels. In order to move forward in sustaining WA-WASH interventions, the capacity building efforts will integrate all the Program thematic areas. The expectation here is to have integrated capacity building content. For example, training related to water services should include food security, MUS and climate change aspects.
MUS and Self-Supply activities are ready to be implemented in Burkina Faso and Niger. The Point of Use treatment activities are in the pipeline in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger. It is expected that all these activities will lead to sustainable WASH provision. IRC is focusing on the management of water services to ensure the sustainability of the management approach that is going to be shared with the partners (see chart in Annex A02).
An important aspect of sustaining WASH provision is the implication of the beneficiaries. Therefore, all sustainability efforts will include the participation of the beneficiaries. The gender specialist has been working to highlight gender issues during the program activities implementation.
Climate change adaptation linkages
The objective of WA-WASH interventions is to link WASH services to food security and climate change adaptation measures in order to build synergies between these areas with the idea that achievement in one
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of them provokes improvements or changes in the others (see chart in Annex A12). Moving forward, WASH capacity building activities (WIS XIII, Capacity Building Forum and specific partners’ contributions) reinforced stakeholders’ skills. To help information dissemination and sharing, the knowledge management team, in collaboration with FIU is working on a platform accessible for the WASH communities. To expend WASH Public and Private Partnerships, BPD conducted assessments to determine opportunities to develop partnership in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger.
All these efforts, including training of local communities to adapt to Climate Change are executed in the prospect that the progress made will provide more resources and more skills to households while taking into consideration climate smart technologies and infrastructures.
Based on the multiple linkages that exist between climate change, WASH and food security, we started to develop for the Year 2, a strategy that allows tackling effectively the negative impacts of climate change on WASH services and food security. This strategy will be derived from a process of assessing climate change and variability impacts on the main results and activities of the program and proposing a specific solution for each impact.
WASH- MUS - Food security and Climate Change links
The activities related to MUS, climate change and food security are linked (see chart in Annex A13) and our program will ensure that our activities on the ground are harmonized. More specifically, we will ensure that our interventions are concentrated in very specific geographical areas. For example, we will be implemented PoU, MUS, CLTS and other activities in the same communes and in some cases in the same villages. The objective of this approach is to ensure that the interventions in one sector are amplifying the results in the others.
The five pillars of the USAID WA-WASH program are: innovative WASH services, WASH sustainability, Food security integration, Climate change and Enabling environment and capacity building. All the activities implemented by the program and the partners leading each activity are shown in the Thematic Overview chart in Annex A02.
In order for our program to move forward with the implementation of activities that link all aspects of the program namely gender and climate change, we have hired a Gender Specialist who started working with Winrock in order to ensure gender considerations are taken in account (see Activity 2.5 p24). A Climate Change Specialist will join the program October 1, 2012 and he will start the implementation of the adaptation training work but also the rest of the activities (see Activity 3.2 p32) including the integration of climate change adaptation into WA-WASH activities.
In Year 2, we will get micro-financing started which will allow us to address issues related to small investments at the local level. These investments will lead to improvement in the households having access to domestic and productive water, better nutrition and higher resilience to climate change. This effort is geared towards the provision of the domestic water and its increased availability for households in the target areas. In the last quarter of the year, we established contacts with CORIS Bank to explore partnership with this bank to support our micro-finance activities. However, we have not implemented any micro- finance activities due to the lack of micro-finance specialist.
Policy Influencing Theory of Change
The Program synergy approach includes also the role of Policy to influence change (see chart in Annex A14). Policy- and decision-makers are important stakeholders for the WA-WASH Program. Decision-making is taking place at various levels. Therefore, during the life of the program, all the actions, including capacity
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building, dialogues and information dissemination and sharing will target organizations and individuals from local, national and regional levels. All partners and in particular WaterAid are expected to integrate this aspect in their activity in order to reach the appropriate stakeholders. The objective is to examine whether or not the laws and policies are working and how they are actually working. Advocacy and policy influencing can then take place with feedback from the field.
Capacity Building Approach and Synergies
This year, our program implemented a number of capacity building activities. These activities were in line with the approach that the program has put in place to reach stakeholders at difference levels and within different organization in the public, private and non-profit sectors. While we conducted some activities in Ghana and Niger, we concentrated our efforts in Burkina Faso where we worked with a certain number of stakeholders (see chart in Annex A15).
Local governments, national institutions, regional organizations have been reached though the 13th Water Information Summit (WIS XIII) (see Activity 4.3.2, p40), the Capacity Building Forum (see Activity 4.1.3, p 39.), and the Workshop on Multiple Use Services (MUS) (see Activity 1.1 p15).The main goal of all of these activities was to reinforce water management organizations skills to sustain WASH resources and investments in the WASH sector. In addition, to understand the needs for capacity building, we have conducted an assessment of the human resources capacity gap in the WASH sector in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Senegal. This effort was conducted by local organizations in collaboration with IWA and covered the following organizations: non-governmental organizations, community based organization, private companies, and public agencies. Validation workshops involving local stakeholders followed these assessments.
Ultimately, the Capacity Building Forum held with the partners and stakeholders in July in Ouagadougou was an opportunity to help us develop a comprehensive Capacity Building Framework that covers all the activities planned by all the implementing partners for the life of the program. This document will be ready the first quarter of YR2.
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3 Burkina Faso
The activities that took place in Burkina Faso were part of the Sub-Intermediate Results and are discussed in the following Sections. However, it should be noted that not all planned activities took place for reason discussed earlier in this document. In Burkina Faso, the partners that started their activities on the ground this year are: BPD, FIU, IRC, IWA, SKAT and Winrock. This year saw the start of the capacity building, Triple S, MUS, human resource gap assessments, baselines, etc. The geographical areas of intervention in Burkina Faso were defined in collaboration with the partners. However, it appears that we still need to tweak the selection of the village level to increase the efficiency and overall impact of the Program. Our efforts will be concentrated on six regions2 in the north and northern parts of the country (See Map A03, A04 and A05 in Annex A).
3.1 Intermediate Result A.: Increased community access to potable water and improved sanitation
This intermediate result is a very important result in that it deals with access to water by the local population in many villages around Burkina Faso. To kick start the activities under this result, an assessment was undertaken by Winrock (see Activity 1.1, p15) to identify the geographical areas of intervention. Through three trips to Burkina Faso, SKAT identified key stakeholders and the regions where the self-supply activity could take place (see Activity 1.3, p19). The activities on the ground of these two partners led to a better understanding of the situation in Burkina Faso and the development of Year 2 Work Plan.
3.1.1 Sub-Intermediate Results A.1.: Improved access to and quality of sustainable water supply services for domestic and productive purposes
Two major activities contributed to this Sub-Intermediate Result: Multiple Use Services (MUS) provision and Self-Supply which were started by Winrock and SKAT Foundation, respectively. The overall goal of the MUS component is to introduce economically and technically viable multiple-use water services that enable poor rural households to achieve sustainable and equitable improvements in access to water, health, hygiene, food security and income.
By the end of the project, Winrock will be able to validate the replicability of the approach and identify viable financial and institutional best practices for wider learning and scale-up in West Africa. The component will build upon the successes of the MUS work carried out by Winrock in Niger and expand technical know-how and lessons learned into Burkina Faso. The primary MUS-related objectives are to: (1) Identify promising locations for implementing MUS; (2) Provide reliable access to multiple-use water services that sustainably meet domestic and productive water needs; (3) Improve health for poor rural households by providing access to safe drinking water and promoting improved hygiene practices at the household level; (4) Increase annual incomes, enhance food security, and diversify livelihoods of poor rural households through locally appropriate strategies that support and sustain incomes from productive water use activities, focusing on horticulture and livestock; (5) Catalyze a supportive environment for MUS learning, replication,
2 Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre, Centre-Ouest, Sud-Ouest, Nord and Sahel
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and scale-up – through outreach, education, and multi-stakeholder MUS learning workshops. Gender and food security questions are linked to the overall MUS approach throughout the WA-WASH Program.
o Activity 1.1: Multiple Use Services (MUS) Provision
The main achievement by Winrock during Year 1 in starting implementing MUS is the identification of promising communes and villages for project implementation, with the involvement of the local authorities and technical services. The first set of communes is: Komki-Ipala, Tanghin-Dassouri in Centre region; Koudougou, Tenado in Centre Ouest region; Kona, Oury, Bagassi in Boucle du Mouhoun region. The first wave of villages for the project implementation includes: Weglega, Koudiere, Vipalogho, Koukouldi, Tiogo Mossi, Nana, Oullo, Yaro-Moko.
This choice was made through a selection process including: (1) field visits; (2) discussion with population; and (3) advice of Photo 2: Pre-selection of location of Winrock intervention with local authorities (August 2012, Burkina Faso) local authorities and local government technical services. The (Technical service staff of Koudougou is presenting a list a strategy used to select the communities for the first wave of promising areas / sites) program implementation involved looking for areas with a common set of water challenges so that the project can solve water issues with technology solutions that the private sector (with appropriate training ) can address during the project and after the project. This is linked to supply chain development activities for low cost boreholes and alternative water supply sources.
A two-day MUS training workshop was organized for Winrock’s project staff in Burkina Faso on August 13-14, 2012 in Ouagadougou. It was delivered by Mr. Roland Tapia, a Winrock MUS consultant. Two other MUS training workshops in Burkina Photo 3: Introductory MUS training workshop Faso for project partners followed. The first one was held (August 2012, Burkina Faso) August 16-17, 2012. It was an introductory MUS workshop for Burkina Faso government technical services and Regional Councils members in Winrock’s geographical area of intervention. USAID WA-WASH partners were also invited. This training was delivered by a Winrock MUS consultant to an audience of 28 people. Documentaries shown to participants included: (1) the video “Keeping the Water Flowing: Winrock's Multiple-Use Water Services”3 and (2) the video “A Kabori Story: Multiple-Use Water Services in Action”4. MUS Briefing material was made available in French and in English (see Annex C03).
A second introduction to MUS Approach for government technical services and representatives of communes and villages from Winrock’s geographical area of intervention took place on September 19, 2012 in Koudougou during the baseline survey restitution.
3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP3CfPdmunQ 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SgdV8lI6xs&feature=related
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The baseline survey was completed with the consultant Adaman Ouedraogo (supported by Lisa Jackson) in August and September. Baseline reports and data tables are available and are being translated into English (see Annex C02). The baseline will allow proper tracking of changes that might occur as a result of program intervention.
Once the geographical areas of intervention have been chosen in Burkina Faso, visits by Winrock staff were Photo 4: Restitution and validation workshop of the organized September 10-11, 2012 to each of the Winrock Winrock baseline survey (Sept 2012, Burkina Faso) intervention communes to officially present the MUS activities within the USAID WA-WASH Program on.
To summarize, Winrock achievements during this first period contributed to the following expected activities:
Sub-Activity 1.1.1: Identification of the most promising options and areas for developing a MUS program in Burkina Faso and Mali, and development of an implementation plan.
Sub-Activity 1.1.5: Increased awareness of MUS and creation of a supportive environment for MUS learning, replication, and scale-up. Key ministries in Niger and Burkina Faso, WA-WASH partners, NGOs,
and sector professionals understand MUS and our Photo 5: Official presentation of the USAID WA-WASH project activities; have received MUS briefing Program and MUS Component in Oury Commune packets; and have been invited to participate in the (Sept 2012, Burkina Faso) Learning Workshops and related events. The project staff is trained on key “MUS messages.”
The following publications have been produced by Winrock:
Field visits in Burkina Faso report (by the consultant Roland Tapia, September 2012; see Annex C01). Training and meeting report (by the consultant Roland Tapia, September 2012). A Guide to Multiple-Use Water Services (see deliverable C03 BF 1.1.DEL3 in Annex C03). Baseline survey in Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre Ouest and Centre Regions (September 2012) (see in Annex C02).
Activities planned by Winrock for Year 2 consist of:
Finalization of staff recruitment. Start of implementation of established Multiple Use Services (MUS): - Develop Water Accounting Framework. - Conduct detailed water accounting in the selected first wave of localities in Burkina Faso. - Develop water service options.
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- Start the selection and installation/upgrade of water sources for domestic and productive activities. - Train staff on hygiene/annotated PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Program). Participation in the Winrock MUS Team Meeting in Rwanda (November 9 – 18, 2012).
o Activity 1.2: Low-Cost Boreholes
Under this activity, Winrock has been working on Sub-Activity 1.2.1: Identification of promising drilling methods, teams, opportunities and needs in Burkina Faso. In particular, identification of 2-3 promising, demand-driven, appropriate drilling methods for increasing domestic and productive water supply along with potential drilling teams, their needs and opportunities.
In May 2012, the Winrock Project Director and Denis Tapsoba, low-cost borehole expert, conducted an initial rapid assessment of the low cost boreholes (introduced by agriculture projects during the previous ten years). The main finding is that small motorized augur might be an interesting technical drilling option in the context of laterite soil in Burkina Faso. Winrock has experience with such equipment. In the context of Burkina Faso, the preliminary tests of this equipment were promising (see Annex C04).
In August 5-20, 2012, Mr. Tapia, MUS consultant, provided Winrock with technical advice and analysis to support MUS implementation in Burkina Faso. He evaluated options to improve traditional wells in the context of MUS. The main conclusions are described below.
The fields visit in Burkina Faso showed that most of the geological formations include rocks and stones between the ground surface and the water table. This means that digging boreholes can only be done by percussion or motorized drillings, making it difficult to do low cost drilling. Moreover, it seems local drilling teams have no Photo 6: Technical assessment of a traditional well in experience on manual percussion. However, improved Koudougou area (August 2012, Burkina Faso) techniques for hand-dug wells, including underwater digging for deepening and well wall reinforcement, are appropriate in this context.
All areas visited already have a few “modern” boreholes with industrial hand pumps. It was observed that people do not tend to use these hand pumps if they have traditional water points between their house and the hand pump water points. Instead, they use a closer traditional water point even in cases when households have contributed to the cost of these community water points. Generally, we observed a lack of maintenance of these hand pumps.
Most of the wells visited do not provide enough water year-round, whether for irrigation or domestic uses. Dry season drinking water consists of muddy water from these dried wells or queuing for hours at the scarce boreholes. Even concrete lined wells lack water during the peak of the dry season and quality standards of
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the lined wells are poor due to low quality cement/sand mixtures. The majority of productive water wells are private.
Irrigation occurs in many aquifers that are too deep for suction pumping (> 20 meters). Even in a close aquifer situation (6-7 meters water table depth), in dry season or in dry years, the water table deepens to 7- 8 meters and improved irrigation is no longer possible. This leads to financial losses because the whole surface cannot be irrigated by hand. In general, aquifers fluctuations are significant (5 to 10 meters), meaning that drilling or digging activities need to be planned carefully within the seasonal cycles of water table depth.
There is a good potential to increase livelihoods activities by improving wells. Some valleys are not cultivated except for rice crop after the first flood because irrigation is not practiced. In the same way, lot of gardeners lose production time (dry season) and productive acreage because of lack of water and lack of appropriate irrigation devices (most irrigation is done by hand especially with aquifers deeper than 7-8 meters).
Beside the lack of water, many traditional wells are contaminated by run-off during rainfall events. Wells that have been covered by cement slabs to install hand pumps have often been re-opened because the pumps can be perceived as providing unreliable access to water. However, people are more receptive to covered wells in areas where accidents have occurred with people falling into open wells.
The main challenge identified might be the acceptance by the government technical services and users of rehabilitated wells as improved water point.
Photo 7: Pumps broken and broken slab on well and top of well broken by rain runoff observed during Winrock baseline survey in Boucle du Mouhoun (August 2012, Burkina Faso)
In conclusion, Winrock surveys in Burkina Faso (baseline survey and technical hydrological survey) showed that people are largely using their own private traditional wells for domestic and for productive purposes, even if boreholes / pumps existing in villages. There are hundreds of traditional wells in each village, in Winrock geographical areas of intervention, with common technical problems. Based on these findings, Winrock will primarily focus on traditional well improvements through the private sector, including development of pumping low cost technologies such as the rope pump. Also, the existence of such a large number of privately owned wells suggests that it might be worthwhile to introduce and promote low cost technologies with a self-supply approach.
Activities planned by Winrock for the next period under this activity are mainly to:
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Start technical training for drilling teams and installers for selected technologies (low cost boreholes, improved hand-dug wells); Promote the supply chain for low-cost boreholes, improved hand-dug wells.
o Activity 1.3: Provide water supply through Household Water Self Supply
With the assumption that supplies which have been improved with household investment (Self‐Supply) tend to be more effectively managed and maintained, SKAT proposed Self Supply activities for WA-WASH. Out of the four WA-WASH intervention countries (Mali, Niger, Ghana and Burkina Faso), SKAT had originally chosen Mali and Niger. These two countries have the lowest access rates to improved water sources and are therefore the ones most in need for support.
