water resource and its uses s

1. WATER, SANITATION, AND
HYGIENE (WASH)
GOVERNANCE:
NOTES ON THEORY AND PRACTICE
Edward Bourque, PhD
18 October, 2016
@ UNESCO-IHE

2. MY ACADEMIC AND POLICY BACKGROUND
-A THUMBNAIL SKETCH
 Domestic urban /environmental planner to international water,
sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) PhD and researcher.
 Extensive field research/contextual understanding of Tanzania’s WASH
landscape (PhD, World Bank research, etc.).
 USAID and foundation WASH proposal development experience-
Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Vietnam.
 USAID and World Bank water sector best practices, knowledge
management, and WASH sustainability research support.
 MIT IDEAS Global Challenge Reviewer/Mentor

3. WHAT IS WASH GOVERNANCE
The political, institutional,
economic, and social framework
that effectively defines and
determines access to WASH
services.

4. WASH GOVERNANCE- SCALES AND
LINKAGES
 Enabling Environment- Political, Social, and Economic
 Sector Wide Coordination and Cooperation
 Horizontal
 Vertical
 Local-level
 Multiple Scales
 International
 Regional
 National
 Basin-scale
 Local – Rural and Urban settings

5. WASH SERVICE DELIVERY – MAJOR
CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES
 Public/Private Perspectives
 Public Services as Human Rights
 Private Sector Participation
 Structural theories
 Wittfogel- ‘Oriental Despotism’ and the Hydraulic State
 Swyngedouw- ‘Government to Governance’/Weakened state
 Informal networks and actors
 Social Capital- ‘bonding and bridging’/ social relation factors
 Bricolage- adapted, local context shaped networks

6. ACCESS, AGENCY, AND DISCOURSE
 Ask yourself, “how do I access water?”
 For most of us, we access it as a service in our houses and buy it as a product in
discrete units (gallons)… and even, tangentially, embedded in the food that we buy.
 For residents of countries with non-existent, barely or non-functional infrastructure,
access to water is a high stakes game.
 Agency - Affordability and Accountability
 Either you can purchase whatever you need and/or you can nudge governments to
provide it as a service.
 Discourse Control- The Power of Problem Defining
 Academic Perspectives
 Media /Public Perceptions
 Voices from Civil Society Organizations/NGOs

7. WASH SERVICE DELIVERY – MAJOR
POLICY PERSPECTIVES
 Coordination, Cooperation, Capacity, and Political Will
 Global-level Coordination, Cooperation, and Political Will (SWA process,
etc.)
 National-level (budget allocations, SWAp)
 Decentralization
 Service Delivery and Management Models
 2004 World Bank World Development Report ‘Making Services Work for
the Poor’
 Aid Effectiveness /Value for Money

8. FUNCTION AND DYSFUNCTION-
IDENTIFYING WASH GOVERNANCE ISSUES
Major Gaps in Access
Market imperfections and lax regulation
Corruption
Conflict- political , social, economic
Project failure
Low levels of accountability and voice in
other sectors/generally

9. IMPROVING WASH GOVERNANCE
 Affordability
 Service Efficiency and Effectiveness
 Accountability mechanisms
 Utility report cards, participatory budgeting, monitoring & evaluation,
“smart government”, etc.
 Decentralization ?
 Economic Development
 Democracy

10. …AND IMPLEMENT IT?
 • Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Performance Index- Performance and
equity
 • Water and Sanitation Index of Development Effectiveness (WIDE)- Resource inputs
& results
 • WASH Sustainability Frameworks
 FIETS sustainability approach (financial, institutional, environmental, technical and
social)
 Triple-S (Sustainable Services at Scale)
 WaterAid sustainability framework
 • Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) –
Finances, planning and coordination, M&E, human resources
 • USAID Sustainable Index Tool - Project-Specific WASH assessment
 • Various Political Economy of WASH reports
MEASURING WASH GOVERNANCE
CAN WE BUILD A BETTER MEASURE?

11. CONNECTING THEORY AND PRACTICE
 “10,000 meter”- level thinking on the basics of determinants of access.
 Going beyond ‘banging fist on table’ about what should and should not
be.
 Aiming to avoid a priori biases on roles of public and private sector.
 Focusing on service delivery models.
 Explore role of decentralization
 Spending more time on understanding country enabling
environment/WASH Governance context before spending money on
new projects.
 Learning from failure – in terms of sector reform, specific projects, etc.