Toolkit for Water, Sanitation and

Hygiene (WASH) sector strengthening

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Contents1. Introduction........................................................................................................................................3

Why should the WASH sector be strengthened?...................................................................................3

Why WASH Building blocks and the toolkit?..........................................................................................3

Who is toolkit for WASH sector strengthening for?...............................................................................3

How is the toolkit for WASH sector strengthening organized?.............................................................3

2. WASH sector building blocks and tools..............................................................................................4

Building Blocks.........................................................................................................................................4

Core tools................................................................................................................................................5

2.1 Sector Policy / Strategy.....................................................................................................................5

2.2 Institutional arrangements...............................................................................................................6

2.3 Sector Financing................................................................................................................................7

2.4 Planning, monitoring, and review....................................................................................................8

2.5 Capacity Development....................................................................................................................10

2.6 Additional building blocks..................................................................................................................11

2.6.1 Political Leadership......................................................................................................................11

2.6.2 Accountability and Regulation.....................................................................................................12

3. WASH Sector Strengthening Process....................................................................................................13

Step 1: Sector partners agree that there is a need to strengthen the WASH sector..........................13

Step 2: Analyze the Status of the WASH Building blocks for Sustainable WASH services...................13

Step 3: Design a government-led WASH sector strengthening programme........................................14

Step 4: Develop a government and multi-donor WASH sector investment plan................................14

Step 5: Develop an agency specific implementation plan....................................................................15

Step 6: Monitor core building blocks:..................................................................................................15

3. Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................15

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1.Introduction

Why should the WASH sector be strengthened?Sector partners work with governments to achieve universal and sustainable water and sanitation services with a focus on reducing inequalities, especially for the most vulnerable children, in times of both stability and crisis. Affecting positive change in the WASH sector’s performance requires a system-wide approach that tackles a variety of dimensions -- including policy, financing, and institutions – and other key functions of the WASH sector as whole. This approach necessitates the development of building blocks based on a sound understanding of the WASH sector in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

This toolkit recognizes that WASH functions sit in two main country context that will influence sector activities in two general categories of contextual factors. First, Structural Factors such as geography, basic resource endowment, eco-systems, climate as well as social structure, culture, demography, or political regime. Second, institutional Factors such as: political and budgeting prioritization of competing needs, power relationships, social decision making processes, decentralization, fiscal policies, human resources management in the public function, public procurement, or anti-corruption enforcement and control.

WASH sector partners actions, in conjunction with other development partners, can undertake will focus on the building blocks that are core to the WASH sector. There might be, however, some activities that (in coordination with others) address some of the institutional factors of the building blocks that fall outside the water sector. In all cases, it is important to be aware of and understand factors outside the sector that are affecting its performance. This toolkit will focus on main building blocks that support sector strengthening. It is a product of UNICEF enabling Environment package under development.

Why WASH Building blocks and the toolkit?The WASH programme continues to expand, and sector partner including Sanitation and Water for all partners, are increasing called upon to ensure continued operationalization of global development agenda such at the SDGs and agency specific strategies. The objective of this toolkit is to provide resource and available tools for partners to get an orientation on strengthening the WASH building blocks. It provides main take-away points as well as suggestions and actions that may be undertaken to strengthen WASH building blocks. When possible, the document provides illustrations of actions to be undertaken by stakeholders.

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Who is toolkit for WASH sector strengthening for?This toolkit is intended for government, development organizations, and donor working in the WASH sector, especially in developing and transition countries.

How is the toolkit for WASH sector strengthening organized?The toolkit is organized into introduction, core WASH building blocks, and proposed support process and collection of available tools. Each building block starts with a brief description followed by definition, proxy indicator, illustrative example, and recommend tools. Section presents a proposed 6 step process for WASH sector strengthening starting with each step beginning with a summary followed by recommended actions.

