WaterAid's GTF programme aims to increase the capacity and resources of civil society (CSOs) in 15 targeted countries across Africa, Asia and Central America. This is in order for these CSOs to participate in effective evidence-based dialogue with decision-makers in the water and sanitation arena and to build pressure for securing pro-poor service delivery. Over the past year the organisational capacities of our 30 local partners to engage more effectively with duty bearers in decision-making

more »

... ocesses at all levels have been significantly strengthened. The activities carried out included various types of training, information sharing and exchange visits and dealt with such issues as policy influencing, advocacy, governance, strategy development, development of systems and membership directory. These capacity building activities have contributed to raising the profile and credibility of our local partner organisations and have resulted in them playing a more important role in water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) sector discussions. Partner organisations are participating in WASH coordination meetings at district level (e.g. Uganda), joint sector reviews or poverty reduction strategy paper review meetings at national level (e.g. Mali and Ethiopia), public hearings and social audits (e.g. Mali and India) and so on. Different innovative approaches are being used to better inform people of their rights to WASH and to empower them to demand more accountability and responsiveness from duty bearers. This includes the use of the media as a critical means. For example, community-based radio programmes in Uganda have played a major role as a source of information and way for the community to voice their concerns, issues and rights that are then discussed and followed up by authorities. This also includes the use of citizen platforms to demand more accountability and responsiveness from duty bearers, and simplification and dissemination of water codes, among others. Over the past year, and as a result of all these activities, there has been clear evidence of duty bearers being more accountable and responsive to the needs of the citizens in terms of access to WASH. In India, for example, through a systematic community-led process of representation and demand for services, coupled with the use of the Right to Information Act, more than £900,000 of government resources have been leveraged for the delivery of WASH services to rural people. In Kenya, our partner identified malpractices in various government sector institutions and shared the findings with the Minister for Water and Irrigation, the Permanent Secretary and the media. As a result the Chief Executive Officer of the board was suspended and is currently under investigation. Going forward, our GTF programme will work towards strengthening and sustaining these initial results which will directly impact on our programme's objectives and thereby WaterAid's global aims. We will continue strengthening civil society's organisational capacities, so that they effectively engage in decision-making processes and demand more accountability and responsiveness from duty bearers. Special attention will also be put into fostering cross learning and sharing across the programme as a response to the Mid Term Review recommendation. For further information on this programme, please visit