Highlighting water cooperation on World Water Day 2013

Published on: 20/03/2013

 

Learning Alliances

IRC believes that WASH services should be everyone’s business, because this work is too important to be covered by one sector alone. IRC promotes a learning sector and contributes to strengthening national capacities, fertilising the ground for a sector knowledge base supportive of country leadership. Change at sector level, requires change in the constellation of individuals and institutions. An important way to support such a change process is in bringing together people with a stake in an initiative’s outcome, engaging them in joint learning, planning and action. IRC is involved in setting up, supporting and facilitating sector collaboration forums, also referred to as multi-stakeholder processes. A 'Learning alliance' is one such platform that enables a multi-stakeholder process. Learning alliances bring together representatives from government, civil society, universities and other research institutions and the private sector to undertake joint research, search for solutions, and apply them at scale. IRC’s activities range from conducting action-research, producing publications, and offering training and expert advice.

“Turning on a working tap should not be a surprise, neither a cause for celebration. The sector should go beyond just delivering hardware (often as a gift) and first time access to seeing hardware as a first step to working together in achieving a sustainable and good quality service, and Learning Alliances is one way", says IRC Director Nico Terra. “Aligning and harmonising the activities of different actors at national and decentralised levels towards nationally defined sector priorities is a must”.

An example of using this approach was in the SWITCH project, a five year experiment focused on some of the key sustainability challenges in urban water management. In a number of cities around the globe, it set out to test what was needed for a transition to more sustainable urban water management through a combination of demand-led research, demonstration activities, multi-stakeholder learning and training and capacity building.

Aid Effectiveness

For aid-dependent sectors like the WASH sector, improving the quality of aid is crucial. Developing countries need to take ownership of their own development, and provide the necessary leadership to ensure that the sector as a whole works towards common policy objectives. This is in line with the internationally agreed principles of making aid more effective.

“Government has an unavoidable role to play towards sustainable water services at scale in Ghana, as the only actor with the legitimacy to lead development of an agreed framework for service delivery”, says Mrs Vida Duti, Country Director of IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in Ghana. “Yet, while government can lead the way, it will require the active support of national and international partners, financiers and users”.

IRC works closely with the water sector in Ghana towards achieving its national vision of providing sustained and appropriate water and sanitation services to all citizens in 2025. Towards this end, IRC has facilitated the development of the country’s new strategy for rural water and sanitation, bringing about a major sector shift in its focus on infrastructure projects to the longer term and sustainable delivery of water and sanitation services.

For more examples on how IRC engages with governments at national and decentralised levels in building their sector leadership capacity, see our paper on “Cooperating for access to water, sanitation and hygiene for all, now and forever” (available below).

About IRC

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is a knowledge-focused NGO and think-tank based in The Netherlands. We work with people in the poorest communities in the world, with local and national governments, and with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to help them develop water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services that last not for years, but forever. We identify the barriers to making this happen and we tackle them. We help people to make the change from short-term interventions to long-term services that will transform their lives and their futures. 

Further Information