1may 2013Partners in action

Partners in Action

SWA welcomes new Vice-Chair: Catarina de Albuquerque

tHE VOiCE Of tHE SWA pArtNErSHip iSSuE 5 DECEMbEr 2014

since its 2010 inception. ms de albuquerque joins sWa at the end of her term as the first Un rapporteur on special the Human right to Water and sanitation. Her priorities will include advocating for political prioritization of WasH at a global high-level, helping build consensus between partners, establishing strategic partnerships with other initiatives and sectors and leading the steering committee.

Catarina shares our vision of universal access to WASH and understands the critical role of alignment and cooperation. In a changing post-2015 reality, her leadership and advocacy skills will be decisive for SWA and the sector in general. - H.E. President John Agyekum Kufuor, SWA Chair

Its good timing that Catarina joins the partnership when SWA is on the verge of a new phase we will need her energy and hands-on leadership. Im leaving the role of Vice-Chair feeling in equal measure reassured that SWA is in good hands, and curious about the times ahead. - Darren Saywell, former SWA Vice-Chair and Senior Director: Water, Sanitation and Health at Plan International USA

I am thrilled

and honoured with the possibility to contribute to SWA an initiative whose evolution I have been closely

following in the past 4 years and which has a great potential for

making sure sanitation and water become a tangible reality for

everyone. -

Catarina de Albuquerque

Catarina de Albuquerque. Photo Credit: SWA/Kristoffer Tripplaar

catarina de albuquerque was officially installed as Vice-chair of the sWa during the recent steering committee in the Hague. she replaces Darren saywell, the partnerships first Vice-chair, and a key figure in the development of sWa

DECEMBER 2014

Partners in action may 2013 2

the monitoring phase of the High Level commitments Dialogue (HLcD) has started. it is the key mechanism for accountability in the partnership, and a milestone for in-country advocacy around the commitments. this phase is the partners responsibility, but the sWa secretariat is mandated to facilitate the process and to encourage best practices. With this in mind i would like to share with you my top-three

recommendations for a robust tracking process:1. inclusiveness and triangulation: ensuring several stakeholders agree on common indicators of success and triangulate data has shown to make the tracking process more robust. For instance, countries could bring to the table various relevant ministries (consider in particular the ministry of Finance), development partners, donors and civil society networks. Donors could also take into consideration feedback from civil society organizations.

2. Alignment to national processes: aligning sWa processes to existing in-country review and coordination mechanisms has shown to minimize government burdens and increase ownership of commitments. Joint sector reviews, regular joint monitoring committee meetings and africasan and sacosan preparatory meetings can be used to review HLm

commitments.3. High-level endorsement: choosing the appropriate level of endorsement of the Progress report has shown to increase the feeling of accountability for the results. there are no specific requirements and technical directors can submit the data, however some countries had the report signed by their WasH sector minister, or by both sector and finance ministers. Donors could have the reports signed by the Head of cooperation or by a minister as well.

Monitoring 2014/2015: Timeline and best practicesfiOrELLA pOLO, SWA MonitoRing AnD outREACh

COuNtry NEWS

Dec. Jan. feb. Mar. Apr.

partners report back on progress

Secr

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part

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in-country commitments tracking (aligned to Joint sector reviews) Preparation for national advocacy activities

Kick-off: tracking

guidance

MARk youR CAlEnDARSsWa onLine caFs on tracKinG

15 January: Planning advocacy around the monitoring report 19 february: Update on progress of in-country tracking19 March: Qualitative follow-up to national reports16 April: Planning advocacy around 2014 sWa Global Progress Update

High Level Commitments Dialogue timeline

The tracking of SWA commitments is an important moment not only to check on the progress towards achieving them, but also to seek further support from our ministries in overcoming any high level barriers to implementation. - Solphi Joli Hamelo, Senior Director, Direction general of Water, Sanitation & hygiene, Ministry of Water, Madagascar We find that the annual tracking of SWA commitments helps give more visibility to the whole WASH sector within our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. - Cline Gilquin, Deputy Manager of the water and sanitation division, AFDOur annual global monitoring processes remind politicians that the international community is paying attention to the implementation of the commitments made in Washington - George W. Chaima, Board member of AnEW

DECEMBER 2014

On the importance to track commitments:

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3may 2013Partners in action

Based on its experience in tracking 2010 and 2012 commitments, Ghanas Government has decided to kick off the 2014 process earlier, this time involving more stakeholders and taking action to mainstream activities into its regular tracking and monitoring processes. Ghana has now in place an extended commitments tracking task-team which involves government, civil

society, donors, development partners and a journalists network. 2014 tracking activities kicked off as early as June 2014, with a national sWa roundtable on tracking commitments, where sWa partners defined and agreed on indicators for the sWa traffic light system. a brochure was published to disseminate information of the commitments to a wide audience,

including the press. the task team is also working towards including regular follow-ups of sWa commitments in the national high-level mechanism for coordinating cooperation in Ghana, where heads of agencies and ministers seat to discuss progress and challenges.