Due to the instability in Niger and Mali, SKAT decided to shift all the activities to Burkina Faso. In April, SKAT activities started without delays due to the support from the Regional Office and other partners. As Self- Supply was not implemented in Burkina Faso before, the first year had to focus on identifying relevant stakeholders and assessing the level of introduced technologies, market skills, market research and training needs.
SKAT has developed some experience on Self Supply in other countries and in similar conditions. To enable and encourage rural communities to make their own investments to improve their water source, four supporting pillars are required: (1) technology and technical advice for consumers; (2) a developed private sector; (3) access to micro‐credit or savings mechanisms and (4) policies and enabling environment which encourages individual initiatives. These pillars are particularly relevant in small or remote communities where there is easy access to groundwater or plentiful rainwater, often used for productive as well as drinking water supplies.
SKAT has conducted three missions in Burkina Faso in order to assess the presence of those pillars and need for the approach. The first visit that took place in April 2012 served for (1) identification of and coordination with key stakeholders (government and WA-WASH partners) and (2) defining regions for feasibility study. SKAT identified the following regions as priority areas based on access rate and geology criteria: Sahel, Est, Boucle de Mouhoun, Sud-Ouest, Centre Ouest and Cascades. Four of these regions were visited: Sahel, Sud- Ouest, Centre Ouest and Cascades. Taking into account various criteria, including where other WA-WASH partners are working, the following six regions are regarded as potential Self Supply intervention areas: Boucle de Mouhoun, Sud-Ouest, Sahel, Centre Ouest, Cascades. The greatest need but also most difficult situation is found in the Sahel.
As a result of the first visit, SKAT entrusted the local NGO Varena Asso to conduct a feasibility study in the regions of the Sud Ouest (Province Loba) and the Boucle de Mouhoun (Province Balé). Varena Asso assessed 120 water points in 14 villages of seven communes in these two provinces (see Table 1 below). These seven communes in Loba and Balé formed the geographical scope of the baseline study. During the second visit in June, SKAT staff and the international consultant Sally Sutton supported and accompanied Varena Asso in conducting the research.
Table 1: Summary of water points assessed in 14 villages in two provinces of Burkina Faso for Self Supply feasibility
Provinces Boreholes Modern Well Traditional Well Total water sources
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Total % assessed Total Number (%) Total Number (%) Total Number (%) Number Number of assessed Number of assessed Number of assessed Balé (Mouhoun) 47 0% 17 4 (24%) 259 54 (21%) 323 58 (18%) Loba (Sud Ouest) 48 0% 33 18 (55%) 148 44 (30%) 229 62(27%) Total 95 0% 50 22 (78%) 407 98 (51%) 552 120 (22%)
Data collected from communities and local authorities as well as their analysis is provided in Annex B04. Some of the main results from the feasibility study are summarized in Table 1 above. They show that:
- In the assessed villages of the Boucle de Mouhoun, traditional wells represent a relatively high proportion (80%) of water sources available. Boreholes including those broken down represent a proportion of 15% and modern wells make up 5% of water sources5. - In the assessed villages of the Sud-Ouest, traditional wells made up 65 % of water sources, boreholes 21% and modern wells 14%. - The water of the majority (95%) of the 98 assessed traditional wells is used as drinking water by households. Interest and potential for implementation of the approach (Accelerating Self Supply - ACCESS) can be found at various levels- at community level, with NGOs, and with the private sector. Indeed, communities are already making considerable efforts to improve their water supply and would consent to improve private traditional wells (PT) as well as modern community wells (PM). Moreover, artisans and well diggers are present in the study area and can contribute to necessary training on water source improvement in small affordable steps. However, the national policy and the various technical services (DGRE, Ministry of Agriculture) are against this approach because the government policy is too construct and accept as drinking water source only boreholes. To support the development of shallow well sounds like going backwards even if this is the reality for many people. This issue has been discussed with the representative of national organisation and the DGRE and it was decided that the approach can still be piloted, putting much attention on water quality issues and avoiding competition with already existing infrastructures such as boreholes.
A third visit in July, where SKAT also participated in the WA-WASH partners’ meeting, served for defining, planning and costing the way forward with Varena Asso to continue with the Pilot in Year 2. For administrative and budget constraints, SKAT decided not to continue as a WA-WASH partner, although they will stay available on a consultancy basis. The Self Supply became FIU’s responsibility and FIU is going to contract Varena Asso to continue the work started by SKAT.
o Activity 1.4: Alternative Water Supply Source Development
Sub-Activity 1.4.1.: Introducing 3R in Burkina Faso The RAIN Foundation was asked to look into alternative and innovative water supply sources to serve deprived rural population groups in Mali. RAIN has developed a proposal for intervention in Mali within the WA-WASH Program on Activity 1.4 ‘Alternative Water Supply Development’. Unfortunately, the security situation in Mali has deteriorated after the coup in March 2012 (just after they had signed the contract with FIU) to such an extent that all activities had to be put on hold until further notice. As a result, intended activities did not start as planned in Year 1. As the situation in Mali did not seem to be getting better, and RAIN Foundation as well as FIU did not want to proceed with activities there, the Regional Office proposed a shift of intervention plans from Mali towards Burkina Faso in June 2012.
Considering the geophysical/climatological appropriateness of rainwater harvesting and work already going on in that country by WA-WASH partners, RAIN proposed to concentrate on the Sahel. In the Sahel region, rainwater harvesting is a good alternative in response to the high water scarcity and the failing water points. People are very eager to find alternative solutions as the need is really high. As a consequence, people are
5 The difference from the national census and JMP comes from the fact that traditional wells are normally not accounted for.
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very willing to invest in alternative solutions. RAIN Foundation has had a vast experience in the Sahel region for the last six years, with several partner NGOs and with several rain water harvesting (RWH) technologies. It will be able to build further on these experiences and this network to scale up the activities.
Next to a geographical shift, the move to Burkina Faso also implied changes in sub-activities. As the contextual elements in Burkina Faso differ somewhat from those of Mali (e.g. longer and more diversified experiences of the RAIN Foundation and its partner NGOs, no current Rainwater Harvesting Capacity Center (RHCC) available, collaboration and co-financing possibilities with Acacia Water and 3R Consortium) and as all interventions require a tailor made approach, the activity plan could not be copied from Mali to Burkina Faso. The budget also needed to be adapted according to this proposed country and sub-activity shifted, although the total budget was not affected.
While agreement for this change was obtained fairly quickly from the FIU Burkina Faso office, the contractual adaptation is still ongoing. Notwithstanding RAIN did start from July 2012 onwards to re- orientate its program activities towards Burkina Faso: their local partners were contacted to see which party would be interested and best suited to join as implementing partner in the WA-WASH Program. The organization the association des Volontaires au Développement du Sahel (VDS) was selected as the most suited implementing partner. The project identification mission, consisting of a sub-catchment definition, a needs assessment and inventory of possibilities, is planned for October 2012, after the rainy season.
RAIN Foundation continued preparations in the Netherlands for a sub-catchment identification mission planned for October 2012 (see Annex C05), and the organization of an international 3R training in the Netherlands planned for November 2012. In September 2012, preparations of the above were finalized. Also, collaboration with the other WA-WASH partners is being intensified: RAIN Foundation is in contact with CARE to collaborate on CVCA and gender mainstreaming, with Winrock to collaborate on MUS and with IRC and UNESCO-IHE to seek alignment or complementarities between their respective program activities.
In the first quarter of Year 2 the sub-catchment where RAIN will intervene will be identified. A baseline will take place, including CVCA and gender assessment, in collaboration with CARE. The implementing partner will attend a 3R training in the Netherlands and implementation plans will be detailed. Implementation in the field will start the second quarter of Year 2.
Sub-Activity 1.4.2: Strengthen the supply chain for low-cost alternative technologies
Under Activity 1.4.3, and to complete the MUS initial start-up, Winrock defined as objective to identify two promising, demand-driven, appropriate technologies and approaches for increasing domestic and productive water supply both in Niger and Burkina Faso and develop their supply chain. During the first field visit by Winrock Project Director in May 2012 (mentioned above in Activity 1.1, p15), a rapid assessment of a couple of alternative water supply source options was conducted (see Annex C06). The main technologies identified are: (1) treadle pumps for irrigation called Nafasoro pumps are being introduced in Burkina Faso by KickStart Mali and are suitable for 500 m² garden Photo 8: Nafasoro pumps in the Mouhoun Region (May size and 6 m water table depth; (2) Volonta pump for 2012, Burkina Faso) potable water are commonly installed in the field; and (3) rope pumps which have been introduced by WaterAid in a couple of areas.
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For greater adoption of rope pumps, we will need to: (1) decrease the price; (2) install them for small communities and (3) create an introduction/ marketing plan. Roland Tapia, a consultant for Winrock, suggested further evaluation of the following technologies, depending on the water table level and use: Nafasoro treadle pump Rope pump Rope pump with pedals for irrigation
Under this activity, the main actions planned by Winrock for the Year 2 are: Select promising technologies, train manufacturer and promote supply chain for low-cost water lifting technologies Participate in the Private Sector Technical Exchange in Tanzania (5 – 9 November), with the following objectives: - Share experience and learning on low-cost technologies and related private sector work and understand the approach used by Winrock’s in Tanzania to successfully partner with the private sector for broadened impact. Technologies include: current technologies such as pump manufacturing (rope/treadle), low cost drilling methods, other technologies (filters, drip irrigation) and potential new technologies such as rainwater harvesting, solar pumps, small reticulated systems. Private sector work includes: technical training, business development services training, and building partnerships with private sector and NGOs for scaling up. - Focus discussions will be on technical designs; business development services; training and private sector support; structuring arrangements for working with private sector (best practices for agreements/terms of engagement including business practices and quality control, and designing agreements within Winrock’s contracts department) partnership development for scaling-up private sector work and opportunities for collaboration.
3.1.2 Sub-Intermediate Result A.2. Improved access to and use of sustainable sanitation services (Activity 1.5 and 1.6)
WaterAid is the partner specialised in sanitation among the WA-WASH partners and for the time being has not started field operations in Burkina Faso. However, some planning activities took place as discussed below.
o Activity 1.5: CLTS and Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing
It seems that WaterAid spent a lot of time planning their work. The following activities took place to set-up WaterAid work in Burkina Faso.
Management support
On June 1, 2012, WaterAid America (WAA) organized a meeting (via Skype) for WaterAid implementing partners in order to promote effective management, update the Country Representatives (CRs) from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger on the status of the WA-WASH Program, and outline dates of upcoming start-up workshops and meetings. This meeting also outlined clear communication channels between WA- WASH/WAA and WaterAid West Africa (WAWA), and clarified lines of communication between WaterAid teams and WA-WASH/FIU. During the meeting, discussion about geographical areas of interventions, specific country budgets and workplans took place. Relevant information was shared regarding future activities
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spanning June to July 2012, which included start-up workshops in Ghana and Burkina, the WA-WASH launch, the partners’ meeting, and the Capacity Building Forum.
In addition, WAA (with support from the WaterAid West Africa Regional Team) organized a start-up workshop in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) July 11-12, 2012 to inform and refresh WAB and WANi staff and their partners, including selected local government staff on USAID rules and regulations (see Annex B05). The workshop detailed USAID rules and procedures (procedures, reporting requirements, cost principles, procurement procedures, etc.), and included further explanations regarding Ghana, Burkina and Niger outputs and indicators. Three partners of WANi were also able to participate in the workshop in Ouagadougou, namely GAMA, AREN and DEMI-E .
On–the-ground activities
A meeting was held on July 30-31, 2012 in Ouagadougou in order to plan activities with implementing partners (see Annex B06). The objective was to convey feedback to the implementing partners about the workshops for which WAB assisted and to plan the project activities. WAB also started planning activities within the municipalities and presented the project to the Communes. The activity Conduct Monitoring and Evaluation visits, which cover the collection of baseline data for the implementation of CLTS activities did not happen because of rain that made the sites inaccessible. WAB will perform this activity in October 2012. At this time, WAB has not selected the villages and has not conducted the baseline studies at village level. SASO, VARENA-ASSO and Action Micro Barrage AMB were only just able to initiate implementation activities in September.
In Burkina Faso, WAB is working in partnership with field level implementers, namely Sahel Solidarité (SASO), VARENA-ASSO and Action Micro Barrage (AMB). WAB also has made contacts with Winrock, CARE, IRC, International Water Association (IWA), SKAT and Rainwater Harvesting Implementation Network (RAIN).
In Burkina Faso, WaterAid has chosen to implement the activities in three regions and four Communes, as follows: North Region: Bokin Commune; South-West Region: Dano Commune; Center-West Region: Ramongo and Imasgo Communes.
Following the launch of WA-WASH in July and the start-up workshop in Burkina Faso, WAB has laid the groundwork to deliver WASH services and build local capacity. During the coming months, progress will accelerate in Burkina Faso as they move into the implementation phase of the Program.
In Burkina Faso, WAB will conduct 16 baseline surveys in October and November 2012, as stated in the updated Work Plans, and initiate implementation activities. WAB will generate demand for sanitation in villages, start the construction/rehabilitation of latrines and establish sanitation markets. Regarding capacity building, WAB will hold training sessions to promote awareness of good hygienic practices, conduct refresher training session for masons, promote hygiene and sanitation in schools and communities through information sessions, and organize training for technical staff of local and national governments. WAB will also undertake project monitoring and evaluation activities, as well as field visits.
3.1.3 Sub-Intermediate Result A.3. Increased adoption of key hygiene behaviors
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o Activity 1.5: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
Nothing has been done on the ground except for some internal planning by WaterAid (see Section 3.1.2, above).
o Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing
Nothing has been done on the ground except for some internal planning by WaterAid (see Section 3.1.2 above).
o Activity 1.7: Safe Water Handling, Storage, and Point-of-Use (PoU)
For the implementation of Safe Water Handling, Storage and Point-of-Use (PoU), FIU has identified PROMACO (Programme de Marketing Social et de Communication pour la Santé), a local NGO specialized in Social Marketing to implement this activity. PROMACO concluded a feasibility study under the WAWI Program to determine which type of PoU is more suitable for household. The results of the study showed that the Aquatabs are the most suitable and, thus, have been chosen to be used by USAID WA-WASH. During this first year of implementation, work with PROMACO took place to define their proposal and budget. The Term of Reference has been agreed to and all the administrative documents (registration with FIU, NUPAS, etc) are now ready. It is expected that the contract will be signed in the coming weeks and implementation of this activity will start with promotion campaign and set-up of distribution network for selling Aquatabs.
Furthermore, the RO has prepared plans to undertake a survey of all water wells (traditional, improved and modern) in each of the regions where this activity will take place.
o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
After several months of delays, CARE finally recruited a Gender Specialist on a part–time basis. This specialist is based at the Regional Office and has initiated some exchanges with Winrock gender specialist. An initial survey of the WA-WASH implementing partners was conducted in September with two main objectives:
- Assess the baseline for PMP Indicator. 39 “Number of gender specific actions into WA-WASH plans developed and implemented” by WA-WASH partners in Fiscal Year 2012, the first year of WA-WASH program activities.
- Take preliminary stock of each partner’s level of experience with gender integration and gender tools. This will help mainstreaming gender in activities planned for fiscal year 2013.
The survey showed that gender specific actions in individual partner Work Plans for fiscal year 2012 consisted of gender disaggregation of baseline surveys, which can be considered analysis focused activities. It also indicates the importance of providing contextual information on this PMP indicator, since the number and content of gender specific actions will be linked to phases in the project cycle and also to the scope of work of each partner (see Annex C10).
The survey also suggests that USAID WA-WASH partners’ experience range from moderately to highly experienced with gender integration concepts and tools. This preliminary snapshot of USAID WA-WASH partners’ gender capacity is the first step in a much more in-depth assessments of each partner’s gender
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capacities, strengths, gaps and tools, that is one of the joint gender mainstreaming activities in Winrock’s and CARE’s 2013 Work Plan.
Activities planned by Winrock in collaboration with CARE for YR2 are (see Annex C10):
Conduct gender review of each partner’s Work Plan, PMP and budget Conduct peer review assessment of USAID WA-WASH+ partners’ gender integration capacity. Identify WASH gender champions / program resources / potential partners in each country. Develop a concise background brief for WA-WASH partners and field staff to illustrate WASH gender issues based on gender in the life-cycle of each major activity. Develop short gender integration HOW- TO paper for WA-WASH partner field staff. Plan and hold WA-WASH Partner Gender Integration workshop in Ouagadougou. The dates will be determined in collaboration with project partners to maximize participation and enhance cost- effectiveness.
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3.2 Intermediate Result B.: Improved sustainability of WASH services
The improvement of the sustainability of WASH services through different models and advocacy with local and national government is the goal of the activities to be undertaken by a number of partners under this intermediate result. For YR1 it is IRC that started to work on this extensive baseline date gathering in the Sahel Region. The result of the data analysis will allow to test model to improve the management of water services. The model that will be used can influence the policy of the government and will help in replicating the approach at the National level.
The advocacy work (WaterAid) and WASH financing will start in Year 2.