2.WASH sector building blocks and tools

Building BlocksPartners in Sanitation and Water for all agreed on the following building blocks for following core building blocks to strengthening WASH sector for improved sustainable and scalable delivery of services. Nevertheless some government core functions merit to be described as they are important for the sector strengthening. Block Key Characteristics

1. Sector Policy / Strategy

Sector policies and strategies that identify sector goals and pathways, giving direction to sector investments

Strategies for implementation, including agreement on implementation models / sustainable service delivery approaches

Policies/strategies covering:o All sub-sectors (urban, rural, drinking water

and sanitation) o National and subnational levels

2. Institutional arrangements

Identification and allocation of institutional roles and responsibilities, including decentralization commitments

Country driven and inclusive coordination mechanisms that allow for participation of a broad range of stakeholders in dialogue, communication, and identification of mutual interest around service delivery and sector learning

Legal and regulatory frameworks to underpin the desired targets and reinforce roles and allocation of resources

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3. Sector Financing

Medium Term Expenditure Framework which matches government priorities with available resources

Realistic and transparent sector budget with identifiable funding streams

Availability and use of data on financing streams including the 3Ts (taxes, tariffs and transfers) and comparable, realistic estimates for all sector cost categories for sustainable service delivery.

4. Planning, monitoring, and review

Effective, inclusive and systematic planning, monitoring and evaluation of sector performance to ensure the most effective route to achieve goals

Mid- and longer- term review of sector performance through multi-stakeholder platforms and mechanisms for sector dialogue and learning

Clearly defined accountability mechanisms Data transparency and public access to

information5. Capacity

development Capacity building and development plans

addressing:o The capacity of institutions to fulfill sector roles

and responsibilities for sustainable service delivery at scale, including the availability of necessary structures, tools, training, and incentives

o The capacity of individuals to effectively engage in the sector through sector institutions or as educated consumers

o The capacity of sector stakeholders to adapt and innovate by engaging in (collective) sector learning

Core toolsThe following key WASH sector tools are fundamental while analyzing, implementing and monitoring the building blocks. They have been recommended as well other tools to the appropriate dedicated building block.

WASH Bottleneck Analysis Tool (WASH-BAT). WSP/World Bank Country Status Overviews (CSOs). WSP/World Bank Sanitation Enabling Environment Assessment and

Monitoring tool WASH Joint Sector Reviews (JSRs) UN-water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water

(GLAAS). Monitoring of Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) high-level commitments. ESI costing tool

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World Health Organization (WHO) Track-Fin DFID Value for Money (VFM) tool UNICEF Advocacy Toolkit UNICEF Accountability in WASH Reference Guide

2.1 Sector Policy / StrategyThis building block seeks to address issues related to WASH sector policy, strategies; plans and political commitments that give due consideration to WASH.Definition: Policy is defined as the set of procedures, rules, and allocation mechanisms that provide the basis for programs and services. Policies set the priorities and often allocate resources for implementation. Policies are reflected in laws and regulations (economic incentives and the assignment of rights and responsibilities for program implementation are addressed separately below). National and subnational policies must be considered, especially in large countries and those that are decentralized. Laws generally provide the overall framework, and priorities and regulations provide the more detailed guidance (addressed below).Proxy Indicators

A legal framework exists that includes the human right to sanitation and water and pro-poor and socially inclusive policies addressing SDGs orientation and requirements

Rural and urban sanitation and water and hygiene policies exist, containing national service norms, equity aspects and future adaptation requirements, and are approved by the Cabinet and used by stakeholders.

Illustrative Examples: Share international best practices and lessons learned from other countries that can inspire the policy process. Ensure that a real debate takes place around policy making, by facilitating (technically and financially) activities such as background studies (collection of evidence), consultations among stakeholders, workshops, etc. Support dissemination of the policy and capacity building. If needed, contract consultants to write first drafts of policy documents, and present experiences and best practices from other countries.

Expected Result: processes for national WASH policy development are in place, and national WASH policy, strategy, operational guidelines or equivalent documents are used for advocacy, adopted and implemented

Recommended tool and references

Water and Sanitation Tools - MIT (http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/waterandsanitation/resources/tools.html)

A Review of Decision-Making Support Tools in the Water; https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ReviewofDecisionmakingSupportTools.doc.pdf

How can we influence municipal governments to allocate more money to

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sanitation? WSUP Practice Note, 2015 http://www.wsup.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/PN020-ENGLISH-Municipal-Finance.pdf

UNICEF Advocacy Toolkit: A Guide for Influencing Decisions that Improve Children’s Lives. http://www.unicef.org/evaluation/files/Advocacy_Toolkit.pdf

Water Resources Sector Strategy, World Bank; http://water.worldbank.org/strategy-and-policies

2.2 Institutional arrangementsThis building block ensure that support process to assess and analyze strengths and weaknesses of existing WASH service delivery as well as support efforts by government and partners to improve sustainable WASH service delivery for all the different coordination mechanisms and platforms, in both development and humanitarian contexts that are currently being used to bring sector partners together to analyze a situation, share resources and assign responsibilities and build commitments to improve WASH services delivery are working.