NEWS frOM tHE frONt LiNE

May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep.

Global progress update

HLM preparation

financing for development

conference

SDGs and General

AssemblyAfricaSan

partnersSecretariat

Events

Joint national advocacy activities (commitments and sDGs)

Ghana kicks-off more inclusive tracking

In the upcoming months the common indicators will be tracked by several sector partners and aggregated at national level by the tracking task team before they are submitted to the SWA Secretariat.

KWEKU QUAnSAH, PrOGrAMME OffICEr AT THE MInISTry Of LOCAL GOVErnMEnT AnD rUrAL DEVELOPMEnT

MOf & MOfA briefed

Advocacy plans shared

french Government and Civil Society working together to report on donor commitments the French Government has been open to discuss the progress of the 2012 sWa with civil society. in 2013 the French Development agency (aFD) met with the French civil society focal point organization for sWa (coalition eau) to jointly define the indicators against which progress would be measured. cline Gilquin, Deputy Director of the Water and sanitation Division at aFD said,

The process and experience was mutually beneficial and the discussion on performance indicators was also very useful to develop SMARTer commitments for 2014. We will continue the dialogue in 2015. another aspect France wants to improve even further is the alignment of the sWa tracking process to the agencys ongoing and broader reporting cycle.

Developing 2014 commitments that fit directly into our broader development cooperation framework was a strategic move for AFD. This will allow us to better align the two monitoring processes and indicators

CLInE GILQUIn, AfD

DECEMBER 2014

National profiles

Partners in action may 2013 4

1. What do you see as your biggest challenges in ensuring that CSOs are engaged in the SWA partnership?

my role will focus on ensuring that the cso constituency is well coordinated and the challenge will be in ensuring that processes are participatory and consultative and that csos, and hence the vulnerable and marginalised groups that they represent, are able to engage effectively in the Partnership at both the national and global levels.

2. What will be your first actions as the new SWA CSO Advisor?During my first few weeks in the post, i will be communicating regularly with the sWa steering committee cso

representatives and the country focal points to introduce myself and to find out about each countrys current engagement with the Partnership and how i can support this engagement going forward. i will also work with national cso focal points to follow up on and monitor the commitments that national governments made at the High Level meeting in april and to hold them to account for these commitments.

3. Were currently in the important Monitoring phase of the HLCD. What are your top 3 recommendations for CSO focal points working on Monitoring?Firstly, i recommend that cso focal points ensure that they are

familiar with the commitments that were made at the 2014 HLm and how these commitments interact with, overlap with and align with current national sector priorities. i also recommend that cso focal points ensure that as many sector stakeholders, including national and local csos working on WasH, development partners, mPs and the media, are aware of the commitments made and the target dates for achieving these. Finally, tracking of the commitments made can take place through existing mechanisms such as Joint sector reviews and national WasH coordination meetings, in addition to cso-led forums and other advocacy and monitoring activities.

NEWS

DECEMBER 2014

Paul shanahan has taken the role of the sWa secretariat acting coordinator, until June 2015, when we expect the full-time coordinator to be recruited. Paul was most recently the inter agency standing committee WasH cluster coordinator (based in UniceF in Geneva). He replaces cindy

Kushner, who is now WasH senior adviser on partnerships and global initiatives at UniceF HQ. ceridwen Johnson, sWas Programme officer advocacy and communications, will also stepdown of her position at the end of 2014. recruitment for her replacement is already underway.

Launch of 2014 GLAASI would like to thank all SWA partners who participated in the GLAAS 2014 process. We hope the findings provide insights into assessing challenges for continued progress towards achieving 2014 HLM commitments. Fiona Gore, GLaas Project manager, WHo --> Download the full report at the WHo website

Secretariat has new Acting Coordinator

Interview with Jen Williams, new SWA CSO Advisor

Less than 1/3 of countries have a plan for

WasH in health care facilities and schools that is fully implemented,

funded and regularly reviewed.

$

80% of countries indicate insufficient financing for the water and sanitation sector.

expenditures for rural sanitation are estimated to comprise

less than 10% of total WasH finance.

Paul Shanahan. Photo Credit: UNICEF

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/glaas/2014/en/

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