3.2.1 Sub-Intermediate Result B1. Adoption of replicable and sustainable WASH management approaches
o Activity 2.1: Triple-S Initiative / District Sustainability Models Activity 2.1 for developing District sustainability models is done by IRC in the Sahel Region of Burkina Faso. For this activity, IRC is partnering with the NGO Eau Vive, which is implementing in parallel a Water and Sanitation Project funded by the European Union, called Eau Sahel, and aims at providing improved water and sanitation infrastructure. There are important synergies between the two programmes.
Year 1 was dedicated to the build-up of a comprehensive baseline covering three key aspects; (1) the performance of existing water management models, (2) the costs incurred to maintain facilities and (3) the users’ perspectives on the current level of service rendered. The baseline was conducted in nine communes, with an overall population of 276,600 inhabitants. Although the official beginning of Year 1 has been postponed from October to February 2012 (because of contractual delays), two key activities (Action 1 and Action 2) were still conducted between October and November 2011 to prevent irrecoverable delays in the planning, that allowed IRC to implement almost all their WA-WASH planned activities for the Year 1.
Action 1: Data collection tools development and validation
This activity was held in October 2011. As it launches the whole process, it is key for the overall planning. Seven surveys have been developed to cover all the information necessary for a comprehensive baseline. Three types of data have been collected:
1. Information on management processes and challenges (via local water stakeholders such as the commune, the water user associations, the water points managers, etc). 2. Information on costs, both implementation and operational costs of facilities in place. 3. Information on the service offered to users, via a four-day water point survey. This survey is to be administered twice, once during the rainy season (August-November) and once during the dry season (April-June).
Action 2: Data collection To facilitate the accomplishment of the data collection, 36 data enumerators have been recruited and trained on the paper based surveys and the FLOW technology. Enumerators worked in teams of three, two enumerators and one local guide. They all attended a two-days training prior to starting the field work. Most enumerators were rehired for the second phase in April/May 2012. However, a four-days training was held to update all enumerators on the technology. At all Photo 9: Data enumerators training at Eau Vive Sahel’s times, teams were supervised by Eau Vive. offices (April 2012) 26
The data collection process was two-fold: a first data collection phase was held in October 2011. The local parties involved in water management in seven communes (Arbinda, Gorgadji, Mansila, Markoye, Seytenga, Titabé and Tankougounadié) were surveyed. Cost data was also collected and the water point survey was administered in nine villages. The second phase focused on Dori, the 8th commune, as well as on the water point survey (25 villages, including the previous nine) in April/May 2012.
In phase one, data was collected based on paper surveys. Seven surveys were administered, with length varying between three to seven pages. Data collected was then entered in an electronic format and submitted to a verification process. In phase two, data was collected via a smartphone based tool called FLOW6. This technology allows live data transmission into a cloud-based database, as well as it limits data manipulation and entry mistakes. However, this method required additional equipment, including 22 Smartphones (Samsung Galaxy Ace), batteries and converters. The tool will be used throughout the project as a monitoring and data collection device to capture water use patterns and technology breakdowns. A summary of some of the data collected is shown in the tables below. Surveys were conducted in 186 villages and with 802 local stakeholders as shown in the Table 2.
Table 2: Number of local stakeholders surveyed in eight communes in the Sahel
Commune Nb % of Nb water Nb water Nb Nb tap Nb of villages surveyed users points Mechanics points commune villages associations managers managers officials Arbinda 43 100% 48 88 4 6 1 Dori 16 18% 14 44 3 5 0* Gorgadji 16 100% 16 115 2 5 1 Mansila 30 100% 35 90 1 10 1 Markoye 27 100% 27 65 2 9 1 Seytenga 27 100% 27 40 2 6 1 Tankougounadié 13 100% 13 44 1 0 1 Titabé 14 100% 14 54 1 4 1 Total 186 - 194 540 16 45 7 *to be completed in Year 2
At the village level, a survey of water points during the dry and the rainy season was conducted using a sample of three villages per commune to determine water users. Every water point of the 24 villages has been surveyed to collect information on water users resulting in 168 water points surveyed, as shown in Table 3.
Table 3: Number of water point surveyed in the Sahel and period of data collection
Nb of villages Nb water points Data collection Data collection- Communes surveyed dry season rainy season Arbinda 3 22 May 2012 Oct 2011 Dori 3 15 May 2012 Oct 2012 Gorgadji 3 16 May 2012 Oct 2012 Mansila 3 32 May 2012 Oct 2012 Markoye 3 14 May 2012 Oct 2011 Seytenga 3 32 May 2012 Oct 2012 Tankougounadié 3 14 May 2012 Oct 2012 Titabé 3 23 May 2012 Oct 2011 Total 24 168 NA NA
6 More information on this process can be found in the following blog: http://www.akvo.org/blog/?p=6741.
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In addition, costs data was collected in all villages (186) for 842 boreholes and seven small piped network systems (SPNS) (see Table 4).
Table 4: Summary of water points on which cost data were collected in the Sahel
Nb of villages Nb of borehole Nb of SPNS Communes surveyed surveyed Arbinda 43 226 1 Dori 16 67 1 Gorgadji 16 140 1 Mansila 30 127 1 Markoye 27 93 1 Seytenga 27 84 1 Tankougounadié 13 45 0 Titabé 14 60 1 Total 186 842 7
Action 3: Databases Set up and Consolidation
After the data was collected, it had to be processed, classified, and stored to facilitate its access and use. Moreover, data from phase one and phase two had to be merged and harmonised. This process took a significant amount of time and resulted in seven databases: five holding local actors’ data, one holding cost data and one holding water user’s data. Databases are shared among the team members (IRC and Eau Vive) using Dropbox.
Action 4: Data Analysis
The analysis process started in July 2012 with a focus on the assessment of management performances of existing service providers. During July and August, data was processed by the team and seven commune reports were completed. Each commune report assesses communes and water users association (WUA) functions. The conformity of WUA is also measured, based on seven key indicators such as literacy, coverage area etc. The draft reports were shared with the overall team during the Year 2 planning meeting week, and readjusted accordingly. The result is one comprehensive report on the performance of existing management models in seven communes in the Sahel (see Annex C07, C08 and C09).
The baseline is essential to assess the contribution to the Result Framework and monitoring indicators. Although the assessment and analysis has not been finalized. In accordance with the indicators developed for this activity, on number of performing providers and performing authorities, the number can be tentatively estimated, according to the compliance with the regulatory framework. Indeed, from the regulatory framework, IRC derived criteria of performance and if the assessed body is not performing on at least one criterion, it is declared as not performing. As such and although assessment and analysis have not been finalized, it was found that three out of 194 water users associations performing and none of the seven service authorities were performing.
Strengthened national and local policies and governance for WASH service delivery cannot be informed at this time. Tentatively, WASH service approach concepts are still to be integrated in national guidelines for local planning.
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Problems encountered
Three main problems/issues and challenges were encountered during Year 1:
1. A late official startup of activities due to contractual delays. This caused a certain stress on program activities and staff to meet the unchanged deadlines with 5 months less than originally planned. This problem was partly overcome thanks to the team’s dedication.
2. Changes in both IRC and partner Eau Vive key staff members, further complicating the uptake and coordination of activities. This issue has been progressively managed as the new staff are getting at ease in their news roles.
3. On the technical side, the use of smartphones required from the staff a quick uptake and technical challenges, such as battery recharges in the field, were solved after testing a number of options.
Planning for Year 2
Follow up and future activities include:
1. The completion of the data collection at water point in five communes (see Table 3) to be completed in November 2012.
2. The completion of the baseline analysis in December 2012.
3. Feedback to local authorities, including the seven communes’ officials and communal committees for water and sanitation (CCEA) from November to January 2013.
4. The interventions of the CCEA in a selected number of water user associations to further assess specific management challenges and decide on corrective actions that should start in January 2013.
Feedback to communes will happen in a parallel process, feedback to the first commune will be followed by the interventions of the CCEA, while the feedback starts in another commune, etc., with an interruption early December for the municipal elections in the country.
o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking
The WaterAid activities on the Advocacy and Networking have not started in Burkina Faso in Year 1.
3.2.2 Sub-Intermediate Result B.2. Strengthened national and local policies and governance for WASH service delivery and management
The strengthening of the national and local policies and governance for the delivery and management of WASH services in Burkina Faso was mainly an activity that was going to be undertaken by WaterAid. This activity was not started in Year 1.
o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking
This activity was not started in Year 1 by WaterAid.
o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
Please refer to Section 3.1.3 p24 for this section.
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3.2.3 Sub-Intermediate Result B.3.: Increased access to sustainable financing for WASH services
o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH This activity did not take place as planned because CARE has not hired a micro-finance specialist. FIU is in the process of hiring one at the beginning of YR2.
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3.3 Intermediate Result C.: Increased income generation and food security outcomes of WASH investments
The food security and climate change activities planned under this IR were started this year. However, much reflection was needed as how to implement these activities and mainstream some of their components into the WA-WASH activities in relation to water issues. In addition, YR 1 was used to set the stage for the adaptation work by meeting and obtaining information from a number of actors in Burkina Faso.
3.3.1 Sub-Intermediate Result C.1.: Adoption of complementary agricultural technologies and practices in WASH programs
o Activity 3.1: WASH Integration to enhance Food Security Sub –Activity 3.1.1 (b): WASH integration to enhance food security (Regional activities)
For WASH Integration to enhance Food Security in regional activities, UNESCO-IHE is taking the lead. A consultant was hired to start with the inventory on current arrangements, rules and regulations regarding national policies on food security. The appropriate steps have been set in motion to obtain the first expected result: the report on national policies regarding food security, which will serve as a basis document for further planning, action and ground for extending the policies to reach out to WASH activities. It will also be the basis for a workshop to plan future activities.
Sub-Activity 3.1.1 (c): WASH integration to enhance food security (National activities)
During this year, and in accordance with the Program Work Plans, FIU undertook several actions to implement food security activities in Burkina Faso. This activity consists in examining the links between WASH and food security. In addition, it is expected to identify complementary activities that could be funded from WA-WASH sources.
To achieve this, a concept note describing the ways this activity will be implemented has been produced and is under review. In the following step, FIU consulted with USAID/W-AFR, USAID office in Burkina Faso and the Permanent Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organization (SPONG) to derive a list of relevant partners in the WASH and food security sectors.
Sub-Activity 3.1.2(b): WASH-MUS services
Winrock activities have not started on the food security during the first year. For the next period, Winrock plans to: Identify promising market opportunities for productive water use activities and start support for productive water use to improve household food security
The implementation based on the results of the above will occur in the areas where MUS activities have started and will complete the other activities to strengthen the food security component.
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3.3.2 Sub-Intermediate Result C.2.: Increased local and national capacity to adapt to water-related climate change
o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change
Even though the late recruitment of the Climate Change Specialist at the Regional Office did not happen in Year 1, the implementation of the climate change component under the responsibility of FIU included meetings with the National Meteorologique Office, SP/CONEDD (the national department in charge of coordinating all sustainable development policies and actions), CILSS (the Inter-State Committee Against Drought in the Sahel), PANA (the National Adaptation Program), and WSA (Water and Sanitation for Africa), to have an overview of the actions under implementing phase and those planned in the future. Following these consultations, a concept note for the climate change component of the Program has been drafted and sent to USAID/W-AFR for approval.
The Regional Office organized a field trip and various meeting for Ashley Allen, Climate Change specialist for USAID in Washington DC including UNDP, World Bank, SP/CONEDD and CILSS.
3.3.3 Sub-Intermediate Result C.3.: Increased availability of climate resilience information
o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change Refer to the description in the activity above.
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3.4 Intermediate Result D.: Strengthened national and regional enabling environment for integrated WASH.
The strengthening of the local, national and regional environments to enable the integration and the sustainability of the WASH services provided by USAID WA-WASH are an important result to which several local and international partners are contributing.
This involves building the capacity of young professionals and graduate students through internship and training opportunities with USAID WA-WASH partners. In YR1, USAID WA-WASH RO served as a training site for 11 interns (as discussed in Section 2.1.1, p2). Other activities including capacity building forum, workshops are part of this effort.
3.4.1 Sub-Intermediate Result D.1.: Strengthened national and regional organizations in integrated WASH advocacy
There was much collaboration among the partners with regard to capacity building which is an initial and important activities in order to build the capacity of local stakeholders and to promote advocacy through knowledge management and information sharing. A major forum took place to kick start activities under this Intermediate Result and it involved all partners; other activities took place as well to assess different capacities and are discussed below.
o Activity 4.1: Assessment/Diagnostic of Regional Institutional Capacity and Potential in the WASH Sector
Sub –Activity 4.1.1: Assessment of national institutional capacity and potential in WASH
IWA proposed to do a human resource capacity assessment in the water sector in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger and Ghana. This section described the general methodology and the detailed results for Burkina Faso and Senegal. The Niger and Ghana aspects will be discussed further in the report.
While IWA started to connect with its network in the second quarter of Y1, the actual search for local consultant teams was delayed due to the delay in IWA sub-contract with FIU. This delay has significantly impacted the timeline of the activities and resulted in a delayed deliverable, and extending the Activity into Year 2. Since some capacity building partners rely on IWA results, this has an impact on their deliverable as well.
The preparation of the work moved forward, and without the sub-contract in place, IWA decided to translate the methodological framework, in order to support our French speaking countries, Niger, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Much time and effort was exerted into this work, in order to remain consistent with the terms as well as guidance provided in this document. The methodology was reviewed with feedback from the local consultant teams that operated under USAID’s CAP-WASH Program and where needed, small clarifications were inserted. The Excel sheet used by the local team to conduct the survey was also reviewed, to ensure no errors were present in the formulas of this support tool.
IWA separately met with IRC to discuss the coordination of the national and regional capacity assessments and introduced them to the IWA methodological framework. This methodological framework, particularly relevant to the national assessment provided elements that IRC will be able to use in their assessments. This will enhance the efficiency of time and effort used by IRC in developing an assessment framework.
Additionally, IWA connected with UNESCO-IHE, BPD and FIU to discuss how the outcomes of the assessments could inform their capacity building activities. Describing this coordination was one of USAID/W-AFR main requirements.
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The implementation of the country assessments progressed at different speeds across the various countries, but in general the quality of data, as validated by the validation workshops that have occurred up until now, have indicated that the findings represent the reality of human resources capacity in the countries. It shows the lack of investment in human resource development in the countries, as much focus remains upon investment in infrastructure.
IWA acknowledges that the application of the methodology in many countries requires a longer time period than initially planned for in the WA-WASH Work Plan. Particularly this holds for the start of the assessment (engagement of sector and planning of fieldwork). Overall, IWA’s team is satisfied pushing for quality rather than speediness on the results of the assessments, and feels that this provides a good justification for any delays on IWA’s side of the project. This learning will be taken into next IWA country assessments, as the methodology will be scaled up in the future, where the country assessments will be given more time.
Activities in Burkina Faso
IWA started working with the country assessment team in Burkina Faso, under the auspices of USAID’s CAP- WASH Program, where an assessment was performed on the human resource capacity of NGOs and CBOs between October 2011 and February 2012 by the local partner (Oceane Consult International). After this point, the WA-WASH Program would complete the assessment, investigating the human resource capacity in the public and private sectors. The same team was chosen to perform the assessment for WA-WASH and ideally, the timing would have been perfect to do the fieldwork, data collection for the public and private sector at the same time. But this was made hard due to difficulties of engaging with the public sector. However, with a slight delay and strong support from the Regional Office, the country assessment team, effectively strived towards performing the assessment and delivered their final report, validated by various WASH sector professionals.
The team, as prepared under their initial stage, had already planned and adjusted the survey to fit the national context. Additionally, the background research was already performed, providing an extensive overview of the institutional settings, the WASH sector policies and main mechanisms of service provision, as well as population distribution and service coverage figures, and deficits.
When Oceane Consult International, the local team, started to speak with the DGRE about their engagement in the country assessment, DGRE expressed reluctance to be involved. Indicating their intent to do a similar study (that would still need to be designed), they suggested to our local team that they wanted to receive the funding from IWA. The WA-WASH Regional Office was contacted and asked to provide support in solving the problem. Dr BOUKERROU did the mediation and together with IWA’s local team, they managed to convince the new Director of DGRE in June 2012, which was much later than planned.
The team composed of three full-time team members and one manager, planned fieldwork in eight locations in the country. The regions were divided among the three team members who, supplied with methods such as semi-structured interviews and surveys undertook the study within the organisations. Throughout data collection, the team members forwarded the results to their headquarters in Ouagadougou, where an assistant pulled together the data in Excel files, which would allow for easy processing.
The team was immediately able to plan its fieldwork and visit public and private sector organisations. A total of 30 public and 34 private organisations were sampled to investigate their human resource capacity both quantitatively and qualitatively.
