The "Ideal Resource Centre"

A Resource Centre is an organisation or a network of organisations that provides support services to the water and sanitation sector, in an independent way.

The ideal resource centre is positioned strategically within the country's water and sanitation sector. It has strong links with:

• end users ‑ particularly community organisations, local farmers' organisations, etc.
• government departments at all levels, from the national ministry with responsibility for water and sanitation to regional/provincial and local/district level.
• international development agencies and NGOs working in the sector, particularly their local offices.
• donor organisations
• academic and research organisations in the field of hydrology engineering
• intermediate and vocational technical training institutes
• relevant private or public utilities, including small service providers

The ideal resource centre acts as a " collective memory bank". It provides a documentation service that compiles high-quality information on schemes ‑ implementation programmes, training initiatives, educational projects ‑ that have been tried, including reliable evidence on their long-term effectiveness, and pitfalls.

The ideal resource centre is pro-active. It understands and anticipates the information needs of all those working in the sector ‑ particularly those at local and community levels. It can identify gaps in information provision, which in some cases it may be able to fill by itself or in co-operation with other organisations in the sector.

The ideal resource centre is able to repackage information for use by those who need it.

• For instance, the findings of an academic research study into the use of certain water technologies may have direct implications for the communities who use those technologies, the technicians, the local government departments responsible for their maintenance, the trainers who train technicians in the use of that technology. The role of the resource centre would be to repackage the information, possibly in a variety of versions and formats, to suit all these target audiences.
• Similarly, resource centres can package information tailored specifically to policy makers and planners about the lessons learnt in the field during the implementation of similar schemes in the past.

An ideal resource centre will be able to lobby for governments and donors to use and appreciate the value of reliable, accurate, and precisely tailored information at every stage of formulating policies and planning initiatives, and will be able to convince governments and donors of the importance of funding that work.