Definition: A variety of WASH service delivery arrangements involve civil society organizations, small service providers, transnational companies, different ministries and delegated branches of the government, local government and municipal companies, etc it includes as well coordination mechanisms for the WASH sector that establishes the basis for improved stakeholder collaboration and set the ground for a shared vision of the situation of the sector, roles and responsibilities, and challenges ahead. To be effective, these processes need to be inclusive, consistent, and anchored with national ownership. Coordination is needed at all levels among public, private, and NGO sectors and between communities and local governments. There are different coordination approaches, but all have elements of dialogue, communication, and finding mutual interest.Proxy Indicator

Government has a programmatic sector-wide approach to urban and rural water and sanitation and hygiene, with donors harmonized and supporting implementation of a national plan.

Institutional roles for rural and urban sanitation and water and hygiene are clearly defined and put into operation, with leadership provided by a government agency with the appropriate capacity

Illustrative Examples: Support the processes that lead from the evidence shown in sector reports to specific decisions about or modifications of the Sector Plans. ESAs should show long-term commitment to the process to avoid losing momentum in difficult times, but try to build national ownership. Provide support to periodical review meetings. Provide technical support at the initial stages, especially for the preparation of the first sector reports; support in-depth studies or relevant aspects to the sector (e.g., financial viability, sustainability of water services, etc.); support plurality through the inclusion and meaningful participation of CSO and private sector.

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Expected Results: Governments have a clear mandate and leadership with functional national and sub national coordination platforms for WASH

Recommended tools

Reimagining rural water services: the future agenda _ An introduction to ten building blocks to support sustainable service delivery. http://www.ircwash.org/sites/default/files/084-201502triple-s_introdefweb.pdf

An Agenda for Change: achieving universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) by 2030, Aguaconsult, IRC, WaterAid, Water for People, 2015 http://www.aguaconsult.co.uk/assets/Uploads/Joint-principles-final.pdf

National Planning for Results Initiative WHO – UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP)

2.3 Sector Financing This building block ensure public finance and administrative systems operate as a means to ensure equitable and sustainable WASH interventions. This involves using existing and new public and private sector resources, mobilization tools, approaches, and mechanisms.Definition: This dimension is aimed at assessing the adequacy of arrangements for financing WASH service delivery, including capital and programmatic costs. These costs include infrastructure, training, staff salaries, transportation, office equipment and supplies, and the development of communication and educational materials as well as programmatic line items in budgets for behavior change promotion activities. It comprise as well the budgeting process. A budget is an estimation of the revenue and expenses for WASH services over a specified future period of time. A government budget is an official statement about how much it plans to spend during a particular period of time and how it will pay for the expenses. An expenditure is the total amount of money that a government, organization, or person spends during a particular period of timeProxy Indicator

Financial flows to rural and urban water and sanitation and hygiene are sufficient to meet national targets, and include software costs, maintenance funds, disaster risk management and climate change.

Budget and expenditure data show separate values for rural, and urban water and sanitation and hygiene, poor/vulnerable groups, domestic spending, and official donor investment.

A high percentage of the domestic budget and official donor commitments earmarked for rural sanitation and hygiene is utilized.

Illustrative example: Work with religious organisations to provide guidance on WASH in religious teaching, to potentially result in the development of detailed spiritual direction on the issue of WASH and urging for strong and sustained behaviour change around WASH practices, and develop a fund to provide direct support to the poorest and most vulnerable families for WASH services with the

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complement of national or subnational budget funds for roll-out and scale-up. Promote participatory budgeting by brokering experience from other countries and facilitating south-south municipal dialogue; provide financial assistance to initiate and manage the budgeting process.Expected Results: Functioning public finance systems work, public and private sector institutions, and innovative mechanisms for resource mobilization for WASH engaged. Government have increased national and sub national budget allocation for WASH services delivery Recommended main tools and references:

Small-scale finance for water and sanitation, EU Water Initiative/SHARE, 2012 http://www.gwp.org/Global/About%20GWP/Publications/EUWI/EUWI%20FWG%20Small%20Scale%20Financing%20Final.pdf

