Capacity Development Case Study

The Ghana water sector embarked upon a major reform in the early 1990s. This reform involved the de-linking of the community water sector from the urban water sector and the enactment of an act of parliament establishing the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), with core responsibility for facilitating the delivery of potable water and related sanitation to rural and small towns. A major thrust of the sector reform is the decentralised management of water and sanitation. In line with Act 462 establishing the DAs, DAs assemblies had overall responsibility for the planning, delivery and management of water and sanitation. Thus, capacity building at the intermediate level became core to the sector in view of the hitherto non involvement of this level in the provision of water and related sanitation. It is therefore common among projects in the sector to allocate some amount of resources towards building the capacity of this level to be able to function effectively. It was found out that projects allocate between 3-11% of total project funding to capacity development in the sector. The International Development Agency sponsored Community Water and Sanitation Programme 2/1 for instance allocated 11% of funding for capacity development (CWSP 2/1 Operational Manual, July 2000).

The 3 main dimensions of capacity development are identifiable in the sector- Human Resource development encompassing training and supply of equipment, organisational development and institutional strengthening. These activities have the core objective of equipping DAs with the necessary knowledge and skills and logistics to better perform their activities. A key observation of capacity development is that, capacity development interventions are normally preceded by capacity assessments and capacity development plans thus ensuring that capacity development activities are evidence based and directly linked to ensuring effectiveness and performance of actors involved. However, it was observed that, capacity development is project driven leading to the duplication of training materials, manuals, consultancy fees and waste of resources. Greater coordination and sharing of resources is thus needed is this regard to leverage resources required for accelerating the achievement of the MDGs water target.

The main actors at this level are the DAs. Within the DAs, district management teams, desk officers and district water and sanitation teams play leading roles in water and sanitation. The national decentralisation programme pursued by the country coupled with the implementation approach adopted by the National Community Water and Sanitation Programme in which decentralised planning, delivery and management of water and sanitation services has provided impetus for capacity development of the intermediate level. Main challenges with regards to capacity development were identified to be slow pace of the decentralisation programme which is impeding DAs to be able to engage competent staff to manage water and sanitation delivery. Frequent staff transfers in line with prevailing civil service regulations, staff attrition in pursuit of greener pastures, lack of incentives and poor salaries are constraining capacity development of actors at this level.

Generally, actors at this level have limited capacity for contracting and contract management. The new procurement law passed in 2005 means that, more training is required in this direction to avert the many problems such as delays in award of contracts resulting from its implementation. The increasing emphasis of all the major projects on small town water systems also requires capacity development in this respect. Monitoring and evaluation, district water and sanitation planning are other capacity deficit areas requiring greater attention at this level. Knowledge and skills in sanitation marketing, technology development, financing options are areas DAs have no knowledge on and needs to be developed.

The private sector consisting of drilling companies, software consultants, piped schemes contractors, area mechanics and latrine artisans, spare parts suppliers who are directly involved in the delivery of water and sanitation services have not received required attention in terms of capacity development. Thus many of them are undercapitalised and therefore lack the capacity to compete effectively with foreign companies and firms. Capacity of consultancy firms for small town water supply and sanitation in general is weak such that the sector still relies on external technical assistants for services in these areas.

The role of NGOs and Community Based Organisations (CBDs) has been widely recognised by the sector as having the potential of contributing to building up ability and willingness for the grass-root levels to participate in the democratic processes and thereby contribute to a higher degree of accountability in the local government structures the avoidance of misuse of funds and in ensuring the sustainability of rural water systems. However, most local NGOs are not vibrant organisations and have knowledge and skill deficits in roles and responsibilities within the local government system; lobbying with the local government structures in relation to e.g. the DWSPs and the annual DA investment plans, advocacy and social and public accountability.

There is the need to move away from the recognition of capacity development gaps at the intermediate level and take practical steps towards improving the situation. With regards to DA capacity, the objective should be to empower districts to meet demands posed by government policy changes such as the introduction of new laws for public contracting and CWSAs shift towards small towns systems. The DAs knowledge and skills for district water and sanitation planning also needs to be given a priority. Organizational support to NGOs and Private groups who deliver services and capacity building support is required. Current efforts at donor coordination need to be strengthened to ensure the sharing of experiences and the avoidance of duplication and resultant waste of resources. There is also the need to develop training institutions and resource centers and tailor made courses for the sector to cater for the sector training needs. The organizational aspect of capacity development has not received the needed attention. This component has to be recognized if the sector is to develop vibrant organizations that will continue to run and manage projects when donors pull out of the sector. Greater attention therefore has to be paid to this aspect of capacity development. It is expected that, the sector wide approach currently being pursued by the sector will facilitate the development of sustainable intermediate level organizations.