The team took approximately three full-weeks of data collection, although as described in the section problems / obstacles, some of the public sector organisations refused to provide data initially. This problem was flagged by the team, but even though the team decided to start their data analysis phase in which a significant time was needed to pull all data together and calculate the averages that needed to be inserted in
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the Excel based tool, that would estimate the shortages. A variety of qualitative analysis methods were used to evaluate the qualitative information that could provide potential explanations to the figures of shortages.
As the human resource supply side was already evaluated in the CAP-WASH project, there remained a need to classify the supply in the four broader disciplines and enter these in the Excel sheet. The team submitted their report or data upon certain stages of progress as well as upon times where the teams needed guidance, or support with the data analysis. Particularly unavailable data was raised as a concern at times, and at times, the team had to get back to the source of data to clarify inconsistencies.
As the final draft report was being prepared, the preparation for the validation workshop started. This workshop was held in parallel to the Capacity Building Forum, organised by FIU, IRC and IWA. This was done in order to avoid having to bring the sector professionals together on various occasions. The draft report was sent to a variety of sector professionals who had been supportive in the data collection, and they were invited to attend the workshop on July 17. In addition, the Regional Director in collaboration with OCI organized a meeting with DGRE General Director and his staff to discuss the report findings before the validation workshop. The meeting was an opportunity to get the buy-in of the DGRE and to maintain contact with the local authorities.
IWA presented the Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Niger case on Monday July 16, 2012, particularly directed at the WA-WASH partners in the consortium. In response to this presentation, the partners were allowed to ask questions, and ask for clarifications to inform their activities.
On July 17, 2012, Oceane Consult International hosted the validation workshop, where over 25 participants representing NGOs, private sector and public sector organisations were invited. Dr Anne Dix attended the meeting and made the initial opening remarks. Jérémie Bambara, manager of Oceane Consult International chaired the workshop, and presented in detail the findings of the report (on the HR shortages) and the proposed recommendations on the country.
The participants were able to ask for clarifications, provide recommendations, or indicate missing information. Overall, with small suggestions for improvement, the results of the report were validated. The participants showed that they had taken the time to evaluate the report in detail, and indicated that the results represented the reality.
IWA Program Officer, in the week’s visit to Burkina Faso, spent a lot of time going through the details of the quantitative figures, recalculating and ensuring no mistakes were in the report. Additionally, she steered the team to elaborate the report with qualitative analysis of why these gaps existed.
In effect, IWA’s work in Burkina Faso under WA-WASH is officially completed. The work is still to be fully disseminated among the WA-WASH partners, although most of the ones working on the capacity building framework have the full report and the briefing notes (summary) already. IWA will continue to disseminate the briefing notes at the global level as Photo 10: IWA Validation workshop well. One of the ways is compiling the results of this (July 2012, Burkina Faso) assessment, as well as IWA’s other country assessments within and outside of the WA-WASH Program, into a global synthesis report that should be available at the beginning of 2013.
The activities have resulted in the expected output in which a country relevant assessment plan was established, and the research engaged with the various sector professionals to evaluate the capacity of over 95 organisations. The methodology, as designed, was able to generalise the findings over the country as a
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whole. This established a baseline for other WA-WASH partners for their capacity building efforts. It will be the responsibility of the WA-WASH partners to monitor what capacity they have built and whether this was indeed one of the capacities identified by this assessment. It should be noted that the IWA’s assessment did not assess community capacity to manage a project, but merely identified the human resources capacity needed.
The final report incorporating the suggestions, and recommendations from the sector professionals and IWA submitted to FIU in August 2012(see Annex C11 and C12). IWA subsequently decided to prepare a briefing note (see Annex C13), to facilitate the dissemination of the findings.
Main results for Burkina Faso from IWA assessment
The methodology used the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP)7 coverage definition which for Burkina Faso states that access to drinking water is 57% of the rural areas population and 75% of the urban areas population which is among the lowest in the world. For this coverage to be increased there is an immediate need for additional human resources within the sector. The problem is due to the limited investment in HR development in the WASH sector. The demand for human resources is directly linked to the geographical spread of the population.
At the moment, the public sector employs the majority (81%) of the existing human resources that work in the WASH sector. Most of these staff is dedicated to administration, management and finance. The NGOs and CBOs in the sector represent 11% of the existing human resources, and have a major role to play in sanitation, where the public sector has not been very active. The private sector has only only 8% of the human resources working in WASH mainly in the construction of facilities.
Burkina Faso has a severe human resources deficit in all aspects of water supply and sanitation due to several reasons which include:
The need for social development personnel in dispersed rural areas to achieve full coverage of water supply and sanitation is very high. There is a need for approximately 10,000 staff needed in the water supply sector and 7,600 staff needed in the sanitation sector. The acute difficulties with general organisational capacity. The very low financial capacity of organisations to recruit and retain qualified staff. The human resources’ needs arising most acutely in rural areas where the population is larger, with a concomitant effect from the lack of organisational capacity.
Main Activities for Senegal
The country assessment that is still on-going and IWA is expected to complete the draft report mid-October and the final report at the beginning of November.
Using the Cap-Net Network, the National Resource Institute of Nigeria was able to draw on its West African Network (WA-NET) to enable the selection of a team in Senegal. A call for interests was produced and launched within Senegal, but no response came back initially. The next dissemination of the call for interests resulted in one interested party, University Cheikh Anta DIOP/EDEQUE.
The signing of the contract was done in May, resulting in significant delays in the negotiations and definition of the TORs. The team started to perform a desk study on the sector as a whole, a literature review on
7 http://www.wssinfo.org
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earlier studies performed, and a compilation of data that could be obtained through desk research (population figures, coverage, etc., and main technologies being used).
The preparation of the survey tool, selecting the sample and some preliminary data collection was done before the kick-off workshop that took place July 3, 2012. The survey was immediately disseminated to the workshop participants to ensure that they would provide input and support the data collection. However, the survey that was disseminated at the kick-off workshop, required response from the participants. A few of the partners in the WASH sector delayed response significantly, setting the Senegalese team back in their deliverable. In August the team submitted the second report, with all basic background information as well as population data, overview of the coverage rates, main technologies and human resources demand (proxy).
The activities undertaken so far, gave us a good overview of the number of organisations investigated and their capacity needs. The analysis is still on-going and some of the data collection will occur in Year 2. Since the information will not necessarily be used immediately by other WA-WASH partners, because they are not working in Senegal, IWA hopes it can influence other organisations working in West Africa. IWA will focus on disseminating the assessment results in Senegal in collaboration with the Regional Office in order to influence the local and international organisations working there. Additionally, IWA’s goal is to use the results to inform globally on what is needed to strengthen human resources in the WASH sector.
Sub –Activity 4.1.2: Assessment of Regional Institutions
After an initial scoping and discussing with key WASH stakeholders in Burkina Faso, IRC concluded that there is no WASH regional organisation as such in West Africa, although EAA – Eau et Assainissement pour l’Afrique (Water and Sanitation for Africa – WSA, formerly CREPA) has such ambitions. In addition, the regional ‘development’ organisations are not WASH related, and they do not hold any mandate on WASH.
The above led to the conclusion that to develop a Capacity Building (CB) Program:
• A study would help identify which learning and knowledge platforms the program should be part of, in order to make sure that the knowledge and learning created during WA-WASH are part of a bigger picture and to make sure that the steps and learning taken during this program are known by the sector. • After having identified the platforms, the assessment will look in the capacity of those platforms to be a place of exchange of information, i.e. how these platforms play their role in the WASH sector. It will help identify capacity gaps and the program would then build capacity of the selected platforms, mainly through the knowledge management activity handled by IRC. • One important point is that the study should not limit itself to three NGOs platform but should include any kind of learning platform existing on WASH in each of the 3 countries: Burkina, Ghana, and Niger and eventually Mali if and when activities are allowed to start again there.
FIU and IRC agreed that these were important aspects of capacity building and that IRC should go ahead in implementing them. The above mentioned study took place in June 2012. The results of the desk research were presented during the WA-WASH CB Forum in July 2012, Ouagadougou.
Deliverables from the original Work Plan are: (1) methodology developed and how it is going to be used to address the capacity needs of regional institutions and (2) report on capacity needs of regional institutions and result dissemination plan. As explained above and discussed before and during the CB Forum, the regional institutions do not exist and / or do not hold a WASH mandate, and therefore the capacity needs assessment of regional institutions was transformed into an assessment of the learning and sharing platforms in each country. The desk review and
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first part of the assessment has been completed for Burkina Faso, Niger and Ghana and presented at the CB Forum on Day 1 (see Annex C14).
The assessment needs to be further informed by the relevant WA-WASH partners in each country, in a continuation of the dialogue started at the CB Forum, but the main validated conclusions are as follows:
There is no such thing as a learning platform or mechanism active at the regional level; existing WASH dedicated platforms only exist at the country level;
In all four countries, though better shaped in Ghana and Burkina Faso, there is a number of digital and other platforms, governmental or non-governmental or project led which justifies WA-WASH to invest in existing channels rather than creating new sharing and learning spaces;
Building on/supporting existing platforms to share/discuss/validate/disseminate WA-WASH capacity building approaches and tools would help WA-WASH reach capacity building targets;
Except for governmental led platforms, digital and other platforms suffer from lack of mandate, leadership and sustainability;
Developing the KM capacities of these platforms would contribute to reinforce sector learning and stand as WA-WASH legacy. The WA-WASH Country Coordinator role is important, since capacity building is cross cutting rather than a sum of activities by BPD, FIU, IRC and UNESCO-IHE. They will have to establish a continued dialogue and cooperation between the Regional Office, the KM team, and representatives of the WA-WASH partners on the ground. The systems needed to keep track of planned WA-WASH activities and mailing lists for internal WA-WASH information exchange have been set-up by the KM team (see Activity 4.3).
Sub –Activity 4.1.3: Capacity Building Forum
The three-day Forum on Capacity Building was held in July 2012 in Ouagadougou and organized by IRC, FIU, IWA and UNESCO-IHE. The goal of the CB Forum was to compile all WA-WASH partners CB activities and present them in a CB Framework. The CB Forum was divided into two main parts: the first part of the forum was only for the WA-WASH partners and for the second part external guests were invited (see Annex C14). Unfortunately, the external part of the WA-WASH CB Forum concurred with a WASH sector meeting held in Ouagadougou and thus only about half of the invitees attended.
During the internal part of the forum, several themes were presented and discussed by the participants8:
Capacity needs: where do we stand in the four countries? IWA research presentation on available capacities at local and country level, capacity gaps at local and country level to meet the MDGs and full coverage, and identification of capacity needs. Introduction to regional academic institutions by UNESCO-IHE. Reporting back by IRC on the progress on KM and the links with CB; presentation of the desk research on learning and sharing platforms in the WA-WASH (see Annex C14). Group work per country on learning and sharing platforms and capacity needs. Review of capacity building inventory per country.
8 See http://goo.gl/UpMCf for all pictures and flip-over sheets.
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What capacity, how to build it, what will there be by 2015, for who? Needs (not) addressed by WA-WASH partners. Capacity Building Program in Burkina Faso: how to synergise and quality control? Identification common topics / audiences / materials partners. Capacity Building program in Burkina Faso: how to involve country CB organisations / bring WA- WASH materials in current curricula / projects?
The Mood Meter approach (i.e. ) was used to assess the appreciation by participants of the quality of the organization and content of the CB Forum. About 80% gave positive appreciation and 20% found it acceptable ().
The WA-WASH Capacity Building framework for Burkina Faso, integrating all partners’ CB plans into a WA- WASH Program has been prepared, but it is still only available as a draft, pending feedback from WA-WASH partners (see Annex C15). This report includes: (1) report on the forum including lessons learned and recommendations, list of participants, forum evaluation results, and (2) framework for CB for Burkina Faso as the basis for the development of the CB Framework for the 3 other countries.
In summary, the CB Forum brought to light that WA-WASH partners need to sharpen their CB agenda to maximize synergies between the partners on the ground; that planning and coordination is needed; and that an internal learning agenda is required.
3.4.2 Sub-Intermediate Result D.2.: Increase national and regional integrated WASH knowledge management and networking
o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH Refer to Section 3.2.3, p30 for details.
o Activity 4.2: Capacity Building of Regional WASH Institutions
Sub –Activity 4.2.1: Capacity building of regional WASH decentralized institutions
In Year 1, IRC intended to identify the relevant WASH institutions and assess the roles, responsibilities and challenges they face. This assessment relied on previous human resources work conducted by IWA. It aimed to identify a first set of capacity gaps to be reinforced. Due to the delays of the IWA Assessment, most of the intended activities took place during the CB Forum in July 2012, where the IWA assessment was presented. Based on this assessment and the others developed under Activity 4.1, the identified capacity gaps and the required training aimed at decentralized governance levels were integrated in the CB Frameworks.
No development of new training material took place, but as presented in the (draft) CB framework, we intend in Year 2 and subsequent years to reduce the gaps between capacity needs identified by IWA and the planned contribution of WA-WASH partners to build/develop capacities in the three countries. An adequate mechanism still needs to be put in place to ensure a wider audience to the training each WA-WASH partner will provide and to institutionalize the WA-WASH CB programs in all countries.
Sub – Activity 4.2.2: Academic Institutions
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Under this activity, UNESCO-IHE is seeking to establish partnership with local universities to build capacities in the water sector. The basis for developing collaboration is the IWA reports. However, due to the delay in having the results from IWA, this activity also was delayed. The concise review report of IWA’s results is underway.
During this first year and based on the exchanges with other WA-WASH partners during the partner’s meeting, three universities have been pre-selected for the capacity building activities: Ghana - University of Development Studies; Burkina - 2iE; Niger - University of Niamey.
Sub – Activity 4.2.3: Intra-Regional Institutions
Initial steps have been taken to understand the context in which we operate and start contact with various organizations at the local, national and regional levels. Contacts have been made with a number of organizations such as CILSS, WSA, UEMOA, etc. The capacity building activities will start in YR2.
o Activity 4.3: Regional WASH Knowledge Management/Monitoring and Evaluation
This activity is jointly implemented by IRC and FIU for the knowledge management and by FIU for the monitoring and evaluation although all the partners have incorporated an M&E component in their activities.
Sub –Activity 4.3.1: Managing knowledge within WA-WASH and beyond
The Knowledge Management component of this activity is managed by IRC. A combination of start-up Actions 1 through 6 as listed below was needed in Year 1 for the KM part of the Program to start going (Actions 7 through 13).These actions and the results are discussed below:
1. Hire consultants: preferably from country WASH Resource centres or otherwise IRC partner organisations on a call down contract to document processes, create, store and disseminate information to agreed target groups and facilitate knowledge sharing processes. The initial thinking was that KM supporting staff could be hired as consultants. However, IRC realized that it would be more effective to have permanent and longer lasting positions (even though the KM work in each country was not necessarily expected to be a full time job), and that this could probably be accommodated within the same budget. IRC therefore looked for hosts in each WA-WASH implementation countries. Agreements have been made, with IRC newly registered offices in Burkina Faso and in Ghana, and with SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) in Niger and Mali, although the latter has been put on hold. The KM officers have been hired or assigned by each host and the KM team was complete in July 2012. 2. Platform selection: To store all information beyond the life of the USAID WA-WASH Program. Candidates are AKVO9, FIU – integration with the GLOWS websites will be sought. FIU Miami decided to build a new platform for GLOWS where all WA-WASH information would be stored. 3. Platform set-up after a selection has been made: This will lead to a document describing agreements, tools and methods, (update) procedures and roles/responsibilities WA-WASH partners, KM and WA-WASH Burkina Faso team members. While some elements of the platform have been made available in Q3 and a document describing the agreements, procedures and roles and responsibilities of the partners has been drafted in March 2012, the full roll-out and training by FIU on the platform has been postponed to Q2 of FY2.
