Interview with Ms. Buthaina Khader, Care West Bank & Gaza, Palestine

Sascha de Graaf (2006)

Summary

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned so far (either from your work or from the symposium) about strengthening capacity for local governance in WASH?

An important lesson is that we need to build on the local capacity that is already there. We need to respect local knowledge. If we try to bring communities things from outside, they may refuse it and what we teach them will not be sustainable. So we need to respect local communities and not try to change them. We also need to facilitate the dialogue between stakeholders in the community in order to build their capacity, to help them how to interact with each other and how to learn from each other and from us.

What is the most important thing that sector staff should keep in mind in the context of strengthening capacity for local governance?

Apart from building on local capacity that is already there, sector staff needs to study the area where they are working before they arrive. They need to learn about the community, about how the systems work, in order to benefit the community and benefit from the community. When they are working with people from different levels, they need to facilitate the dialogue and help to create a platform for all these levels, so that there are both vertical and horizontal relations between these levels.

What does ‘strengthening capacity for local governance’ mean for you in practice? Has it changed or will it change the way you (or your organisation) work(s)? If so, how?

Before, I didn’t know a lot about the situation in Africa and India. In my country the political situation is hard but in those parts of the world the social and economic situation is very difficult. I got some good ideas about how they work with people in the communities. That’s the most important thing: how to interact with communities, how to learn from them and teach them.

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ButhainaKhader_Palestine.MP3 (1.1 MB)

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