RWSN Country Information

In 2016, a results-based funding model was developed to improve the reliability of rural drinking water supply services in Kenya. The Water Services Maintenance Trust Fund (WSMTF) has tested a professional service delivery model in two counties and attracted new sources of results-based funds to guarantee water services in rural communities.

The WSMTF provides an example of how the funding gap can be met by non-donor funds in results-based contracts. In 2017, donor funds paid for 81% of WSMTF contracts, by 2021, the donor proportion had fallen to 14%. In the same period, the annual WSMTF resources increased from just under USD 50,000 to over USD 150,000.

The WSMTF has informed the work of the Uptime Catalyst Facility which has issued results-based contracts guaranteeing reliable drinking water for over 4 million rural people in 12 countries in 2023.

Source of presentations and recordings of the SIRWASH Webinar Series.

This three-part webinar series is convened by the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the African Development Bank Group, Water For People, ONE DROP, the RWSN - Rural Water Supply Network, and Skat Foundation. The SIRWASH Programme is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

All three events are multilingual, with simultaneous translation into English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Please see the titles, dates, and other details of the webinars below:

• SIRWASH Webinar 1: Regional and National Monitoring of Rural WASH – experiences of data-to-decisions. October 4, 2023, at 16:00 (CEST) / 10:00 (EST) / 14:00 (GMT). This webinar brings the experiences from Peru, Malawi, and India on regional and national monitoring systems for rural WASH, and discusses how the collected data has been driving decision-making. The event is multilingual, with simultaneous translation into English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

• SIRWASH webinar 2: Formalising and strengthening institutions for supporting rural WASH services on November 7, 2023 (09:00 - 10:30 GMT / 10:00 - 11:30 CET / 14:30 - 16:00 IST). The second event of the webinar series brings examples from Bolivia, Rwanda, and Cambodia of successful institution strengthening for rural WASH service delivery and regulation, particularly at the local government level.

• SIRWASH webinar 3: Rural sanitation – why is it left behind? on November 15, 2023 (14:00 - 15:30 GMT / 15:00 - 16:30 CET / 19:30 - 21:00 IST). Register for the webinar using the link below. The third event of the webinar series brings examples of government initiatives that strengthen and prioritise rural sanitation. The latter is left behind in many countries, which often prioritise their political will and investment toward urban water supply.

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The following are relevant resources shared during the webinars:
• JMP Report: Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene - special focus on gender: https://data.unicef.org/resources/jmp-report-2023/
• Rwanda WASH Sector Performance Review Report: https://www.rural-water-supply.net/en/resources/1179-rwanda-wash-sector-performance-review-report
• Asia and Pacific Water resilience Hub: https://hub4r.adb.org/learning-repository
• Learn more about the African Water Facility: www.africanwaterfacility.org
• Learn more about AAPS: http://www.aaps.gob.bo/

Achieving national level systems change is usually the result of years of collaborative engagement and advocacy by like-minded people and organizations, using a variety of tactics and soft skills and putting in time and effort to bring it about. This paper documents five stories of change from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Honduras, Malawi, and Uganda based on interviews with a change maker from each country. Each story provides a personal account of what happened, challenges encountered along the way, and the tactics, soft skills and resourcing that helped to achieve it.

Lograr el cambio de los sistemas a nivel nacional suele ser el resultado de años de compromiso y defensa colaborativos por parte de personas y organizaciones con ideas afines, que utilizan diversas tácticas y habilidades blandas y dedican tiempo y esfuerzo para conseguirlo. Este documento documenta cinco historias de cambio de Camboya, Etiopía, Honduras, Malawi y Uganda basadas en entrevistas con un agente de cambio de cada país. Cada historia ofrece un relato personal de lo sucedido, los retos encontrados en el camino y las tácticas, las aptitudes interpersonales y los recursos que ayudaron a lograrlo.

Le changement des systèmes au niveau national est généralement le résultat d'années d'engagement collaboratif et de plaidoyer de la part de personnes et d'organisations partageant les mêmes idées, utilisant une variété de tactiques et de compétences non techniques et consacrant du temps et des efforts pour y parvenir. Ce document présente cinq histoires de changement au Cambodge, en Éthiopie, au Honduras, au Malawi et en Ouganda, sur la base d'entretiens avec un artisan du changement de chaque pays. Chaque histoire fournit un compte-rendu personnel de ce qui s'est passé, des défis rencontrés en cours de route, et des tactiques, des compétences non techniques et des ressources qui ont permis d'y parvenir.

My book, I Tried to Save the World and Failed, reflects on a time and effort to find rural water solutions in Mexico, Malawi and Cambodia that could be used everywhere. 

The book closes with a set of lessons aimed at sustainability.  The lessons are not meant to be the final word.  It is hoped they will provoke discussion on how to go about achieving project sustainability.

Permission granted by author to distribute

GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNITY-DRIVEN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
As initiated by the Integrated Water Resource Management Demonstration Projects in Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia

SADC/Danida Regional Water Sector Programme. 2009. Guidelines for Community-driven Water Resource Management. Pretoria: Southern African Development Community/Danish
International Development Agency, in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute.