Governance, accountability and aid
effectiveness:
Towards sustainable rural water services
A paper presented by CWSA/IRC Triple-S at the 22nd MOLE
Conference of the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation,
9th-13th August, 2011
Vida Duti, Country Team Leader, Triple-S Ghana
What this presentation covers
• What do we mean by governance, accountability and aid effectiveness?
• How do governance, accountability and aid effectiveness contribute to
sustainability?
• What are the fundamental building blocks for sustainable water services?
• Steps by which CWSA in collaboration with IRC /Triple-S is working to
increase awareness of the challenges faced in making rural water services
sustainable, and using this awareness as a basis for identifying areas for
reform and innovation.
• What are the missing pieces of the building blocks for sustainable water
services in the Ghana rural water sector?
• What are we doing to fill the gaps?
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Good governance
• Good governance is about political parties, parliament, the
judiciary, the media, and civil society
• It is about how citizens, leaders and public institutions relate
to each other in order to make change happen
• Good governance requires three things:
– State capability – leaders and governments who are able
to get things done.
– Responsiveness – public policies and institutions that
respond to the needs of citizens and uphold their rights.
– Accountability –citizens, civil society and the private sector
are able to scrutinise public institutions and governments
and hold them to account.
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Accountability
Service Authority
Citizens / clients
Water services provision
Service Provider
Payment for services
de la Harpe (2011)
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Aid Effectiveness
Aid Effectiveness is about improving the quality of aid and its
impact on development
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How do governance, accountability and aid
effectiveness contribute to sustainability?
• Some development partners, donors, and NGOs believe that
large amounts of aid directly invested in projects will result in
positive development outcomes.
• However, years of experience have shown that donor driven
projects do not, on their own, always result in sustainable
services.
• An exclusive focus on projects undermines country ownership
and capacity building of country structures and systems,
thereby introducing a cycle as presented below
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•
•
•
•
•
•
State of the sector
Weak sector policy
Lack of coordination
Poor planning
Weak sector institutions
Poor accountability and governance
Unsustainable services
•
•
•
•
•
Vicious circle of
traditional aid
Development
partner/donor response
• Project aid
• Projects tend to focus
on infrastructure rather
than service provision
• Projects are not aligned
to sector policy
• Independent systems
are used
• No arrangements for
ongoing services
provision
Where there is no ‘aid effectiveness’
No focus on an enabling sector environment
No attention o sector policies, a national sector
plan or a sector MTEF
No sector coordination and donor
harmonisation
No capacity building
No arrangements for ongoing services provision
de la Harpe (2011)
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• A more effective approach acknowledges the importance of
working with and through governments structures,
strengthening them in the process
• It does not necessarily completely do away with projects – but
it makes sure that the environment to allow projects to
achieve their goals is also addressed
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State of the sector
• Weak sector policy
• Lack of coordination
• Poor planning
• Weak sector institutions
• Poor accountability and
governance
• Unsustainable services
•
•
•
•
•
•
Development partner/donor response
• Shift to budget and sector budget
support
• Aid aligned to country policies and
priorities
• Aid is managed through country
systems
• Aid supports service delivery rather
than a narrow focus on infrastructure
• Donors harmonise , coordinate,
dialogue
Improved sector
Stronger sector policy
A single sector budget that supports
sector policy objectives
Sector coordination
Sector capacity strengthened
Improved sector governance,
accountability and transparency
More sustainable services provision
Virtuous circle aid
effectiveness
•
•
•
•
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Impact of aid effectiveness focus
Focus on country ownership,
sector policies and national
planning
Efforts to coordinate
Increased focus on performance
monitoring and results
Focus on strengthening sector
governance
Focus on development
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effectiveness
Pathway to sustainable development
Aid effectiveness helps a lot – but we still need good
governance and accountability at all levels ...
