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The quagmire in the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services) sector is a dearth of Systems[1] thinking. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recently adopted by the United Nations, have sparked a renewed focus on what strategies will be necessary to achieve universal access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2030.It is no longer just about building toilets, installing taps and pipes but actually about the prevailing system of governance which exists that enables the WASH infrastructure to be sustainable in the long run. For long, the systems approach in the WASH sector has been ignored. The recently organized WASH Symposium by IRC and its partners –‘All systems go’! held at the Hague, Netherlands from 12^th to 14^th March 2019[2] brought this much ignored area into special focus. The Symposium was a practitioner-focused event on how to deliver strong and resilient WASH systems and on how to apply systems approaches to improving WASH service delivery. It was represented with practitioners and theoreticians participating from both the global North and the global South.

There are many challenges to achieving sustained, universal access to safe water and sanitation. They range from sanitation and hygiene services, safe and sustainable water, WASH in fragile states, measuring and learning WASH, financing WASH.  An array of themes including the above was taken up in the three days of the Symposium. Some of the key highlights are given below:

- Removing systems blindness

In his opening speech, Patrick Moriarty (CEO of IRC) called on the delegates to end their ‘systems blindness’ and engage with the systems around them. The most visible elements of a system are usually prioritised first such as physical infrastructure or institutions, however, one needs to look beyond the visible such as communities, culture, policies, rules and regulations. The deeper one looks the more one can understand what really drives system behaviours.

 - Avoiding systems clash

Dr Gilbert Buckle (Chairman of the Healthcare Federation of Ghana) in his keynote speech urged one to avoid ‘systems clash’. For example, if WASH is to be integrated into healthcare, the two systems need to be aligned and people need to see how they are working towards common benefits.

- Taking part in the system and acknowledging their role

Usually short-term project timeframes, failure to listen to communities, or output-focused funding mechanisms were found to undermine the change one was seeking. The discussions turned the spotlight on the delegates and pushed them to interrogate their part in the WASH system.

- Recognising complexity in systems

A key take away from the Symposium was the understanding that complexity exists in systems. The focus on systems change pushed people to be ambitious, recognise complexity, and own up to areas that had not succeeded in the past.

The need for understanding systems is even more relevant in the times of increasing water scarcity and rising inequity. While the role of existing polity cannot be undermined, efforts to strengthen systems which includes effective planning and monitoring in governance should be accelerated. The Symposium presented the best in systems approach and thinking, nevertheless, a few critical learnings came about which are presented below:

- WASH governance systems are varied and contextual

The core water and sanitation governance functions vary depending on the level of development of the sector and the country. In the context of India, it is usually the line departments that undertake the governance functions in cooperation with other stakeholders. In many other countries, donors and multilateral aid agencies are involved in governance in a greater capacity. Hence, WASH systems needs to be understood in the context of differences and variance.

- The demand for improved WASH service delivery

The need for improved and better WASH services was a recurring theme that ran along the discussions that took place in the Symposium. Although, measurement and progress in WASH services differed substantially based on region and country specific analysis, the urge and demands for bettering services remained constant.

- The critical role of public finance in WASH systems

Finance is a critical component of the WASH systems approach and in the case of India it is public finance. Adequate and effective utilization of public finances for WASH services at all the three tiers of the government is vital. Keeping in mind the bottlenecks and hurdles that abound at every stage of implementing WASH programmes and the complexity of devolution, strengthening systems in governance and finance could be a possible solution. Ultimately, the key lies in understanding public budget policy and budget processes at national, state and local levels.

 

[1] Those people, functions, activities, and behaviors that relate directly to WASH service provision are all part of the WASH system

[2] https://www.ircwash.org/symposium

 

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author, and don’t necessarily reflect the position of CBGA. You can reach Trisha Agarwala at trisha14@gmail.com.