Project Background:
The global commitment is to achieve universal access to safely managed drinking water and safely managed sanitation by 2030. But as of today, 2.2 billion people worldwide still do not have access to safely managed drinking water and 4.5 billion people do not have access to safely managed sanitation. In Nepal, the latest government data indicates that only 19.1% population has access to safely managed drinking water and 61% have access to safely managed sanitation. Access to a basic level of drinking water supply is available for 95.4 percent of the population. Nepal was declared an ODF country in 2019 but the slippage rate is reported at 12%. Local Governments have a crucial role in implementing national policy to deliver water and sanitation services in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (water and sanitation for all by 2030).
Objective:
This proposed project combines the Making Rights Real (MRR) and WASH Systems Strengthening to strengthen local government capacity to deliver water and sanitation services to its citizens.
Project Location:
The project area are Balara Municipality and Dhankaul Rural Municipality of Sarlahi district and Manara Siswa Municipality and Samsi Rural municipality of Mahottari district. In total, the project covers 35 wards of four municipalities of two districts.
WASH system Strengthening:
WASH system Strengthening focuses on analysing and improving nine building blocks to provide WASH services for all. This approach begins with identifying the gaps in participatory manner by (local government officials WASH stakeholders) in all nine building blocks and prioritizing actions for improving them.
Experience shows that duty bearers do not have the means to achieve water and sanitation for all: systemic challenges, lack of resources and the fact that rights holders are not at the centre of attention hinders progress.
Making the Right Real (MRR) approach:
MRR aims to motivate leaders to prioritize improving WASH services for all.
The MRR approach starts from the subnational government in close collaboration with community members. The MRR approach provides a practical means of engaging with these government institutions, particularly in relation to how they operate, and enables systemic issues to be improved.
A combination of the MRR and WASH system approach can be done by starting with the sub-national government and applying the MRR approach by using heroes to work with the under served population/community members to identify the wider context and specific challenges. This includes engaging relevant stakeholders to collaboratively develop a roadmap to improve those aspects identified by community members as most needed, and a plan to advocate at the national level for greater attention to WASH services in line with human rights.
General Goal:
The Nepalese government is acting on its mandate to provide water and sanitation services nationwide and is piloting the combined MRR/SystA approach:
Outcome 1 (Stronger and more engaged government): Local government representatives are successfully working with the national government to improve WASH services through using human rights-based principles and effectively implementing sustainable WASH services for all.
Output 1.1: Government actors are trained in the applying WASH systems strengthening and MRR approaches.
Output 1.2: Initiatives are being taken at the national and subnational government levels to apply MRR and WASH system approaches.
Output 1.3: National and subnational actors are aware of best practices on rights based and sustainability focused WASH services delivery.
Outcome 2 (Stronger CSOs): Civil society partners work constructively with national and subnational government agencies to ensure that they fulfill their duty to realize water and sanitation services for all.
Output 2.1: Civil society actors play a critical role in raising awareness among government actors at the national and subnational levels of the need to promote sustainable, rights-based WASH services by adopting approaches to strengthen WASH systems and MRR.
Output 2.2 : The civil society organization has developed the capacity to promote MRR and the WASH systems strengthening approach to peers and government actors.
Output 2.3: Coordination between civil society organizations and governments at the national and subnational levels is improved for a rights-based and WASH system approach.
Outcome 3 (Stronger communities): Communities are aware of their rights, actively participate, and provide feedback to leaders through existing participation mechanisms.
Output 3.1: Rights holders in intervention areas are aware of the distribution of responsibilities for WASH services and know the procedures for providing feedback on service performance.
Output 3.2: Community involvement in accessing WASH services will be strengthened through newly established information sharing mechanisms and WASH coordination platforms.
Output 3.3 : Local communities learn how to plan, implement, and monitor WASH services and how to be involved in implementing MRR and strengthening WASH systems.
Outcome 4 (Improved Knowledge and Collaboration): Global and national stakeholders in the WASH sector are undertaking WASH initiatives that will make MRR and SyStA a key source of exchange and information based on mutual learning and input from advocacy partners, with a focus on the following areas: (a) government gets better as a result of policy changes and more/better work at the local government level; (b) civil society organizations advocate for needed changes; and (c) communities engage with institutions.
Output 4.1 : Program experiences are shared nationally and internationally with local partners and lead government agencies.
Output 4.2: The broader WASH community at national and international levels is sensitized to the effectiveness of a combined MRR and WASH system strengthening approach in achieving SDG 6, access to water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Output 4.3 : Enhanced emphasis for capacity building for mainstreaming CSO-Government collaboration on WASH.