Zambia - In the Driver’s Seat WASH Capacity Development in the Copperbelt

Over 330,000 people in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province are challenged by low water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) coverage. Although WASH service delivery is the responsibility of local governments in Zambia, most lack capacity to deliver sustainable services. SNV Zambia and UNICEF Zambia jointly built local government capacity to operate and maintain 390 new boreholes, rehabilitate water points and expand sanitation coverage.

Challenge

Local ownership of development issues promotes greater sustainability of the interventions implemented to address them. Weak capacity of local authorities is a serious constraint to local ownership and sustainability. Prior to the partnership, neither SNV nor UNICEF was satisfied with their development outcomes. In the case of SNV, clients often showed low commitment owing to their doubts of the value of ‘dry capacity’ while, for UNICEF, the concerns were about lack of the critical capacity in the councils to absorb and effectively use resources provided.  The challenge was how to strengthen leadership capacity in the councils for delivery of sustainable WASH services.

Approach

The success of the partnership support derived from recognizing and respecting the authority and responsibility of the councils for service delivery. The partners showed appreciation of the challenges faced by the councils, and expressed willingness to assist the councils to fulfill their obligations. The partners also helped the councils appreciate how working with each other, the community and traditional leaders would enhance sustainability of development results. With the above as the operative framework, the partnership, using an on-the-job approach, strengthened the capacity of the districts to undertake baseline studies, establish information management systems (IMS), and develop strategic and operational plans for water and sanitation service delivery. Key operational approaches used included positioning districts in leadership of the process at all times, facilitation of multi-stakeholder platforms, and the use of learning platforms to enable beneficiaries to exchange experiences and support each other towards realisation of development outcomes.

Results

The most satisfying result is the heightened sense of local ownership of the development process in water and sanitation delivery in the three Copperbelt districts. Where the sense of ownership is high so is the motivation of the council to address service delivery issues including the extent to which they use the new tools and systems for service planning and delivery. The three councils are actively using Community Led Total Sanitation as a primary methodology for improving sanitation. For these councils service delivery is no longer an outcome of political gamesmanship. Decision-making is now informed by IMS evidence. The three district’s service delivery plans form the basis for UNICEF investment in 390 new boreholes and funding the rehabilitation of others. As a result, an additional 97,500 people in the Copperbelt province will have access to safe water. Communities are now participating in supervising the borehole drilling works underway, something that did not happen before. Another key result is the extent to which councils now work with traditional and community leaders in water and sanitation governance. These results would not have been achieved had the councils not become champions of their own change.

Partners

This partnership fits very well within the aid harmonization framework. It brought together two strong international organisations (SNV and UNICEF) to combine capacity development and physical investments for effectiveness and sustainability. The partnership also brought on board the comparative strengths of SNV and UNICEF for enhanced impact. The approaches used to promote district ownership of the development process also enhanced relevance and sustainability- both of which are key themes in the aid harmonization framework. 

Lessons Learned

The biggest lesson learnt is the extent to which ownership of the development process by recipients of development support determines the success of capacity development services. Recognizing the responsibility, knowledge and wisdom of those we support is critical to achieving buy-in and sustainable results. Equally important is the need to understand local power relations so as to minimize the risk of resistance from key actors in the system one intends to help. Other lessons include: 

1) Approaches need to balance the client’s pace of acceptance of capacity development support with the pressure for development results that often comes from one’s organization and funders.

2) Achieving genuine buy-in by clients, who often accept development support for the short term benefits they can obtain, can be realized through placing the client in the driver’s seat and building their capacity and confidence to be the agents for their own change.

Onward S. Mandebvu, Zambia

Portfolio Coordinator, North Western Province, SNV Zambia