Supporting secondary urban centers in the Lake Victoria Region to contribute to millennium development goals’ achievement

The governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, in association with UN-HABITAT, launched in 2004 the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation (LVWATSAN) Programme, an initiative geared towards addressing the water and sanitation needs of poor people living within 11 towns around the Lake Victoria region. This initiative has been designed to achieve Millennium Development Goal targets for water and sanitation in small growth centres and has a clear pro-poor focus. Within this context, the Netherlands Development Organisation, SNV, in a partnership consortium that includes UNESCO-IHE (Institute for Water Education), the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) and NETWAS International as the local/regional capacity builder, developed and implemented the Training and Capacity Building Programme for the LVWATSAN Programme. The capacity development activities were formulated in response to specific circumstances, actors and issues in each town. Initial enquiries in Kyotera Town Council were made to identify issues, actors, and their mutual relations. Subsequently a capacity development programme was developed, comprising 27 courses in 5 thematic areas: water, sanitation and environment, pro-poor governance, gender and vulnerable groups, and local economic development. The main contentsof the course focused on the vulnerable and poor women and men, town institutions and organisations, service coverage and quality, public engagement and access, and public investment and processes. The main approach used capacity development and has been training/ targeting 2,990 people in the towns. The target groups included members of the multi-stakeholder forum, local and district local governments, water and sanitation providers, local entrepreneurs, non-governmental organisations, community based organisations, male and female citizens, users, and vulnerable groups. This was supplemented by ongoing inquiry and evidence gathering as well as coaching programmes, exposure visits, peer-to-peer support and mentoring. In addition, capacity development emphasized knowledge development and sharing. [authors abstract]

This three-day workshop aims to identify proven good practices in the sanitation and hygiene sector, as well as drawing lessons from failures to enter into the policy dialogue. It focuses on urban sanitation with an emphasis on learning and innovation in the sector. It was organised by : UNICEF, GTZ, WSSCC, WaterAid and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, and hosted by the Rwandan Ministry of Health.