Sanitation financing models for the urban poor, Sijbesma, IRC Thematic Overview Paper no. 25, 2011 http://www.ircwash.org/sites/default/files/Sijbesma-2011-Sanitation.pdf

Strategic Financial Planning for water supply and sanitation, OECD, 2009 http://www.oecd.org/env/resources/43949580.pdf

Financing Water Infrastructure and Services: An introductory guide for practitioners in developing countries_ working draft, EU Water Initiative Finance Working Group/Global Water Partnership,2007 http://www.gwp.org/Global/ToolBox/References/Financing%20Water%20Infrastructure%20and%20Services%20(EUWI,GWP%20Guide,%202007).pdf

WSP/World Bank Economic Sanitation Initiative (ESI) Toolkit, https://www.esitoolkit.org [note: may need to request permission from Guy Hutton to access this site]

How to Do Value For Money Analysis in WASH (VFM-WASH) Updated Guidance Note http://vfm-wash.org/vfm-guidance-note/

UN-Water GLAAS TrackFin Initiative: Tracking Financing to Sanitation, Hygiene and Drinking-Water at National Level: Guidance Document Summary for Decision-Makers http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/glaas/trackfin-guidance-summary/en/

IRC WASHCost Life-Cycle Analysis Tool http://www.ircwash.org/projects/life-cycle-costing-tools

2.4 Planning, monitoring, and reviewPlanning, Monitoring and review look at how sector planning is done in countries and draw lessons for improvements. It will underscore the need for alignment of national development priorities and WASH sector planning processes such as SWAP and ONE WASH as the foundation for better strategy and policy development. It looks at how current monitoring and evaluation platforms, processes and structures that government and sector partners have in place to track progress and assess impacts of the sector systems. The building block include knowledge generation

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and dissemination in decision making, planning and advocacy in strengthening EE is also discussed.

Definition: Planning is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired goal. An important aspect of planning is the relationship it holds to forecasting. Forecasting can be described as predicting what the future will look like, whereas planning predicts what the future should look like for multiple scenarios. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. Developing a shared vision and strategy for a WASH sector plan in a collaborative manner is the foundation for coordination and for creating motivation at all levels. Large-scale WASH programs require regular monitoring and periodic evaluation and the willingness and ability to use the monitoring process to make adjustments in the program. Effective monitoring will identify strengths and weaknesses in the program methodology, implementation arrangements, and cost efficiencies. Overall monitoring responsibility must be at the highest level of the program, but must be based on information collected at the local government or community level.

Proxy indicators National investment plan for rural and urban water and sanitation and

hygiene is operational, realistic, pro-poor, and based on a needs-assessment. The plan considers a range of options and has been validated by range of stakeholders

Annual (or multi-year) work plans for rural and urban sanitation and water and hygiene are developed, reviewed, implemented, and evaluated based on the available budget.

Monitoring systems regularly measure service levels, use and functionality, reflecting international (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme) as well as national coverage definitions.

An annual JSR monitors rural and urban WASH service delivery performance and activities completed, with participation from stakeholders, to enable setting of new targets and undertakings.

Illustrative Example: Support government-led efforts to do a WASH sector analysis to identify gaps and needs. Support a process to develop goals and targets. Support a sector planning process. Help to develop an effective communication campaign to inform all stakeholders about the planning, and make sure that clear and simple language is used. Secure organizational support that focuses on linkages among actors and how these can be strengthened and sustained; provide support so that the information generated can serve as an input to planning and decision-making processes at the local government level, and support capacity development if required. Long-term funding commitments for monitoring are essential.Expected results:

How to influence and articulate national development priorities for WASH to become key component

What type of planning and agreements should be used based on the country context

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Governments have functional national and sub national WASH monitoring system, learning and performance review processes.

