Advocacy training for sector staff in Niger

CREPA and IRC provided advocacy training on water, sanitation and hygiene to 25 people from various ministries, local city authorities and NGOs in Niger. The two-day workshop on 14-15 July 2006 resulted in the start of an advocacy strategy on hygiene promotion. In Niger hygienic toilets and latrines are hardly available. This contributes to a child malnutrition rate of 39.6 percent. This is a measure of the burden of infection to which young children are exposed and an approximate guide to the national hygienic level (WSSCC, 2003).

This workshop is one of the activities of a regional project in Ghana, Mali and Niger on advocacy for WASH Millennium Development Goals, initiated by Water Aid and financed by USAID in the context of the West African Water Initiative (WAWI). Other members of WAWI are: World Vision, WaterAid, UNICEF, Helen Keller International, Lions Club International, Conrad Hilton Foundation, Winrock International, International Trachoma Institute, World Chlorine International and Desert Research Institute.

To prepare for the Niger workshop first an analysis of the sector situation was done during a mission in March. The findings of the sector analysis can be summarised as:

• there are greatly varying figures used in various documents;
• there are many initiatives, but no coordination;
• capacities are lacking in key areas; and
• sanitation is the biggest problem.

Lots of interaction

The workshop was organised at the Ministry of Water and Drive against Drought, in partnership with the Ministry of Community Development, and Eau Vive. It provided a mix of interactive presentations, group work and sharing of advocacy examples. After problem, target group and allies analyses participants developed messages for the three key target groups they identified: the state, the civil society and the population. The two facilitators helped the group decide on the key problem they want to address: hygiene promotion at community level. For that they guided them through the following strategy planning matrix.

The participants agreed to form a task force in Niger to further develop this action plan, in which two ministries and two NGOs will be involved.

Round table

Most of the participants and a few additional visitors participated in the round table in which the findings of the sector analysis were presented and discussed. We also posed a number of questions:

• How best to close the gap between coverage and the gap in financing?
• How can you get better insight into sanitation tasks?
• Which coverage figures can be used best?
• How to quantify the figures for hygiene?
• What support can we give to the national committee doing the calculations?
• How can civil society contribute to the revisions and initiatives?
• What are the next steps?

An interesting discussion followed. Especially the leaders from the Niamey communes stressed the need for sanitation and the need to popularise the sanitation and hygiene documents and messages for the users. Communities also need to be involved in revitalising their basic coverage figures.

Participants agreed that all the points raised in the discussion need to be taken up by the new National Water and Sanitation Commission, for which the decree has not yet been signed. It will be based in the Ministry of Water with six committees representing all stakeholders in the process.

Eva Kouassi-Komlam and Dick de Jong