9 www.akvo.org
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4. Workshop with WA-WASH staff/partners: Objective is to discuss/agree on the platform selection and set-up as described above. Pending the result of action 3 lead by FIU Miami. 5. Workshop with KM team: Objective is to discuss/agree on the platform selection and set up as described above and to establish working relations. A Training Workshop (TW) was held July 2012, in Ouagadougou right before the Capacity Building Forum. The TW was attended by the whole KM team (6 people) and the USAID WA-WASH Program Executive Officer visited the workshop. The CB Forum and the partners meeting that followed the TW has been the opportunity for the KM team to put in practice the skills acquired during the workshop (see Annex B07). 6. Publish USAID WA-WASH KM working paper: Describing the approach and set-up of KM in WA- WASH. As mentioned under action 3 above, the working paper has been prepared (See Annex B08) and handed in to FIU Regional Office, but its finalisation depends on FIU finalising the platform. 7. Publish and disseminate documents: WA‐WASH lessons learned processed and documented into fact sheets, working papers, case studies, news items, etc. These items will also be used for advocacy purposes. For each audience a product mix will be developed. This activity will start in FY2. 8. Manage repositories: FIU will manage a central repository for WA‐WASH partners and a website for the wider WASH community. Pending the result of action 3. 9. Manage social network: A social network for people around the world involved with WA‐WASH is operational and running, with a mailing list. Social networking has been delayed because of the late contracting of partners. Still mailing lists have been set up and are active ([email protected] for the WA-WASH KM team plus people interested and [email protected] for all people interested in WA-WASH; (currently there are 96 members and 45 discussion topics)). A mailing list specific for WA-WASH partners are still to be created. 10. Face-to-Face meetings: At least four WA-WASH face‐to‐face meetings organized to document the process and share WA-WASH documentation. During Year 1, one face-to-face meeting has been organised and reported on- the WA-WASH KM team kick-off training workshop; and one face-to-face meeting has been reported on – the Capacity Building Forum. 11. Community of Practice/Practitioners: A self-supportive community of practice that will last beyond WA-WASH is established and fully operational. The set-up of a community of practice has been delayed because of the late contracting of partners. 12. Hand over activities to partners: In-country KM teams (including partner members) established to take ownership of the KM strategy and its implementation. The establishment of in-country KM teams has started. This process will last until the end of the WA-WASH Program. 13. Manage platforms: The ICT must be managed technically and it is expected that partners may want to connect and integrate content form the USAID WA-WASH repositories into their own systems. The KM team has started mailing lists (see above), blogs and calendar: a. URL (Unique Resource Locator) of the WA-WASH country blogs:
- Burkina: http://burkinafaso.globalwaters.net - Ghana:http://ghana.globalwaters.net - Mali:http://mali.globalwaters.net - Niger:http://niger.globalwaters.net
b. For every WA-WASH country open calendar is created:
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- Burkina Faso: https://www.google.com/calendar/[email protected] - Ghana: https://www.google.com/calendar/[email protected] - Mali: https://www.google.com/calendar/[email protected] - Niger: https://www.google.com/calendar/[email protected]
A secure set-up will also be available soon for all WA-WASH partners only with news, calendars, etc. Technically all systems are up and running but some trimming / tuning / tweaking is needed and basic texts like footers in mailings need translation into French. For pictures and video an account has yet to be set-up.
Main difficulties encountered
The start-up problems with the KM staff hiring, the signature of agreements by WA-WASH partners and the decision of FIU Miami to develop a portal all delayed progress towards results and achieving indicators. Still, in July good progress had been made with the KM team training workshop and facilitation of the CB forum.
Once the partners are all active on the ground and have actually started their activities, knowledge will be developed and information will be shared with the partners. The country coordinators are expected to play an important role as does the KM officer in each country. The flow of information is critical to the success of the WA-WASH Program given its complexity (a number of partners operating in a number of countries).
The limited internet connection of the FIU Regional Office has also been an issue not easing internal communication. Good knowledge management and information sharing with WA-WASH partners and other will undoubtedly improve once the web-based platform is ready.
Sub –Activity 4.3.2: Water Information Summit
After a month of preparation, the 13th Water Information Summit (WIS XIII) was organised by the Regional Office and held April, 11-13 in Ouagadougou. It gathered information specialists, web site managers, scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders, to discuss the regional perspectives on water information, to present and discuss case studies of the implementation of international, national, regional, and local water information systems and to examine the use of the Internet to disseminate water information.
The event was organized by FIU in collaboration with the Water Web Consortium, under the sponsoring of US Embassy to Burkina Faso and the patronage of the Minister of Agriculture and Hydraulics of Burkina Faso. The opening ceremony was presided by Dr. Sabné Koanda, the Technical Adviser of the Minister of Agriculture and Hydraulics, in the presence of Dr. Maria Donoso, Director of Global Waters for Sustainability Program at Florida International University (GLOWS- Photo 11: A view of some participants of the WIS XIII Summit FIU) and Dr. Lakhdar Boukerrou, Regional Director of (April 2012, Burkina Faso) USAID WA-WASH. The Summit permitted to exchange experiences from several regions of the world (speakers from Kenya, Mexico and Brazil made presentations). More than fifteen speakers presented communications related to the issue of water information.
At the national level, some challenges were described during various sessions: the insufficiency of human and financial resources, the lack of synergy in information management, the late release of functioning
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budgets, the inadequacy of water resources monitoring procedures as well as vandalism acts on monitoring equipment and tools in some cases.
Participants recommended among others: (1) more implication of governments and regional institutions in water resources management; (2) the use of modern information technology and communication strategies in collecting and disseminating water information; (3) the exchange of water information among sub-regional institutions; (4) the sensitization of populations and (5) the development of collaboration programs between partners of the sub region and others from the rest of the world. The full report is presented in the Annex C16.
Sub-Activity 4.3.3: Monitoring and Evaluation / Sustainability Check
The first version of the PMP has been developed and submitted to USAID/W-AFR in January 2012. After the revision on the Year 1 Work Plan and the elaboration of the Year 2 Work Plan, the PMP has been revised accordingly. Ten new USAID/W-AFR ROECCR Indicators were also added to the initial list of indicators. In addition, we have prepared in YR1 the following documents:
a. The deliverables tables – a recap of all the deliverables by country, intermediate result and activity. b. The Data Quality Assessment (DQA) – submitted to all the partners for use. c. The Environmental Review Form (ERF) – completed by all the partners. d. The Environmental Monitoring and Mitigation Plan (EMMP) – revised with input from all the partners.
During the first quarter of 2012-2013 FIU will undertake evaluation of all activities conducted in Year 1.
3.4.3 Sub-Intermediate Result D.3.: Enhanced gender mainstreaming in integrated WASH program
o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
Please refer to Section 3.1.3 p24 for this work from CARE and Winrock.
3.4.4 Sub-Intermediate Result D.4. Expanded private sector engagement in integrated WASH programs
To ensure the sustainability of the services provided by USAID WA-WASH and to make the USAID investment go further, the RO is tasked to develop GDA/partnership with various organizations. Leveraging the funds already allocated to a number of activities and using the GDA funds budgeted by the Program, the goal is to entice others (public/private sector actors) to invest in the Program in order to either complement and/or scale up current activities.
As illustrated below, the collaboration between BPD and the RO is crucial to the success of this operation as is the timing and actual follow-up with potential partners.
o Activity 4.4: Expanded WASH Regional Private Sector Partnerships / GDA Development
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For expanding WASH Regional Private Sector Partnership/GDA Development, BPD’s actions were focused on supporting other partners to meet their specific indicators. As such for Burkina Faso, the YR1 GDA actions contributed to meeting Sub-IR.D.4 on the ‘Number of public-private partnerships developed to promote integrated WASH programming’ for which FUI is responsible. The overall target for Burkina Faso is three such partnerships; one of which is to be developed for Year 1. Negotiations are well advanced to reach three partnerships in the next few months.
In July 2012, BPD undertook a comprehensive GDA analysis in Burkina Faso based on the GDA Assessment Framework developed and submitted to partners’ review. Following the Framework, two BPD staff members completed an initial literature review and carried out interviews with WA-WASH partners and other key sector actors in Burkina Faso. During the course of Q2 and Q3 of YR1, the RO has made contacts and held meeting with a number of organizations in Ouagadougou to explore partnerships. This initial work was instrumental in the next phase which involved BPD. Working with the WA-WASH Regional Office GDA Manager and a local consultant (Jeremie Bambara), the BPD team interviewed various organisations in-country with a view of setting up specific GDA partnerships. Thanks to initial work by the RO, discussions with potential partners such as the Burkina Faso Lottery (LONAB), the mining company IAMGOLD, Rotary BF and other partners were of an advanced nature. In Burkina Faso, specific partners were visited and their ability and incentives to engage in GDAs were assessed. These activities constituted direct engagement with interested stakeholders in order to structure conversations around the process of partnering under the GDA mechanism as well as beginning to identify the types of activities that would be of mutual interest. BPD developed an Excel tool for assessing potential partners' readiness and willingness to partner with WA-WASH, and for mapping and scheduling priority actions to take with each potential partner. A local stakeholder feedback meeting was held at the end of the visit July, 27, 2012 in Ouagadougou with 20 participants including USAID WA-WASH staff (see Annex C18). The result of BPD’s work is compiled in the Burkina Faso GDA’s report that can be found in Annex C17.
Photo 12: Participants at the Ouagadougou GDA stakeholder feedback meeting (July 2012)
The local stakeholder feedback meeting participants are listed below: LONAB: 2 representatives
CNSS: 3 representatives
CCI: 2 representatives
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SODIBO/BRAKINA: 1 representative
SEMAFO: 2 representatives
ROTARY CLUB: 2 representatives
CORIS Bank: 1 representative
Communes: 2 mayors (Pabré, Tanghin-Dassouri)
Prioritising and then ensuring follow-up with potential partners is the most pressing challenge in relation to these GDA activities in YR2. BPD aims to continue to support the RO to do this in the coming months. There are no significant problems or obstacles to report and a strategy to continue this work has been developed (see Annex B09). Four organizations (the Burkinabe National Lottery, the National Social Security Fund, Coris Bank International, IAM Gold and the Mining Company for West Africa/SEMAFO) expressed their willingness and readiness to partner with USAID WA-WASH in Burkina Faso. Memoranda of Understanding are being developed for the implementation of these partnerships and should be ready Q1 of YR2. Initial approval has been given by FIU Miami on how the financials of these partnerships should be handled.
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4 Ghana
Ghana was the country we focused on after getting the Burkina Faso activities started. We hired a Country Coordinator, made contacts with various private, public organizations and NGOs in Accra and in Tamale. The focus areas of the activities implementation in Ghana is the Northern areas of the country10.
Both FIU and WaterAid have started some activities in Ghana as discussed below. However, more harmonization needs to take place in YR2 and a trip to Northern Ghana is planned by the RO thematic coordinators for Q1 of YR2 to meet with WaterAid and the local implementing partners.
4.1 Intermediate Result A.: Increased community access to potable water and improved sanitation
In the Ghana Work Plan, only sanitation and hygiene activities are being implemented. WaterAid (in charge of the sanitation and hygiene) and FIU (in charge of the hygiene through PoU treatment) are working in the same areas, with the same local partners to achieve integrated results.
4.1.1 Sub-Intermediate Result A.2. Improved access to and use of sustainable sanitation services
In the WA-WASH consortium, WaterAid is the partner specialised in sanitation. WaterAid Ghana (WAG) is working with local partners towards getting villages open-defecation free. This section groups Activity 1.5: CLTS and Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing and gives an overview of accomplishments to date.
o Activity 1.5: CLTS and Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing.
In Ghana, WAG is working in partnership with field level implementers: New Energy (in Gushegu District, Northern Region); BEWDA (in Bawku West District, Upper East Region); Professional Association Network in the North (PRONET) (in Wa East District, Upper West Region); Rural Aid (in Bongo District, Upper East Region); the Coalition of NGO's in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS); and the Ghana WatSan Journalist Network. WAG also works with local government authorities’ (LGA) staff and international partners (including FIU).
Please refer to the Section 3.1.2 (p22) on WaterAid activities in Burkina Faso to read about the preparation work. As described in that section, WAA (with support from the WaterAid West Africa Regional Team) organized a start-up workshop in Tamale, Ghana from June 18-21, 2012 to inform and refresh WAG staff and their partners, including selected local government staff, about USAID rules and regulations (see Annex B10). To ensure effective management, these workshops detailed USAID rules and procedures (reporting requirements, cost principles, procurement procedures, etc.), and included further explanations regarding Ghana, Burkina and Niger outputs and indicator commitments. The purpose of involving local government staff in Ghana was to increase their understanding of the WA-WASH Program and to promote ownership at the district level.
On-the ground activities
The field level activities started with conducting baseline surveys in 24 communities and 6 schools to build a profile of each project community. For the purpose of the baseline survey, a baseline data collection exercise
10 Northern Region, Upper East and Upper West Regions.
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was carried out in each project community (see Annex B11 and B12). The baseline data provided basic information about project communities segregated by gender and age, access to socio-economic services for education, water, sanitation and health, and access to basic infrastructure and socio-cultural issues. It included information on practices regarding decision-making authorities and community leadership structures, as well as livelihood activities and their gender and equity dimensions.
Implementing partners (IPs) - New Energy, BEWDA, PRONET North and Rural Aid - facilitated entry into the communities and mobilized communities. Participatory meetings were held with community stakeholders including chiefs and elders, opinion leaders, men, women and children to dialogue and identify community WASH needs and priorities in 24 communities in the four targeted districts. The roles and responsibilities of the community, WAG, implementing partners and the District Assembly under the project were also discussed. Two meetings have been carried out in each of the 24 communities.
As part of the efforts to build WASH capacity at the community level, WASH Facility and Service Committees were formed in 24 communities, including 24 WatSan committees, 6 School Hygiene Clubs (SHC) and Community Hygiene Volunteers (CHV) within the 24 communities. They will be trained between October and December 2012 and supported to lead and champion the cause of sanitation and hygiene behavior change at the community level. To promote equity and inclusion, women, disabled people and other socially excluded members of the local populations have been included in the committees.
4.1.2 Sub-Intermediate Result A.3. Increased adoption of key hygiene behaviors
o Activity 1.5: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
Refer to the description in Activity 1.5, Section 4.1.1, p46 in Burkina Faso.
o Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing
Refer to the description in Activity 1.6, Section 4.1.1, p46 in Burkina Faso.
o Activity 1.7: Safe Water Handling, Storage, and Point-of-Use (PoU)
For the Safe Water Handling, Storage and Point-of-Use (PoU) activity, FIU, through the WASH specialist had to identify partners in Ghana to implement the activity. An identification mission took place in June in Tamale and six organisations were evaluated for their experience in PoU and readiness to work with WA- WASH. Afram Plains Development Organisation (APDO) was identified has an organisation having already experience with Aquatabs and other of water treatment methods.
The following month, exchanges on ways to implement the activities in the Northern Region in Ghana took place in order to prepare the Terms of Reference. The administrative registration is also in process and FIU expect to have the contract sign in Q1 of Year 2 to start implementing these activities.
o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
Refer to the Section 3.1.3 p24 for this work conducted by CARE and Winrock.
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4.2 Intermediate Result B.: Improved sustainability of WASH services
4.2.1 Sub-Intermediate Result B1. Adoption of replicable and sustainable WASH management approaches
The improvement of the sustainability of WASH services through different models and advocacy with local and national government has started is Ghana with the work of WaterAid.
o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking
Build capacity of WASH sector actors
The Ghana WASH Journalist network, WaterAid Ghana (WAG), and our local partner New Energy participated in a field mission and a field trip to the Tindang-Peliga community (Gushegu district), to raise awareness and ascertain the level of responsiveness of the local population in terms of sanitation and hygiene and identify its needs. Through these discussions, it was revealed that the Sanitation Committee was ineffective, members who were assisted to construct household latrines did not know how to maintain them, and there was a need for more education to facilitate behavior change and to sustain the hygiene promotion efforts. This field trip is detailed in Ghana business news online (Edmund Smith-Asante; September 10, 2012; Tindang-Peliga – A beauty marred by open defecation11) and also served as an introduction of the WA-WASH Program.
Conduct sector reviews
The Senior Management Team (SMT) of WAG and 2 people from PRONET North and New Energy participated in the 23rd Mole Conference, one of the biggest multi-stakeholder annual platforms in the WASH sector in Ghana, held in Tamale from 21st to 25th August 2012. The main theme of the conference was “Financing the WASH Sector: Past, Current and Vision for the Future”.
The platform was organized by CONIWAS and brought together the WASH sector practitioners from Government, NGOs, private operators, networks, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in order to discuss, learn and share knowledge and information on specific themes that affect the sector as well as to help strengthen their capacity to achieve the WASH-related MDGs in West Africa. The main issues discussed included:
- Public financing of WASH service delivery (exploring options); - Capital maintenance, financing practices and innovative options for the future; - Policies, standards and regulations for WASH services; - Public-Private Partnership in WASH service delivery.
The final communiqué was published and captured by President Mahama in his first major policy statement to the nation on September 4, 2012 and captured in Daily Graphic of September 5, 2012.
In addition, WAG supported advocacy and monitoring at High Level Meeting (HLM). The Director of Water and Sanitation who is the focal person for Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) and other officials of the
11 Link: http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/tindang-peliga-a-beauty-marred-by-open-defecation/
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Ministries (Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development-MLGRD; Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing-MWRWH; and Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning-MoFEP) were engaged on post High Level Meeting in August 2012. Issues covered included the way Government of Ghana will address the 2012 renewed national commitments specific to the Water and Sanitation sector (decrease open defection by 15% by 2014 and ensure that 10 million Ghanaians gain access to latrines by 2015).
WAG also participated in a number of sector meetings on post HLM activities organized by the two lead WASH Ministries. The outcome is that WAG has been nominated into a four member sector team to support a consultant to develop a revised Ghana SWA compact 2012.
WAG planned to attend the Ghana Water Forum (GWF) but it has been postponed to 2013 due to recent national developments.
Enable regional conferences
WAG has conducted preliminary activities to organize stakeholders’ workshops at national, regional and district levels to coordinate and harmonize CLTS implementation approach, including:
- Engaging stakeholders in discussions on CLTS and the challenges/successes of its implementation; - Discussions on the processes of declaration of Open-Defecation Free (ODF) status.
