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Goal 3: Aid Effectiveness

Goal: Improved aid effectiveness

Desired outcome: By 2016, major donors will be largely committed to harmonise and align the financing of service delivery with country-defined frameworks for country-specific service delivery models. Non-traditional and non-state actors (including international NGOs) will also align their actions to be guided by nationally agreed frameworks. Programme management will be results driven and stakeholders will be accountable to one another.

Published on: 04/07/2013

IRC continues to support aid effectiveness both nationally, in its focus countries, and globally, through membership in such organisations as Sanitation and Water for All (SWA). IRC has helped strengthen national sector planning processes by supporting countries in the development of national policies and guidelines, and by participating in national platforms and sector working groups. In Honduras, Uganda and Ghana, IRC supported the development of sector documents to provide an agreed basis for alignment in the sector.

IRC is a member of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership, and is an elected member of the Steering Committee that leads SWA’s Research and Learning constituency.

  • IRC provided input in the development of the National Planning for Results Initiative (NPRI)—a joint and coordinated effort of SWA partners that addresses bottlenecks and support in the development of effective national WASH sector frameworks, which includes a strong platform for national planning and monitoring.
  • Through its country programmes, IRC actively supported in-country SWA High Level Meeting (HLM) preparatory processes by providing input in the development of national commitment statements such as the Ghana HLM statement, which includes a strong commitment by the Government to achieving WASH services that last.

Sanitation and Water for All 2012 High Level Meeting

The 2012 SWA HLM increased funding commitments from governments, provided public recognition to countries that have demonstrated requisite political will, promoted accountability for prior ministerial commitments, shaped sector dialogue, enhanced donor coordination, and raised global awareness in water and sanitation issues. Statements of Commitments presented during the HLM laid out two-year commitments to improving drinking water sources for 60 million people, and providing access to sanitation for 80 million people worldwide, by 2014.

The SWA Secretariat has been tasked to report and monitor in-country implementation of commitments on an annual basis.

Other examples of progress in the area of aid effectiveness in 2012 include the following:

  • IRC started talks with Water for People and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor on aligning work to provide universal access to sustainable WASH services, under the provisional title Everyone Forever (the name of an existing Water for People initiative).
  • IRC developed a collective action approach, engaging governments, implementers and funders in aligning their programmes and interventions. IRC is demonstrating this approach through existing programmes in all its focus countries in Africa and in Honduras.
  • IRC began expanding its influence in the United States and Canada, through networking and advocacy activities on the service delivery and life-cycle costs approaches to development agencies and NGOs; and outreach activities to private companies and venture philanthropists.
  • IRC signed a MoU with the Millennium Water Alliance to leverage its networks and influence amongst USA-based development partners. Within the MWA, IRC plays an enabling role for a coordinated and harmonised way of working in partner countries. 

IRC Joins the Millennium Water Alliance

WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2012 – The Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), the consortium of US-based organizations that implement water, sanitation and hygiene education programs throughout the developing world, today welcomes the prestigious IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre as an affiliate member of MWA.

“This is exciting for us because IRC is so highly respected around the world for its leadership in research and analysis of the growing water and sanitation sector,” said MWA Executive Director Rafael Callejas.

“The international development community recognizes IRC’s leadership in knowledge management, an area of enormous importance to MWA and its members. Our new formal association with IRC will build on the valuable working relationship we have had for years.”

An important part of aid effectiveness is managing for results, which in turn requires monitoring to evaluate progress and identify cost-effective interventions—issues strongly supported by IRC and consonant with its first two strategic goals. In 2012, IRC supported national monitoring systems in the following ways:

  • IRC helped Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment review and update its district implementation manual, intended to help professionalise the rural WASH sector.
  • IRC was commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank to support the development of national monitoring systems in El Salvador, Honduras and Paraguay. In 2012, IRC produced general guidelines on the institutional arrangements for monitoring, and working with country stakeholders, co-developed monitoring systems for rural water and sanitation in each nation.
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