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Maximising benefits of aid
effectiveness
To maximise the benefits of aid effectiveness, the rural Water
sector will require the following:
• Clear nationally-led strategies for service delivery, supported
by development partners and other actors who are aligned
behind national service delivery model(s)
• Agreement and implementation of commonly-accepted
approaches, tools and standards as specified in countryspecific service delivery model(s)
• Clarity for consumers and service providers about the service
delivery model(s) including
– expected levels of service
– institutional roles and responsibilities
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So what are the building blocks for a
sustainable sector
• The sector internationally and in Ghana has
identified a range of building blocks for sustainability
Areas of Principle
TRIPLE-S
PRINCIPLES
FRAMEWORK
Service Delivery
Approach
Policy, legislation and institutional factors
Financing
Planning
Transparency and accountability
Learning and
adaptive capacity
Awareness and skills
Harmonisation and
Alignment
Harmonisation and alignment
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Culture of learning and information sharing
Coordination
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IRC – Principles Framework
Areas of Principle
TRIPLE-S
PRINCIPLES
FRAMEWORK
Service Delivery
Approach
Policy, legislation and institutional factors
Financing
Planning
Transparency and accountability
Learning and
adaptive capacity
Awareness and skills
Harmonisation and
Alignment
Harmonisation and alignment
Culture of learning and information sharing
Coordination
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WaterAid – Sector building blocks
WaterAid, 2011
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AMCOW Country Status Overviews
AMCOW, 2010
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Not one size fit all
• Putting this into
practice requires
context-specific
building blocks
within the frame of
what is relevant to
the realities of the
country.
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Identifying building blocks for Sustainable rural water
services in Ghana
• IRC/Triple-S has supported CWSA to conduct an analysis of the
rural water sector in Ghana
– using the Principle Framework as a guide.
– Through a research study of the rural water sector of
Ghana.
• The analysis showed that most of what is required to provide
sustainable rural water is already in place in Ghana.
• There are however missing pieces and linkages that require
attention
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What’s missing for Ghana WASH sector?
Weak harmonisation
and alignment
Gap between
policy and practice
Weak service
authority capacity
Emphasis on construction
not services
District role not
defined
Lack of regulatory
framework
Fragmentation
of approaches
Unclear roles
and responsibilities
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What are we doing to fill the gaps
•
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Heightened awareness on the issue of sustainability
Piloting District Ownership and Management as a key missing element of the broader
Community Ownership and Management service delivery model in three regions/district.
An agreement by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency and the World Bank to test
SDA through implementation of the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project under the
World Bank IDA 75 million US$ credit facility.
Revision and alignment of existing sector guidelines to include elements of the service
delivery approach.
Discussion on establishing sector information system is underway
Development and use of sustainability and functionality indicators based on the National
Norms and Standards for Water services
CWSA is developing a framework (based on sustainability and functionality indicators) to
undertake a national sustainability audit and functionality mapping exercise on existing
systems
Significant progress towards establishing the institutional and financing framework for sector
harmonization and coordination – SSDP, SWAP Roadmap and workshops, signing of code of
conduct, high level sector retreats etc.
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Steps to address the missing pieces
National guidelines and
agreed strategic approach
On-going dialogue on
sector financing- to
clarify role and
establish innovative
mechanisms for post
construction support
and capital
maintenance,
Sector harmonization
framework- SSDP, SWAP
roadmap and code of
conducts
Initiated process to
enact LI for
regulation
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Sustainability and
functionality indicators
Piloting of District
Ownership and
management concept
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Conclusion
• Achieving sustainable services requires many components to
be addressed
– policy/strategy, planning and budgeting, financing, performance
monitoring, harmonization and alignment etc
• Good governance, accountability and the principles of aid
effectiveness (ownership, harmonisation, alignment,
management for results and mutual accountability) are all key
components for sustainable WASH services
• In our WASH sector we are taking steps to ensure a good
governance framework and improved service delivery
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.
Government has an unavoidable
role to play in this, as the only actor
with the legitimacy to lead the sector
in the provision of sustainable water
services.
• .
Yet, while government can lead the
way, it will require the active support
of national and international
partners and financiers
NGOs have a crucial role to play in
ensuring sustainable service
delivery through facilitation, holding
service providers to account,
advocating for the poorest and
encouraging innovation.
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“If you go alone, you wIll go fast, but If we
go together we will go far”
• Sustainability is our ultimate
vision, but it takes time and
attention.
• Let’s all commit to an
accountable, sustainable
sector that is well governed
and thus make aid in the
sector more
effective
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Points for reflection
• What are the implications of a service delivery
paradigm for NGOs?- Governance, accountability
and aid effectiveness
– How do we tackle critical sector financing issues:
capital maintenance and direct support
– Role of DAs in providing WASH services- how do we
ensure that they play their role; how do we support
them; how do we hold them accountable?
– How do we align our interventions to shared sector
policy, strategy, plans , standards and norms? ( SWAP,
SSDP, DWSPs etc)
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