WAG plans to organize a workshop in November, 2012 to share and review knowledge materials developed by the WASH sector, led by the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (MLGRD) in Ghana based on the experiences from CLTS field activities.
Increased partner staff visits to communities leading to improved project implementation
This activity involved monitoring and supporting visits to WaterAid partners. Two such visits were undertaken in August and September 2012 to Wa East and Gushegu Districts by WaterAid staff from the Tamale Work Station. The visits were used to help partners address certain implementation challenges experienced with baseline data collection, community mobilization and Watsan Committee formation. As a result, partners became more confident and skillful in subsequent communities they entered, which facilitated project implementation. This is a routine activity which will continue throughout the implementation period.
Summary of main achievements
At this time, WAG and its partners conducted baseline surveys in 24 communities and six schools; held participatory meetings with community stakeholders and formed 24 WatSan committees, six School Hygiene Clubs (SHC) and Community Hygiene Volunteers (CHV); built capacity of the WASH sector actors with the Ghana WASH Journalist network; and participated in the 23rd Mole Conference to support the sector review.
The development of the Partner Project Agreements (PPAs) and the integration of a new partner contributed to delaying the Program implementation. In addition, the tripartite arrangement by which LGAs suggest project communities for WAG and its implementing partners to work in, resulted in duplication of efforts as it was noticed that some selected communities already had WASH facilities. However, this initial challenge has been resolved. The activities described above are important preliminary community level activities to create enthusiasm and lay the foundation for sanitation and hygiene behavior change. The community mobilization was aimed at stimulating discussions in the community and at the household level on poor sanitation behaviors and practices. In addition, the formation of various WASH committees - Water and Sanitation (Watsan), SHC and CHV - serve as main channels for facilitating the CLTS process, which is planned
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duringQ1 of YR2. Activities have already started in the field and progress will accelerate during the coming months.
In the coming month, WAG will generate demand for sanitation, implement CLTS triggering and construct school latrines with hand washing facilities. Regarding capacity building, WAG will also train the WASH committees, organize stakeholder workshops to coordinate and harmonize the CLTS implementation approach, and continue supporting media engagement with the Ghana WASH Journalist network. WAG will also undertake project monitoring and evaluation activities as well as support field visits.
4.2.2 Sub-Intermediate Result B.2. Strengthened national and local policies and governance for WASH service delivery and management
o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking
Refer to Section 4.2.1. above.
o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
Refer to Section 3.1.3 p24 for this work conducted by CARE and Winrock.
4.2.3 Sub-Intermediate Result B.3.: Increased access to sustainable financing for WASH services
o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH
CARE has not started implementing this Activity. Refer to Section 3.2.3, p30 for details.
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4.3 Intermediate Result C.: Increased income generation and food security outcomes of WASH investments
4.3.1 Sub-Intermediate Result C.1.: Adoption of complementary agricultural technologies and practices in WASH programs
o Activity 3.1: WASH Integration to enhance Food Security
Sub – Activity 3.1.1(a): WASH-Food Security data base
CARE has not started implemented this Activity.
Sub-Activity 3.1.1(b): WASH integration to enhance food security (Regional activities)
Refer to the description in Section 3.3.1 on Burkina Faso. This is done by UNESCO-IHE at the Regional level.
Sub-Activity 3.1.1(c): WASH integration to enhance food security (National activities)
During the performance period 2011- 2012, and in accordance with the Program Work Plans, FIU undertook several actions to implement food security activity. This activity named “WASH Integration to Enhance Food Security” is to bring out the links between WASH and food security. In addition, it is expected to identify complementary activities that could be funded from WA-WASH sources.
In Ghana, the main focus was on identifying local partners and developing a proposal. Indeed, to implement the activities funded by the additional USAID W-AFR Food Security money in Northern Ghana, FIU elaborated a proposal and contributed to finalizing two others proposals with Ghanaian NGOs. These three proposals will be merged into one, which will be submitted to USAID/W-AFR in the coming weeks.
Sub- Activity 3.1.2(a): WASH-Multiple Use Services
CARE has not started implementing this Activity.
4.3.2 Sub-Intermediate Result C.2.: Increased local and national capacity to adapt to water-related climate change
o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change
The activities linked to Climate Change by FIU were focusing on Burkina Faso for Year 1. Thus very limited activities took place in Ghana.
4.3.3 Sub-Intermediate Result C.3.: Increased availability of climate resilience information
o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change
The activities linked to Climate Change by FIU were focusing on Burkina Faso for Year 1. Thus very limited activities took place in Ghana.
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4.4 Intermediate Result D.: Strengthened national and regional enabling environment for integrated WASH.
4.4.1 Sub-Intermediate Result D.1.: Strengthened national and regional organizations in integrated WASH advocacy
o Activity 4.1: Assessment/Diagnostic of Regional Institutional Capacity and Potential in the WASH Sector
Sub –Activity 4.1.1: Assessment of national institutional capacity and potential in WASH
Under this activity, IWA undertook a human resource assessment for the water and sanitation sector in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Senegal. To read about the methodology, refer to Activity 4.1 in Section 3.4.1, p33 of this report.
IWA Activities in Ghana
Using the Cap-Net network, the National Resource Institute of Nigeria, was able to draw on its West African (WA-NET) to enable the selection of the West African team in Ghana. A call for interests was produced and launched within Ghana, and a few proposals were evaluated, based on their suggested action plan, team members, timings and financial requirements. The team was selected from the Water and Environment Centre, Department of Civil Engineering, of the KNUST University in Kumasi, Ghana. Three team members made up this team, consisting of two senior water and sanitation specialists and one junior water resource management specialist.
A detailed assessment plan was discussed with the teams, and because the WA-WASH Program had requested preliminary results by July, IWA staff had had to adjust their proposed timing, which had indicated two additional months of research. The negotiations for agreement, was settled in April, when the team started their desk research to provide a contextual background to the WASH sector, and review literature to examine earlier studies. The inception report was handed in in May, detailing the background, some preliminary findings, the plan for fieldwork and the sample of organizations they wished to investigate.
The Team continued its key interviews to try and estimate the proxy figure, the HR demand (ideal HR composition to deliver services), and get this validated at the kick-off workshop. It took the team a lot of time to investigate this matter, and come up with guestimates, but in the meanwhile, they had managed to engage with the sector, the organizations they needed to include and get involved in the kick-off workshop. Forty-six participants joined the discussion in which the team tried to immediately perform data collection on the members on where is the most significant need, what are the gaps, the barriers to institutional capacity building, the strategies to build capacity and the role of government in this matter. The most important outcome is that all participants ensured they would cooperate with providing the data required and provide input in the validation workshop as well.
Since the kick-off workshop occurred in June, and IWA’s presentation on the findings to the WA-WASH partners was roughly a month later, the data collection had to move quickly. The organization that supported the coordination of this work locally, however, extended the deadline for handing in the preliminary findings. This resulted in IWA working with the team for a week, to discuss potential findings to present to the WA-WASH partners.
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IWA presented the preliminary findings at the Capacity Building Forum, and established contact with the Ghanaians present in the room. Also, they offered to partake in the study, and provided comments and feedback to these preliminary findings.
The data collection was performed through surveys, interviews, the workshop and other key interviews. IWA supported the team closely with the analysis of the data collected.
The use of IWA’s methodology in the country was under discussion at various times until the draft report, and detailed feedback were provided at the Photo 13: CB forum – IWA presenting the preliminary findings time the validation workshop occurred on Ghana (July 2012, Burkina Faso) September, 27. At this workshop, attended by 20 participants, the findings were presented, and questions, clarifications and suggestions were provided to the team. A detailed discussion was held to discuss the strategies to address the gaps shortages.
In effect IWA’s work in Ghana is coming to an end. The final detailed review of the draft report has been returned to the team, and they have received feedback through the validation workshop (see Annex C19 and
C20). It is now up to them to finalise the report within the month of October. The work is still to be fully disseminated among the WA-WASH partners, after IWA has prepared the briefing notes. IWA will subsequently disseminate the briefing note at global level as well. One way is incorporating the results of this assessment, as well as IWA’s other country assessments within and outside of WA-WASH Program, into a global synthesis report that should be made available in the beginning of 2013.
The activities have resulted in the expected results in which a country relevant assessment plan was established, and the research engaged with the various sector professionals to evaluate the capacity of over 26 organisations.
Ghana – preliminary findings from IWA assessment (before validation workshop)
There is more human resource capacity in the water sector than in the sanitation sector, due to the complexity of the water systems. This argument also holds for the relative larger capacity in urban areas versus rural areas. Females represent 11-45% of the human resources in the sector, with a particular low number of females working in the engineering fields. Graduates who are employed generally undergo some sort of on the job training. Thus it is important to look into what educational institutions are teaching and the skills that they are developing for potential workers. The human resource shortage is greatest in the sanitation sector: - Metropolis/Municipality/District assemblies lack civil engineers and sanitary engineers to construct the systems required to fill the MDG / full service coverage deficit. - New degrees are developed in the field of health sciences, development studies and water and sanitation, but these are not yet fully recognized by employers. This results in difficulties for graduates to progress in their field which leads to those graduates not joining the sanitation sector.
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Furthermore, there is a relatively high shortage of mechanical and electrical engineers in both water and sanitation sector.
The final report, currently being finalized, provides information that can and will be used by various WA- WASH partners to inform their capacity building activities as well as strategies to address the shortages and gaps
Sub –Activity 4.1.2: Assessment of regional institutional capacity and potential in WASH
Refer to Section 3.4.2, p39 on Burkina Faso.
4.4.2 Sub-Intermediate Result D.2.: Increase national and regional integrated WASH knowledge management and networking
o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH Refer to Section 3.2.3, p30 for details.
o Activity 4.2: Capacity Building of Regional WASH Institutions
Refer to Section 3.4.2, p39 on Burkina Faso.
o Activity 4.3: Regional WASH Knowledge Management/Monitoring and Evaluation
Refer to Section 4.4.2, p54 in Burkina Faso.
4.4.3 Sub-Intermediate Result D.3.: Enhanced gender mainstreaming in integrated WASH program
o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
Refer to section 3.1.3 p24 for the work conducted by CARE and Winrock.
4.4.4 Sub-Intermediate Result D.4. Expanded private sector engagement in integrated WASH programs
o Activity 4.4: Expanded WASH Regional Private Sector Partnerships / GDA Development
BPD’s activities, in cooperation with the Regional Office are to contribute to meeting Sub-IR.D.4 on the ‘Number of public-private partnerships developed to promote integrated WASH programming’ for which FIU is responsible. The overall target for Ghana is two such partnerships; one of which was to be developed for Year 1. Given the preliminary nature of the discussions on GDA activities in Ghana and the recent recruitment of the WA-WASH Country Coordinator, it is expected that these targets will be reached in Year 2.
Two BPD staff members undertook the initial GDA analysis in June. This was based on a wide-ranging literature review and interviews with WA-WASH partners and other key sector actors in Ghana. Working
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with the WA-WASH RO GDA Manager and local consultants, the BPD team interviewed over 20 organisations in-country. A local stakeholder feedback meeting was held June 26, 2012 in Accra with 20 participants, including WA-WASH and USAID staff. A report from this meeting is available and was distributed to participants (see Annex C21). The final Ghana GDA Assessment report will be completed in October.
Photo 14: Participants at the Accra GDA stakeholder feedback meeting (June 2012, Ghana) Mr. George (CHF), Ousseini Yeye (USAID/WA-WASH), Lakhdar Boukerrou (USAID/WA-WASH) and Sean Cantella (Relief International)
As noted above, ongoing support will be provided to the GDA Manager and Country Coordinator to assess potential GDA partners in Ghana and to develop specific partnerships (see GDA strategy in Annex B09). The forthcoming WA-WASH Partners’ Meeting (November 8-9) shall provide an opportunity for BPD staff member, to return to Ghana and continue the support role face-to-face.
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5 Niger
Niger has been the third country on the list to see activities started. Both Winrock and WaterAid have the ground activities and FIU has initiated discussion with the start of the PoU activities in Q1 of YR2. Winrock and WaterAid activities and the synergies between them are discussed in the next sections. 5.1 Intermediate Result A.: Increased community access to potable water and improved sanitation
5.1.1 Improved access to and quality of sustainable water supply services for domestic and productive purposes
o Activity 1.1: Multiple Use Services (MUS) Provision
Winrock is in charge of Activity 1.1. (MUS provision) in Niger. Winrock Project Director, Patrice Beaujault, made a trip to Niger from June 17 to 23 to start the activities there, with the newly hired Niger Country Director, and to finalize the choice of the Winrock intervention area: the Zinder region (see Annex C22). As part of the mission, the Niger Country Director received a quick introduction to MUS, and field visits were made in the Dosso region. Also several meetings were held with local authorities, USAID WA- WASH partners and other resource people. Moreover on September 20-22, 2012, a MUS in-house training for Winrock Niger mobilizers and Livelihood Coordinator staffing was organized.
Photo 15: MUS training workshop for project mobilizers in Zinder (September 2012, Niger) The main Sub-Activities Winrock has been contributing to are the following:
1.1.1.: Identification of the most promising options and areas for developing a MUS program in Burkina Faso, and development of an implementation plan. 1.1.5.: Increased awareness of MUS and creation of a supportive environment for MUS learning, replication, and scale-up. Key ministries in Niger and Burkina Faso, WA-WASH partners, NGOs, and sector professionals understand MUS and overall project activities; have received MUS briefing packets; and have been invited to participate in the Learning Workshops and related events. The project staff is trained on key “MUS messages.”
The main achievement since the first mission has been the identification and selection of promising communes and villages for program implementation, with the involvement of the local authorities and government technical services. The selected communes are Guidimouni, Gouna, Bande and Wacha in the Zinder region. A total of 40 villages have been selected, ten for each of the four communes. The selection was made through a participative process including: (1) field visits; (2) discussion with the local population; (3) discussion with and propositions from local authorities and local government technical services and (4) a validation workshop with the participation of the local authorities and government technical services. The strategy to select the communities for the program implementation involved looking for areas with a common set of water challenges so that the project can address water related issues with technological solutions. These technological solutions can be addressed by the private sector (with appropriate training)
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during the life of the project and after its ends. This is linked to supply chain development activities for low cost boreholes and alternative water supply sources. Moreover, a baseline survey was completed with the firm Maptech Niger for the selected areas. The baseline reports and data tables are being translated to English (see Annex C23). At the same time, a preliminary survey was conducted by the consultant Oumarou Abdou to assess the performance and acceptance of the low cost pumps and irrigation technologies installed under the former MUS project (2009- 2010). The main findings are: - About 50% of the pumps visited are not working well. The main problems reported are the lack of pistons and the quality of the ropes. - There is only one piston supplier (Sani Rabo, Maradi) and one quality rope supplier (ESMA, Zinder) in the Zinder region. - Spare parts vendors are not very active and there are long delays due to the distance from their suppliers (ESMA in Zinder and Sani Rabo in Maradi).
Finally, discussions took place with WaterAid Niger (Maman Yacouba, Program Manager and colleagues) on September 20, in Zinder, Niger. The planned WA-WASH activities of both organizations as well as possibilities to complement each other in the field were explored. The main ideas that came out of the discussion are:
- Identification of two pilot villages in Wacha (Winrock’s intervention commune) and two others in Dunguass (WaterAid intervention commune) where possibilities to expand on each other activities could be tested (e.g. WaterAid helping to train Winrock’s mobilizers on sanitation and hygiene, and Winrock helping them with MUS). - The reason for Winrock to choose Wacha is that it borders Dungass (the only commune in Zinder where WaterAid is working under the WA-WASH Program). - Impact of activities in these pilot villages would be measured and compared with the rest of the localities where Winrock and WaterAid are working independently to see if there are any improvements. As for activities in Burkina Faso, MUS briefing materials are ready to be used as shown in Annex C24.
Activities planned by Winrock for Year 2 are as follow:
Finalize staff recruitment by hiring Monitoring and Evaluation & Knowledge Management Specialist. Begin implementation of Multiple Use Services (MUS) including develop Water Accounting Framework and develop water service options, etc. Participate in the MUS Team Meeting in Rwanda (9 – 18 November).
The work of this first year in Niger has contributed mainly to the identification of the project intervention communities and the training of the project staff in MUS. The baseline surveys have been completed and will allow proper tracking of changes that will occur due to the program intervention.
o Activity 1.2: Low-Cost Boreholes
Under this activity, the main action for Winrock for the first year was the identification of promising drilling methods, teams, opportunities and needs in Niger.
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Winrock started by conducting a technical assessment of traditional well restoration opportunities (Consultant Roland Tapia Mission; see Annex C25). Problems identified include:
Shallow garden wells are collapsing due to lack of reinforced well walls. India pumps are broken or maintained with difficulty (they are considered too expensive to be maintained). Examples of working rope pumps, previously installed in the Guinimouni commune by a Peace Corps volunteer, with help from Winrock’s former MUS project, seem to interest people more. Photo 16: Field visit with Roland Tapia, Wacha commune Absence of water in concrete lined wells (August 2012, Niger) located in sandy aquifer due to insufficient well depth or blowing sand burying the well. Unprotected concrete and traditional wells in dirty surroundings. Contamination of traditional wells from rainfall runoff.