Recommended tool and approach:

Liberia WASH Sector Investment Plan (2012-2017)_Executive Summary http://wash-liberia.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/6/files/sites/6/2013/06/SIP_final_summary_report_22jan20131.pdf

Strategic Sector Investment Plan for the Water and Sanitation Sector in Uganda Final July 2009file:///C:/Users/eperez6/Downloads/Water%20Sector%20SIP%20final%203aug2009.pdf

Monitoring for learning and developing capacities in the WASH sector Carmen da Silva Wells*, René van Lieshout and Erma Uytewaal, IRC , Water Policy 15 (2013) 206–225 http://wp.iwaponline.com/content/ppiwawaterpol/15/S2/206.full.pdf

UNICEF Briefing Note for Accelerating Results for the Most Disadvantaged Children: Monitoring Results for Equity System (MoRES) http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/MoRES_Briefing_Note.pdf

Service delivery indicators and monitoring to improve sustainability of rural water supplies, IRC Triple S project Briefing Note October, 2014 http://www.ircwash.org/sites/default/files/084-201502triple-s_bn02defweb_0.pdf

Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN): Joint Sector Review ttps://rwsnblog.wordpress.com/tag/joint-sector-review/

AMCOW Country Status Overviews Regional Synthesis Report for 32 Countries in Africa http://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/CSO-Synthesis-Report.pdf

UNICEF Monitoring Toolkit organized into seven thematic areas (enabling environment; national sanitation access; community approaches to Total Sanitation (CATS); equity; sustainability and sector performance; sanitation marketing; and WASH in Schools http://www.sanitationmonitoringtoolkit.com/home/how-to-use-the-toolkit

2.5 Capacity Development This building block involves providing support to strengthen processing of sector partners (governments, development organizations and civil society) and manage human resources of WASH sector. Definition: Public and private institutions at all levels must have the capacity to carry out their roles and responsibilities for effective WASH service delivery at scale. Institutional capacity includes adequate human resources with the full range of skills required to carry out their functions, an “organizational home” within the institution that has the assigned responsibility, mastery of the agreed-upon program methodology, systems and procedures required for implementation, and the ability to monitor program effectiveness and make continual adjustments. Capacity development is the process through which individuals, organizations, and societies obtain, strengthen, and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve WASH sector development objectives over time. For capacity development efforts to scale up, capacity strengthening programs should be sustainable and institutionalized in government and private sector programs.

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Proxy Indicators Capacity and Incentive plan developed that shows if an assessment has been

made and documented, and outlines what capacity is needed and in what organizations

Sufficient capacity at national, district, and community levels for improved delivery is in line with the targets set.

Mobilized private sector shows if there is a sufficient number of firms who are producing sanitation materials and hardware for significant progress to be made.

Illustrative Example: Support a process to identify capacity gaps. Support governments to design and develop capacity building plans. Support a process to institutionalize capacity building. Strengthen partnerships with academic institutions in countries. Support sharing of experiences, particularly south-south.Expected Results: WASH sector has institutions processes and systems and human resources necessary for the provision of sustainable WASH services.

Recommended tool: The approach of UNICEF to capacity development

http://www.unicef.org/about/execboard/files/2010-CRP20_Capacity_Development_oral_report.pdf

Strengthening Public Sector Enabling Environments to Support Sanitation Enterprises: Guidance Manual. Water For People, 2015 https://goo.gl/fsaz9Y

Human resource capacity in Ghana's Water Sanitation and Hygiene Sector: Analysis of capacity gaps and policy implications https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272785027_Human_resource_capacity_in_Ghana's_Water_Sanitation_and_Hygiene_Sector_Analysis_of_capacity_gaps_and_policy_implications

2.6 Additional building blocks2.6.1 Political LeadershipDefinition: Establishing a shared vision to achieve the WASH SDG and ensuring the political will to “stop doing business as usual” and reforming WASH service delivery is the starting point for strengthening WASH Systems. Developing this shared vision in a collaborative manner is also the foundation for coordination and for creating motivation at all levels. Political leaders at various levels (national, state and local government) identify WASH as a political priority and serve as champions. The higher the level of leadership, the stronger the impact of political will. Ideal political leaders include presidents, governors, and mayors.Proxy Indicators:

High-level political leaders publically promote and promise to accelerate and scale up improved WASH services and achieve goals and targets.

WASH services are sufficiently prioritized at national and sub-national levels.

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Political leaders with responsibility for WASH have sufficient power to ensure a concerted drive to support and facilitate improvements.

Other possible indicators: changes in budget allocation, concerted public messages, setting up of committees or steering groups made up of credible individuals across all the relevant stakeholder groups.

