Lessons learned and recommendations for future action

Published on: 03/03/2011

The two-year project (2008 - 2010) on Improved WASH Governance in West Nile through Local Dialogue carried out a series of participatory dialogues among key WASH services stakeholders at District, Sub-County, Parish and Community levels. In the second year dialogues were centred around four agreed focus areas for action research on methods and tools that should contribute to enhanced accountability, transparency and giving citizens a voice in the provision of WASH services.

The local participants identified seven lessons and recommendations for future initiatives to replicate (and further improve) this approach.

1. To facilitate a project with such ambitions, aiming at multi-faceted behaviour change both at government, service provision and consumers levels, more learning and facilitation time is likely to be required (1) to allow optimal collaboration and joint iterative learning among implementing, documenting and conceptual and methodological development by partners and (2) to allow sufficient iterative learning by doing based on proven action research principles among participating stakeholders.
2. The appropriate use of communication, communication methods and communication channels, identified and tested through participatory processes is of utmost importance to achieve lasting improvements.
3. Unless more visual methods and tools are developed during action research, the use of local languages is unavoidable. The project experimented in a few locations with local languages and immediately obtained better results.
4. Insufficient timely priority was given to promote and support feedback mechanisms among a broader sample of service users than only those directly involved in action research. This and the insufficient monitoring of effectiveness of interventions, makes it difficult to provide reliable insight on whether the project contributed to enhanced and sustained accountability. Some of the action research tools proposed in this toolkit have not actually been tested during the life time of this project.
5. Insufficient time was available – partly also due to insufficient time given for exchange of experiences and adjustment in approaches among partner organisations – to be based on close monitoring and iterative adjustment processes to rapidly improve communication tools like the otherwise highly appreciated water and sanitation services planning and monitoring maps and Gantt charts. Particularly in Nebbi district were both tools were not only used but also at own initiative improved to cater for local needs, both were identified as the most efficient and cost-effective methods to enhance public information, transparency in political decision making and accountability on planned versus actual implementation.
6. It has proven difficult for the project to create common understanding among all stakeholders and participants in the four focus area action research teams to see the difference between improving planning, implementation and technical management of WASH services and the actual accounting for; making decisions transparent and allowing citizens to provide feedback on the quality (e.g. equitable and efficient allocation) and use of limited resources in the sector.
7. A final lesson and recommendation is that such relatively short projects should make the most out of synergies with similar and complementary initiatives undertaken by other projects in the region and seek support of relevant national programmes such as using sector base maps available in the very same ministry under which this project was implemented.