Activities planned by Winrock for Year 2 are as follow: Start technical training for drilling teams and installers for selected technologies. Promote the supply chain for low-cost well-digging/drilling techniques.
Photo 17: view from the baseline (Hand pump fixed every 2 months cost ;250 000Fcfa/year; Sand aquifer burying concrete well; Traditional well/runoff water infiltration) (August 2012, Niger)
o Activity 1.4: Alternative Water Supply Source Development
Winrock achievements during FY/2011-2012 contributed to the following: two promising, demand-driven, appropriate technologies and approaches for increasing domestic and productive water supply both in Niger and Burkina Faso.
A preliminary survey was conducted by the consultant Mr. Abdou to assess the progress accomplished by the drilling artisans trained under the former MUS project (2009-2010) and identified skilled artisans to consider for training/refresher training under the WA-WASH Program. The main findings are:
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- Previously trained artisans have performed well in general, but performance is highly variable. The tubewell driller Zouladeini (from Bandé) performed the best with 650 tubewells/boreholes drilled for UNICEF, PASER and PRODEX. Two others (from Matamèye and Zinder) drilled about 200 tubewells/boreholes each. A second driller in Bandé drilled only 54 tubewells. - In two of Winrock’s current intervention communes (Guidimouni and Gouna) there are no trained artisans (except for one driller in Guidimouni trained in 1999 under the ANPIP project). These two communes will be considered priority for possible training/refresher trainings under USAID WA-WASH - Electricity supply is intermittent in Guidimouni and Wacha and this must be considered for the decision to train pump manufacturers in these areas.
A major finding in Winrock’s surveys in Niger (see AnnexC26) is that there is currently a large proportion of non-functional water points in the project intervention area, due to prolonged / unrepaired breakdowns of the existing pumps (generally related to failures of existing local water management committees and lack of ownership for the community pumps, deficiencies in the supply chains for the rope pump, and high maintenance costs for the India and other existing pump models). The main shortcomings with the supply chain of the rope pump are the long delays in repairing the pumps due to the distance to the spare parts suppliers and the lack of motivation of local repairers because of the insufficient revenues/number of pumps covered.
Based on these findings, Winrock strategy in Niger will put an emphasis on self-supply through the private sector, including the development and promotion of low cost technologies such as the family rope pump and the EMAS pump. It is envisioned that such an approach will help correct the issues mentioned above, particularly improving the sense of ownership of the pumps, and improving the revenues/motivation of local repairers through a potential increase in the number of pumps within the intervention area.
Activities planned by Winrock for Year 2 are:
International consultancy (Mr. Henk Holtslag) will visit Niger to provide technical advice and training on low-cost water lifting technologies for MUS implementation in Niger and Burkina Faso. The assignment will be based in Niamey, Niger and will involve hands-on capacity building and manufacturing of improved rope pump models. Details on the consultant’s activities are as follows:
- Technically assess the current rope pump model used in Niger and suggest potential improvements (this includes site visits, metal workshop visit and discussions with spare parts suppliers). - Train at least one manufacturer from Niger and at least one manufacturer from Burkina Faso to manufacture the improved Tanzania-model rope pump. - Build at least two prototypes of an improved rope pump. - Consult with the Niger and Burkina Faso WA-WASH Program teams to present and discuss additional MUS technologies (including EMAS pump) applicable to the local context. Select promising technologies, train manufacturers and promote supply chain. This includes testing promising technologies such as the family rope pump model (during Mr. Holtslag mission in Niger in October 2012), the EMAS pump (prototype construction by consultant Mr. Abdou), and a new drilling technique based on a combination of the percussion and the jetting techniques (to be discussed and prepared with the consultant Mr. Holtslag during his mission in Niger in October 2012).
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Participate in the Private Sector Technical Exchange in Tanzania (November 2012) (see Section 3.1.1 , p21).
o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH
CARE has not started the activities on Micro Finance for Year 1. Refer to Section 3.2.3, p30 for details.
5.1.2 Sub-Intermediate Result A.2. Improved access to and use of sustainable sanitation services
WaterAid Niger (WANi) is working with local partners towards getting villages open-defecation free. In Niger, the intervention areas proposed by WaterAid are as follows:
- Soucoucoutan Commune, Doutchi Department, Dosso Region. - Guidan Amoumoune Commune, Mayayi Department, Maradi Region. - Tabotaki Commune, Bouza Department, Tahoua Region. - Sinder Commune, Tillabery Department, Tillabery Region. - Doungass Commune, Magaria Department, Zinder Region.
During the first year of the Program, the following activities were conducted:
- WaterAid Niger (WANi) participated in a start-up workshop on USAID rules and regulations organized by WaterAid America (WAA) (with support from the WaterAid West Africa Regional Team) in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) from July 11-13, 2012. - In Niger, WANI has completed the following activities: o Identified 14 villages to work in and carried out a rapid assessment of households’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) on hygiene and sanitation in these 14 villages (see Annex B13); o CLTS has been triggered in 11 villages; o WANi partners and communities constructed 95 household latrines and two school latrines; o WANi together with local partners, established two slab production centers; and o WANi and local implementation partners have produced awareness raising tools.
o Activity 1.5: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
WANi is working in partnership with four local NGOs (VALPRO, GAMA, DEMI-E and AREN) and an international NGO (Water and Sanitation for Africa – WSA) for implementation of projects in the field in collaboration with the communes, which are responsible for the follow-up of the commitments of each partner and animation of the consultation framework. WANi is also working with the following structures:
- Journalists network for water and sanitation (REJEA) to influence and advocate for sanitation. - The National Commission for Water and Sanitation (CNEA) for facilitating the exchange platform involving all stakeholders within the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.
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- Five Health Departmental Directions (Bouza, Tillabéry, Doutchi, Magaria and Mayayi) for training hygiene promoters. - Five Water Departmental Directions (Bouza, Tillabéry, Doutchi, Magaria and Mayayi) for training masons, monitoring and control of latrines.
Other strategic partnerships have been identified during the launch workshop. Communication is in progress with other consortium partners. Potential partnerships are presented in Table 5.
Table 5: Potential partnerships discussed with WaterAid for the implementation of WA-WASH
Potential partners Learning topics Observations Capacity building of partners, with focus on IRC NA communication tools WINROCK Multiple approach - use of water services NA Management of vulnerability and reconciliation Also in collaboration with CARE between equity, inclusion & gender justice Winrock Development of partnerships between WASH Study of potential collaboration BPD and the private sector and workshop organization Collaboration in common FIU/Animas Sutura Point-of-Use water treatment communes
WaterAid Niger would like to develop four “model” villages with Winrock in the Zinder region (two villages of each partner). Discussions about joint activities in this region will continue. A meeting held on September 13 in Zinder confirmed the need to work in the four villages. The criteria for choosing the villages have been shared between Winrock and WANi staff members (see Section 5.1.1, p56).
Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
The 14 villages identified by WANi and local partners (Table 6) have undergone a rapid assessment of households’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) on hygiene and sanitation, which was conducted by field implementation partners. This rapid assessment acts as a baseline study on hygiene and sanitation performance prior to the intervention in those villages, and helps determine appropriate modes of communication during CLTS triggering. KAP assessments allowed for a better understanding of the lack of household latrines, and for determining the previous hygiene and sanitation interventions and the water supply options in the villages. The quick KAP studies undertaken in Katari and Garin-Wada, where WANi has worked for more than 18 months, as examples of rapid assessments/baseline studies are presented in Annex B13.
Photo 18: CLTS animation sessions in Doungass (Niger)
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Table 6: List of the 14 villages identified by WaterAid Niger
Region Commune Village Aggué Dagna Belayé Dosso Soucoucoutan Kotayé Koubou Kaina Dan Koullou Maradi Guidan Amoumoune Guidan Amoumoune Saidaawa Maba Adarawa Tahoua Tabotaki Guidan Djibo Tabotaki Sawani Tillabery Sinder Soudani Tamné-Tamné Zinder Doungass Magawata
In addition, CLTS triggering took place in 11 villages of three communes (Soucoucoutan, Sinder and Doungass). In these villages, 365 households showed interest in constructing household latrines and adopting good hygiene practices. Table 7 shows the Communes, the villages triggered as well as the number of households who have interest in constructing household latrines and adopting good hygiene practices.
Table 7: Communes, villages triggered and number of households engaged on CLTS by WaterAid Niger
Commune Number of villages triggered Number of household engaged Soucoucoutan 5 villages: Kimassa, Bagigi, Tsaouna, 159 Aggué Goumandey and Aggué Dagna Sinder 2 villages: Sawani and Soudani 58 Doungass 4 villages: Tamné-Tamné, Magawata, 148 Boudoukay and Garin Gaki Total 365
Development of approach and materials for CLTS in nomadic communities
Five Action Research Groups (ARGs) were established in the town of Soucoucoutan on the issue of access to sanitation among nomadic people. The objective is to develop an approach and materials for nomadic communities in order to promote CLTS. Those five groups include seven Fulani (nomadic) participants. The NGO GAMA trained the five groups to conduct action research and carrying out CLTS. Research efforts are currently focused on refining hypotheses.
Following the training sessions, the ARGs will lead the process as follows: elaboration/formulation of research hypotheses; external support for modeling; and lessons learnt and capitalization of results. The expected result is that CLTS will take into account the nomadic context. The activities will involve issues of human and animal excreta, environmental hygiene and health. The success will depend on the solutions proposed and tested by the nomadic communities. In addition to the intervention of the NGO GAMA, a WASH master's intern student is currently working on this topic for a better understanding of the nomadic context, and to propose recommendations to contextualize CLTS in this environment.
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Implement household latrines
Following the CLTS triggering, WANi and its partners, together with the communities, built 95 SanPlat type household latrines, including:
- 30 latrines in Soucoucoutan in collaboration with the NGO GAMA. - 23 latrines in Sinder in collaboration with EAA (previously CREPA). - 42 latrines in Doungass in collaboration with the NGO DEMI-E. In addition, 72 latrines are under construction in the communes. We expect a rapid increase in the number of latrines built with the end of the rainy season and fieldwork, which prevented construction by and with local communities. Monthly monitoring has been carried out through household visits using a tracking worksheet to assess latrine usage, developed for this purpose.
Photo 19 : Household latrines for elderly people (Doungass) and with Sanplat slab (Doungass) (Niger)
School latrines
Two blocks of school latrines were constructed since August 2012 for a total of 5 toilets (two in Tamné- Tamné and 3 in Sawani). In total, 322 students will benefit from these facilities and from a hygienic environment. WANi and its partners are also building another block of school latrines (with 4 toilets) in a primary school in the rural Commune of Soucoucoutan.
o Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing
Build sanitation markets
A slab production center with three models (including SanPlat, SanPlat with sump and Ventilated Improved Pit - VIP slabs) was established at the Sinder City Hall. The sanitation market will attract the interest in sanitation at the community level. One of the main communication channels is the construction of several types of slabs and their display at the Communes City Halls and villages.
Develop sanitation models
In Niger, WANi and its partner plan to conduct sanitation market research and develop sanitation practice models for replication. A slab production center is planned in each of the five Communes where WANI work, but priority is given to the sanitation markets in Sinder and Doungass. For the moment, the sanitation marketing activity has just started and will soon involve open days in the presence of leaders, local radio advertising, advertising at the markets, etc.
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Train artisans/masons
Ten local masons from Sinder and Soucoucoutan were trained in latrine construction (specifically, slab construction and calculation of latrine depth in relation to the groundwater table). In addition, WANi and its partners provided local masons with tools needed for latrine construction in Sinder, Guidan Amoumoune and Doungass Communes (molds for constructing slabs and other masonry equipment). To date, 25 masons have also received a handout describing the different steps to construct latrines.
Conduct sanitation marketing workshops
In terms of production and distribution of latrine options and hygiene promotion materials, animation booklets were produced and differ depending on the municipalities. Our partners have each produced 20 Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) booklets, which are available for the implementation teams and action groups set up in villages (CLTS, hygiene, and water point management committees). We also produced animation flip charts dealing with hygiene and hand washing in Doungass and Guidan Amoumoune for 12 villages. In addition, a technical guide to teaching hygiene has been reproduced five times in the five communes (total of 25 copies). Therefore, about 200 booklets and animation toolkits have been produced during the first year.
Conclusions on WaterAid activities in Niger
This year, WANi implemented activities which have contributed to increasing access to sanitation services and the adoption of key hygiene behaviors: CLTS triggering in 11 villages; construction of 95 household latrines and two school latrines; establishment of two slab production centers; training of ten local masons; production of 200 animation tools; and support to update two LDPs. Use of sanitation facilities and the adoption of adequate behaviors among the communities will be monitored over time. The activities conducted to improve the sustainability of WASH services have already started, and will be reinforced during the next period in order to continue supporting the development of local development plans and liaising with key stakeholders on sanitation and CLTS.
In Niger, as a result of heavy rains and floods, work in most of the intervention communities has been temporarily suspended. The team will keep monitoring the situation and will update all stakeholders on progress, as well as any challenges. In addition, the rainy season and agricultural fieldworks occupied most of the community member’s time and prevented the construction of household latrines during the past few months.
WANi will continue to construct and rehabilitate household and school latrines, perform household visits, and develop an approach and materials for CLTS and promoting hygiene and sanitation in nomadic communities. WANi will hold training sessions on rooted advocacy to improve the ability of local WASH sector actors in Niger and local elected people to engage with policymakers at roundtables and continue training local technical units (LTUs), including masons, hygiene promoters, and local committees. WANi also plans to organize four roundtables with WASH partners to share lessons learned and best practices (including sanitation promotion in nomadic communities) and initiate the collaboration with Winrock. WANi will also undertake program monitoring and evaluation activities as well as field visits.
5.1.3 Sub-Intermediate Result A.3. Increased adoption of key hygiene behaviors
o Activity 1.5: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
Refer to the description in Section 5.1.2 above.
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o Activity 1.6: Conduct Sanitation Marketing
Refer to the description in Section 5.1.2 above.
o Activity 1.7: Safe Water Handling, Storage, and Point-of-Use (PoU)
For the Safe Water Handling, Storage and Point-of-Use (PoU) activity in Niger, a partner was already identified after the WAWI experience. Indeed ANIMAS SUTURA had started to implement a distribution network for Aquatabs under WAWI and they proposed to extend their area with the WA-WASH Program. A proposal is in process and FIU expect to have the contract sign in Q1 of Year 2 to start implementing activities.
o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
Refer to Section 3.1.3 p24 for this activity.
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5.2 Intermediate Result B.: Improved sustainability of WASH services
5.2.1 Sub-Intermediate Result B1. Adoption of replicable and sustainable WASH management approaches
o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking
The context of the WaterAid Niger activities has been explained in the previous section. In addition to the implementation of the sanitation approach, some advocacy took place.
Build capacity of WASH sector actors
The meeting of local partners, held in April 2012, brought together WANi’s five implementing partners. This meeting included a review of PHAST tools developed for hygiene and sanitation promotion, as well as promoting awareness of the importance of water and sanitation management at the household level. PHAST tools were validated for each Commune to measure specific indicators (housing, water supply technology, type of pump, etc.). Each partner had a set of tools to conduct promotion sessions and a second set to leave with the intervention villages. The validation of the PHAST and CLTS training modules was performed in five communes, and tools are now available in 12 villages. WANi and its partners plan to provide 55 additional villages with printed materials. Based on the identification of villages, it was only feasible in 67 villages even if we planned this activity in 80 villages. However, this will not have an impact on the number of users because WANi and implementation partners have targeted larger villages (about 2,000 people).
WANi also trained 30 hygiene promoters (24 from Soucoucoutan and six from Sinder), who were provided with sanitation and hygiene promotion Photo 20: Equipment for hygiene promoters, following the materials. The kit includes wheelbarrows, shovels, training session in Sinder (Niger) rakes, gloves, and boxes of soap.
Update local development plans
WANi provided support to update local water, sanitation and hygiene development plans (LDPs) in Tabotaki and Guidan Amoumoune. The third LDP that we planned to support this year is not necessary as the LDP was only completed recently. The communes targeted by WANi now have local plans that will be updated, at least nine months after their preparation.
5.2.2 Sub-Intermediate Result B.2. Strengthened national and local policies and governance for WASH service delivery and management
o Activity 2.4: WASH Advocacy and Networking
Refer to the description in Section 5.2.1 above.
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o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
Refer to Section 3.1.3 p24.
5.2.3 Sub-Intermediate Result B.3.: Increased access to sustainable financing for WASH services
o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH
CARE has not started the activities on Micro Finance for Year 1. Refer to Section 3.2.3, p30 for details.
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5.3 Intermediate Result C.: Increased income generation and food security outcomes of WASH investments The activities under this section will start in YR2.