Illustrative Examples: Identify and recruit high-level global leaders to engage with high-level country leaders to advocate for their personal leadership. Develop evidence-based, high-level advocacy documents that address high-level political leaders’ needs. Invite and support trips from high-level leaders to global and regional high-level conferences such as the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting hosted by the World Bank.Expected Results: There is government agency clear mandate and commitment to lead and invest at national and sub national level and prioritize WASHRecommended tools:

Engaging in advocacy and the SWA partnership; Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) http://sanitationandwaterforall.org/partner_perspective/5592-2/?lang=fr

Water Aid the Advocacy sourcebook, org%2F~%2Fmedia%2FPublications%2Fadvocacy-sourcebook.ashx&usg=AFQjCNEasXntRZr3uv3cLJP4dL2du1BfxQ

2.6.2 Accountability and RegulationThis building block seeks to ensure there accountability relationships and good governance systems in the service delivery framework, as well as, guidance. Definition. Accountability in the WASH sector is the democratic principle whereby elected officials and those in charge of providing access to water supply and sanitation services account for their actions and answer to those they serve. Regulations are rules or governmental orders designed to control or govern behavior and often have the force of law. Regulations can cover a wide range of topics, including the practices of service providers, design standards, tariffs, discharge standards, environmental protection, and contracts. National agencies may also issue official guidelines that serve to define policies.Proxy Indicators:

Regulations for sustainability systems with clear roles , responsibilities and relationships between regulators, community users, service providers and policy makers to enhance WASH programming

Illustrative Example: Support the development and use of access to information, i.e. initiatives of citizens and citizen groups using the formal procedures of legislation to obtain information. Support efforts to strengthen legal and regulatory frameworks to enhance the freedom and plurality of information sources. Work through or in close contact with governments and encourage positive responses by the government to the demands for information of civil society. Support the

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development of a legal framework for the creation of a regulatory function, with sufficient financial and technical independence from the regulated institutions; promote stakeholder participation in the regulatory process; support the connection between consumers’ associations and regulators.Expected Results: government and WASH sector have Accountability for Sustainability and regulations for sustainability systems in place to ensure that roles, responsibilities and relationships between regulators, community users, service providers and policy makers and enhance WASH programming. Recommended tool:

Accountability in WASH: A Reference Guide for Programming _ UNDP Water Governance Facility/UNICEF/SIWI, (2015), http://watergovernance.org/resources/accountability-in-wash-a-reference-guide-for-programming/

UNDP Water Governance Facility/UNICEF (2015) “WASH and Accountability: Explaining the Concept” Accountability for Sustainability Partnership: UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI and UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/wash/files/Accountability_in_WASH_Explaining_the_Concept.pdf

3. WASH Sector Strengthening Process This part of the toolkit provides a step-by-step guide on how to WASH sector strengthening as shown in the figure below.

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Step 1: Sector partners agree that there is a need to strengthen the WASH sector Actions could include:

Conduct a situational analysis to understand the landscape of the WASH building blocks, SDG targets and strategies, and relevant issues related to both urban and rural areas, government levels and institutions involved, available resources, and potential financial and implementation partners.

Conduct evidence-based advocacy that “business as usual” will not likely accelerate and scale up access to sustainable WASH services or reduce inequality in access.

Facilitate government willingness to change and forge alliances for change. This includes building relationships among stakeholders, developing a common vision, and deciding where to focus efforts. The step requires consulting with the public and private sectors, the NGO community, and civil society -- and/or building special interest groups.

Identify and support political leadership who will be champions for change. Constitute a sector technical working group on building blocks with clear and

agreed-upon terms of reference to focus on strengthening the building blocks.

Step 2: Analyze the Status of the WASH Building blocks for Sustainable WASH services. Key actions include: Identify key strategic government and development partner stakeholders to be

participants for a workshop to carry out the building blocks bottleneck analysis Organize a WASH EE Bottleneck analysis workshop to: Assess the key enabling

factors for the WASH sector to develop; Identify bottlenecks that constrain sector progress; Propose (sequenced) activities for the removal of bottlenecks; Estimate resource requirements and costs of bottleneck removal; Identify gaps in existing sector funding and propose priorities for utilization of additional funds; and Link bottleneck removal to increases in WASH coverage and broader development objectives.

