Institutional sustainability

Ensure that systems, institutions, policies and procedures at the local level are functional and meet the demand of users of WASH services.

Households and other WASH service users, authorities and service providers at the local and the national level are clear on their own roles, tasks and responsibilities, are capable of fulfilling these roles effectively and are transparent to each other. WASH stakeholders work together in the WASH chain through a multi-stakeholder approach.

Government responsibility

Access to WASH services is a basic human right, and ensuring the provision of WASH services is ultimately a government responsibility. The institutions that are responsible for the service (duty bearers) not always have the political will to fulfill their duties or lack capacity to fulfill their role. Next, in water as well as in sanitation, a systematic or integrated approach towards solving WASH problems is lacking. Too many actors are using different approaches, which are not well coordinated. Government, civil society and the private sector are not working optimally together towards the improvement of access to WASH services.

Key activities

The WASH Alliance promotes an integrated approach to WASH sector, which includes components such as the mobilization and organisation of the community around their right to WASH; clarifying roles and responsibilities of all WASH actors and the facilitation of multi-stakeholder platforms; building the capacity of the sector(s) towards better delivery; lobby and advocacy towards better policies and mobilization of government budgets. Focus will be on:

• Setting up and facilitation of Multi-stakeholder Platforms to ensure that all stakeholders in the WASH sector know, from themselves and from each other, what is expected from them in terms of their specific roles and responsibilities on the one hand, and their competencies and focus on the other.
• Partnering with women and building coalitions at local level to scale up the interventions and influence of women and of user groups
• Capacity building at different levels for the different actors in accordance with the specific roles and responsibilities
• Advocate for increased responsibility and involvement in decision-making