5.3.1 Sub-Intermediate Result C.1.: Adoption of complementary agricultural technologies and practices in WASH programs
o Activity 3.1: WASH Integration to enhance Food Security
Sub-Activity 3.1.1(b): WASH integration to enhance food security (Regional activities)
Refer to Section 3.3.1, p31 in Burkina Faso.
Sub-Activity 3.1.1(c): WASH integration to enhance food security (National activities)
The activities have not started in Year 1.
Sub–Activity 3.1.2: WASH Integration to enhance Food Security - National activities
Winrock food security activities have not started during the first year. For the next period, Winrock plans to identify promising market opportunities for productive water use activities and start support for productive water use opportunities to improve household food security.
The implementation based on the results of the above will occur in the areas where MUS activities have started and will add to the other activities to strengthen the food security component.
5.3.2 Sub-Intermediate Result C.2.: Increased local and national capacity to adapt to water-related climate change
o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change
The activities have not started in Year 1.
5.3.3 Sub-Intermediate Result C.3.: Increased availability of climate resilience information
o Activity 3.2: WASH Adaptation to Climate Change The activities have not started in Year 1.
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5.4 Intermediate Result D.: Strengthened national and regional enabling environment for integrated WASH.
5.4.1 Sub-Intermediate Result D.1.: Strengthened national and regional organizations in integrated WASH advocacy
o Activity 4.1: Assessment/Diagnostic of Regional Institutional Capacity and Potential in the WASH Sector
Sub –Activity 4.1.1.: Assessment of national institutional capacity and potential in WASH
Under this activity, IWA undertook a human resource assessment for the water and sanitation sector in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Senegal. To read about the methodology, you can refer to Section 3.4.1 in the Burkina Faso part of the report (p33).
IWA Activities in Niger
Using the Cap-Net network, the National Resource Institute of Nigeria, was able to draw on its West African (WA)-NET to enable the selection of the West African team in Niger. A call for interests was produced and launched within Niger, and a few proposals were evaluated, based on their suggested action plan, team members, timings and financial requirements. The team that was selected constituted of a leader from the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey, and two team members from the Ministry of Water Resources and Environment.
The composition of the team, provided the advantage of getting the sector engaged, where two members were from the Ministry. Contract negotiations took place and methodological clarifications were discussed before the signing of the contract in April. The team started data collection in two phases:
The collection of documentation through the visit to Niamey key institutions including state agencies (Ministry of Water Resources, National Institute of Statistics);
The fieldwork, which involved the administration of questionnaires (data collection sheets) with different targets within eight leaders’ venues regions of Niger. These sheets are individual and differ depending on the target type (public, private, NGOs, training institutions). They are designed based on the guidelines of the IWA methodology. To facilitate the collection of information and for the time spent on field missions, these guides have been previously sent by e-mail to some officials structures.
After the first phase, they prepared the kick-off workshop to engage the sector, in the planning of the process, and trying to collect some preliminary data. The team, following the methodology, set a sample of six NGOs, eight private sector organisations, 24 public service institutions, nine design bureaus (private), and 12 education institutes.
The team members facilitated their field work through advance preparation of the institutes to be visited. This significantly impacted the speed with which the team members performed the field work, and allowed for quick data collection. However, when the preliminary findings were submitted to IWA, it was noticed that the figures were not structured, or backed up with sufficient information or clarification, the team had not followed the detailed instruction as per the methodology. Indeed, the team in Niger experienced some difficulties understanding the methodology and its application. This was seen after the submission of preliminary results for the Capacity Building Forum.
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In the week of the Capacity building Forum, where IWA presented some pre-preliminary findings on the Niger country assessment, IWA staff decided the need for a French speaking individual to go to Niger to guide this team in their next step. Believing in peer-to-peer exchange, the Burkina Faso team leader (Jeremie Bambara) was asked to visit Niamey the following week, to monitor the progress, share experiences, and guide the team in the right direction, including the planning of the next steps. This was most appropriate to overcome language barrier between IWA staff and Niger team.
The feedback from this visit was that there was a need to take a step back to collect additional data to find the information required, and this was done through telephone interviews, and email exchanges. The data analysis was facilitated and one of the team members from Burkina Faso, who had been responsible for the calculations of the quantitative data, including the Excel sheet, offered to review their data and support the final estimations of HR Shortages. The draft report was offered to IWA mid-September for review, at which time the team prepared for the validation workshop to be held at the beginning October 2012 (see Annex C27).
In effect, IWA’s work in Niger is coming to an end. They planned the validation workshop for the 3rd of October, where they will receive feedback from the sector. IWA and NWRI (African coordinator) have done a detailed final review of the draft report. It will then be up to the team to finalise the report within the month of October. The work is still to be fully disseminated among the WA-WASH partners, after IWA has prepared the briefing notes. IWA will subsequently disseminate the briefing note at global level as well. One of way is incorporating the results of this assessment, as well as IWA’s other country assessments within and outside of WA-WASH Program, into a global synthesis report that should be made available in the beginning of 2013.
Niger – preliminary findings from IWA assessment (before validation workshop)
Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world with a high water dependency (90% of surface water resources come from outside). The rate of population's access to drinking water supply and sanitation are among the lowest in the world. - 78.8% of the urban population have latrines, taking into account traditional latrines, but only 38.4% have improved sanitation facilities; 6.7% of the rural population have latrines, taking into account traditional latrines, but only 2.2% have improved sanitation facilities. - The rate of access to drinking water in 2010 is estimated at 64.25% in rural areas and 73.75 % in urban areas. The public sector has no problem attracting human resources. - Relatively high salaries and potential for training. - Remuneration is lower in rural areas. Only 40% of NGOs indicated having a permanent staff member on board, indicating the work on a project basis. These are mainly international NGOs. The private sector (water supply company specifically) has no staff for hygiene or sanitation, and no sociologists available. Water and sanitation specific professionals in the technical fields need to get their training abroad. Specific reference was made to lack of equipment and laboratories to train graduates practically. Overall, limited gaps of the professionals in the field were indicated. It was noted that graduates required a year of training on the job. This is explained by the fact that education seems to put a higher focus on
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theory rather than practice. There seems to be limited equipment and resources to offer the practical training as well.
Sub –Activity 4.1.2.: Assessment of regional institutional capacity and potential in WASH
Refer to Section 3.4.1 on Burkina Faso (p37).
5.4.2 Sub-Intermediate Result D.2.: Increase national and regional integrated WASH knowledge management and networking
o Activity 2.2: Innovative WASH Financing/Credit for Small-Medium Scale WASH
CARE has not started the Micro-financing activities during Year 1.
o Activity 4.2: Capacity Building of Regional WASH Institutions
For the Sub-Activity 4.2.1 to 4.2.3 by IRC, UNESCO-IHE and FIU, refer to Section 3.4.2 on Burkina Faso (p39).
Sub-Activity 4.2.4.: Workshop in Partnerships analysis and partnership building for development
BPD is developing this activity and activities in Niger are due to take place in November 2012; as such, in this reporting period there has only been some preparatory work completed – as detailed below. Following on from previous BPD-run Developing Partnerships in Practice (DPP) courses in the region (some of which were held under the auspices of WA-WASH’s predecessor, the West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI)), BPD will organize and run the partnership training for 28-30 participants from the public, private and non-profit sectors in Niger. The course will be tailored to local needs and made context specific. The training aims to introduce participants to practical tools and frameworks that can support and strengthen their institutional relationships in the longer term. BPD also supports the participants to apply these skills proactively within the WASH sector in Niger. WA- WASH partner organizations and their local partners are currently Photo 21: Participants at a BPD Developing being invited to attend this training. Partnerships in Practice training course held under the auspices of WAWI (Feb 2012, Niger) Internal BPD planning began in earnest for the DPP course in August/September 2012 – local and international consultants have been recruited and are being trained to support the delivery of the course. An internal review of the training course content is also underway within BPD to tailor materials to the Niger context. Ongoing planning for the DPP course will take place in October and November. It is anticipated that WA-WASH Partners and their implementation partners will take part in the training.
o Activity 4.3: Regional WASH Knowledge Management/Monitoring and Evaluation
Refer to Section 3.4.2, p40.
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5.4.3 Sub-Intermediate Result D.3.: Enhanced gender mainstreaming in integrated WASH program
o Activity 2.5: Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainability
Refer to Section 3.1.3, p24 for this activity.
5.4.4 Sub-Intermediate Result D.4. Expanded private sector engagement in integrated WASH programs
o Activity 4.4: Expanded WASH Regional Private Sector Partnerships / GDA Development BPD’s activities, in cooperation with the Regional Office are to contribute to meeting Sub-IR.D.4 on the ‘Number of public-private partnerships developed to promote integrated WASH programming’ for which FIU is responsible overall in Niger.
We hope that the work to be done by BPD in Niger, the DPP, the assessment, etc. will contribute and lead to the establishment of partnerships in Niger. It is also expected that it will enhance the collaboration among the WA-WASH partners.
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6 Conclusion
In conclusion, YR1 saw some problems and delays with the start of the program due to contract negotiations and subsequent signing of contracts. We have had minimal attendance to four of partners meetings organized in Ouagadougou. However, the July meeting which was attended by all the partners allowed for a good exchange of information and planning of activities for the rest of the year. We hope that meeting attendance by the partners will improve considerably due to a three-year meeting plan submitted to all the partners. This planning ahead and the coordination by the Regional Office and the Country Coordinators will be instrumental in moving the partners forward.
While some activity harmonization has taken place among the implementing partners, it is still necessary to tweak the geographical areas of intervention and the timing of the various activities among the partners. The Country Coordinators along with the RO Thematic Coordinators will play a major role in this regard.
With respect to the insertion of the program in each of the country strategies, this has been accomplished in Burkina Faso. However, more work needs to be done in YR2 for Ghana and Niger. The Regional Office made contact with a great number of public, private and NGOs as well as international partners in Burkina Faso and Ghana to promote the program, explore opportunity and synergies with various stakeholders. At the beginning of YR2 we will concentrate on Niger.
In YR1, we have experienced a good news coverage in Burkina Faso and our goal is to expend that to Ghana and Niger. The second year of the program is going to see the start in earnest of all the planned activities and will be an opportunity to publicize even more the program at the local, national and regional levels.
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Annex A: List of Maps and Charts
A01. USAID WA-WASH Result Framework A02. USAID WA WASH Thematic Chart A03. Map of intervention regions in Burkina Faso A04. Map of intervention provinces in Burkina Faso A05. Map of intervention communes in Burkina Faso A06. Map of intervention regions in Niger A07. Map of intervention communes in Niger A08. Map of intervention Regions in Ghana A09. Map of intervention districts in Ghana A10. Knowledge Management Chart A11. Sustainability of WASH Services Provision Chart A12. Climate Change Adaptation Linkages Chart A13. WASH- MUS Food security and Climate Change links Chart A14. Policy Influencing Theory of Change Chart A15. Capacity Building Approach Chart
Annex B: List of others supporting documents/reports
B01. USAID WA-WASH Meeting October 12-14 report B02. USAID WA-WASH Partners Meeting Minutes November 14 17 2011 B03. USAID WA-WASH Partners Meeting Notes July 12 B04. SKAT Baseline Report Self Supply Burkina Faso B05. WaterAid Start-up Workshop in Burkina Faso B06. WaterAid Partners Meeting in Burkina Faso B07. IRC WA WASH KM Training Workshop July Ouagadougou Report B08. IRC WA-WASH KM Working Paper 1 B09. BPD GDA Strategy B10. WaterAid Start-up workshop in Ghana B11. WaterAid Baseline Entry Format Ghana B12. WaterAid Baseline Report Ghana B13. WaterAid Rapid Knowledge Attitude and Practice (KAP) Assessments Niger
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Annex C: List of deliverables12
Burkina Faso
C01. BF 1.1.DEL1 Draft report on first options identified for implementing MUS [Technical advices for Burkina-Faso and Niger WA-WASH Projects report] and [Field visits in Burkina Faso and Niger report]
C02. BF 1.1.DEL2 Draft information on water uses, sources and livelihood activities in selected areas of MUS intervention (in summary form) [Baseline survey in Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre Ouest and Centre regions - Executive Summary]
C03. BF 1.1.DEL3 MUS briefing materials in English language and in French language [A Guide to Multiple-Use Water Services]
C04. BF 1.2.DEL1 Draft report describing first identified promising drilling methods. See deliverable C01A BF11DEL1.
C05. BF 1.4.DEL1 ToR for the catchment/ project/partner identification mission [Proposal Burkina Faso - Rain-1]
C06. BF 1.4.DEL2 Report of description of first identification of promising technologies/options for increasing domestic and productive water supply, including any technology tests conducted. See C01A BF11DEL1.
C07. BF 2.1.DEL1 Baseline assessment report including survey instrument, survey results, locations where survey took place [WA-WASH Triple S Rural Water Supply Management & Organization]
C08. BF 2.1.DEL2 Analysis framework to be used for the analysis of the data gathered data analysis results and interpretation. See C07 BF21DEL2
C09. BF 2.1.DEL3 Draft Report presenting the analysis of water services in the Sahel including the identifying of gaps. See C07 BF21DEL2
C10. BF 2.5.DEL1 Work Plan for the next work period [Detailed Joint CARE – Winrock Gender Mainstreaming Strategy Work Plan 2013] and [Gender Baseline Survey Sept 2012]
C11. BF 4.1.DEL1 Assessment plan which will give an overview of the entire project process and scope, highlight key questions to be addressed and present the detailed evaluation methodology [Burkina Faso Human Resources capacity gap assessment - final report]
C12. BF 4.1.DEL2 One kick-off workshop in Senegal (Burkina Faso is covered by CAPWASH) and one validation workshop in Senegal and one in Burkina Faso covered by CAPWASH with local stakeholders to respectively (a) introduce objectives of the assessment to local stakeholders/motivate participation and (b) present findings of the assessment/policy implications to local stakeholders. See deliverable C11 BF41DEL1
C13. BF 4.1.DEL3 2 case studies (Senegal and Burkina Faso) that highlight the state of the WATSAN sector capacity shortage and prospects for supply of additional capacity in each country [Briefing note Burkina Faso]
C14. BF 4.1.DEL9 Report on the forum including lessons learned and recommendations, list of participants, forum evaluation results. [WA-WASH Capacity Building Forum July Ouagadougou Report] and [WA-WASH Capacity Building Forum July Ouagadougou Report Annex]
12 The numbering refers to the following: C1= Annex Number; BF=Burkina Faso, GH=Ghana, NI=Niger; 1.1= Activity 1.1 and DEL1=Deliverable number in the mentioned activity. The name in italics refers to the actual file name of the document provided with this report.
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C15. BF 4.1.DEL10 Framework for CB for Burkina Faso as the basis for the development of the CB Framework for the 3 other countries. [WA-WASH Capacity Building Framework Burkina Faso]
C16. BF 4.3.DEL5 Report on WIS XIII including list of participants, program, PowerPoint presentations, and proceedings [Rapport du WIS XIII] and [WIS XIII Participants list]
C17. BF 4.4.DEL1 Report presenting the research on institutional mapping [GDA Burkina Faso Report July 2012]
C18. BF 4.4.DEL2 Stakeholder meeting report outlining the validation of the findings and the recommendations for Burkina. [GDA Stakeholder Meeting Burkina Faso Report July 2012]
Ghana
C19. GH 4.1.DEL1 Assessment plan which will give an overview of the process and scope, highlight key questions to be addressed and present the detailed evaluation methodology [KNUST DRAFT REPORT for Validation Ghana]
C20. GH 4.1.DEL2 One Kick-off workshops. See deliverable C19 GH41DEL1
C21. GH 4.4.DEL2 Stakeholder meeting report outlining the validation of the findings and the recommendations for Burkina. [GDA Stakeholder Meeting Ghana Report June 2012]
Niger
C22. NI 1.1.DEL1 Draft report on first options identified for implementing MUS. See deliverables C01A BF11DEL1 and C01B BF11DEL1.
C23. NI 1.1.DEL2 Draft information on water uses, sources and livelihood activities in selected areas of MUS intervention (in summary form) [Baseline survey in Niger, Zinder region - Executive summary]
C24. NI 1.1.DEL3 MUS briefing materials in English language and in French language. See deliverable C03 BF11DEL3
C25. NI 1.2.DEL1 Draft report describing first identified promising drilling methods. See deliverables C01A BF11DEL1 and C01B BF11DEL1.
C26. NI 1.4.DEL1 Report on the identification of promising technologies/options for increasing domestic and productive water supply. See deliverables C01A BF11DEL1 and C01B BF11DEL1.
C27. NI 4.1.DEL1 One assessment plan which will give an overview of the process and scope, highlight key questions to be addressed and present the detailed evaluation methodology. [Niger Human Resources Capacity Gap Assessment Draft English] and [Niger Human Resources Capacity Gap Assessment Draft French].
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Annex D: Deliverable summary table
D1: Deliverable list for Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger
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