As needed, conduct (or partner with others to conduct) additional analysis to deepen understanding of the status and constraints on WASH building blocks. Examples of additional complementary analyses include: cost of services, urban sanitation services, status of WASH in institutions, WASH financing and expenditure rates; value for money evaluations; costing rural WASH life cycle costs

Step 3: Design a government-led WASH sector strengthening programme

Key Action steps include: Facilitate a process with the government to develop country WASH goals and

targets for the SDG 15-year period. Emphasis should be placed on the progressive reduction of inequality in WASH access. During this process, discussions can be led on the big picture implications of the goals and targets that are set. For example, current rates of increase in access (or other targets such as reduction of open defecation) and compare with the increase in access (rate of acceleration) that would be needed to achieve the target within the

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specified timeframe. Estimating investment needs overall and per year to meet the targets is also a useful input to provide governments with insight that can lead to realistic and achievable goals and targets.

Support a sector planning process. Develop a medium- and long-term National/State Government Action Plan for Strengthening the Building blocks and all of its functions. Define a systematic program and series of actions needed for reforms that will help strengthen each of the building blocks identified as a critical bottleneck to sustainable WASH service delivery and achieving the WASH SDGs.

Identify and agree upon roles and responsibilities for all development partners to support the government in implementing the action plan. Partners’ roles should be defined according to the country-specific comparative strengths, and human and budget resources.

Help to develop an effective communication campaign to inform all stakeholders about the planning, and make sure that clear and simple language is used.

Step 4: Develop a government and multi-donor WASH sector investment plan.Key actions can include:

Work with government and sector partners to carry out analysis of key financing and investment areas such as; implications of different subsidy allocation principles; the affordability of different service coverage targets at a national/regional level and thus assessing the possible degree of cost recovery and the needs and possibilities of cross subsidies between consumer groups; The equity of current public and budgetary allocations between WASH sub-sectors. Review the gap and imbalances in existing fund allocations to water, sanitation and hygiene program areas and the estimated need for additional resources and between urban and rural WASH service delivery.

Use available data to accurately account for WASH capital expenditures. Quantifying financing by domestic government, international donors, private

sector investments, private equity and debt, and foundations. Estimate overall and annual expenditure on WASH to accurately gauge the

additional funding required to meet key sector program and operational support targets.

Work with national stakeholders to identify applicable mechanisms for domestic resource mobilization. Explore how innovative financing can be utilized to tackle the financing gap and scale up sustainable WASH services.

Promote and/or become engaged in WASH Sector Wide Approaches (SWAps). SWAps are intended to improve the effectiveness and impact of sectoral investments by harmonizing inputs from development partners through a common policy and programming framework under the leadership of government.

Step 5: Develop an agency specific implementation planKey activities include:

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Meet with the appropriate country team members to review the building blocks that patners agreed to support as part of the long-term National/State government action plans for strengthening the WASH sector;

Develop short-, medium-, and long-term country implementation plans to support government efforts to strengthen their WASH sector system. Potential actions and instruments that could be funded and implemented by partners include Advocacy, Convening and Partnerships, Technical Assistance, Capacity Building, M&E and Documentation of evidenced based learning

Identify human resources that will be needed to implement the work plan. This should include both country staff, international staff and expert consultants as needed.

If needed, design a plan to build the capacity of country staff to work on building blocks activities to support national and state governments.

Develop a timetable with critical milestones for the implementation work plan.

Develop a budget for F work on strengthening the WASH sector.

Step 6: Monitor core building blocks: Key activities can include:

With government and development partners, develop harmonized and agreed-upon indicators.

Agree on an approach and/or tool for monitoring the sector. If the UNICEF WASH-BAT tool was used to do the initial diagnoses of the sector, then this could also be used as a monitoring tool.

Ensure transparency in measuring and reporting results and monitoring and evaluating progress.

Monitor the building blocks in coordination with monitoring investments and implementation of WASH service delivery programs. JSRs can help all stakeholders know if interventions are on track and achieving their intended results. This can also help identify new bottlenecks related to the building blocks that should be addressed. The following instruments and tools can be used: (1) How to set up a WASH Joint Sector Review – UNICEF Technical Note (2) Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN): Joint Sector Review; (3) The UNICEF WASH Bottleneck Analysis Tool (WASH-BAT).

3.Conclusion This toolkit is a living document and has a merit to include all partners’ tools to support WASH sector. The toolkit have been developed through a consultative process with partners and governments for some countries. Contribution from partners to improve it will be highly appreciated.

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