Resource Centre Development process within CREPA Network: experiences in six countries

The Regional Centre for Water supply and Sanitation (CREPA) took the decision to start the RCD process in the WASH sector in West and Central Africa. The process started in 2002 with six countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo) and is expected to spread to the whole CREPA network (17 French speaking countries in West and Central Africa).

CREPA headquarter plays the role of coordinator and often the main channel to share information from a national representative to another national representative. Information sharing is done also between national representatives during exchange visits (rarely) or during network meetings in the office of one of the CREPA country members.

To involve others actors at country level, the focal points make use of existing contacts through others projects or programmes, they are invited to information meetings to contribute. A core group is created during this meeting. This core group will be working with CREPA NR on the RCD process. Although the process is near the zero point in most of the countries, there are already some products and services:

• Yahoo group for internal sharing of information
• Actor inventory documents (Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Togo)
• RCD strategy document (Burkina Faso and Benin) and several newsletters.

Lessons learnt

From these difficulties, there are some lessons learnt:

• The development of a Resource Centre is a process that requires flexibility;
• The countries concerned have different RCD process approaches and plan different activities. Each country adapts RCD activities to its context since the process is flexible;
• There is a lot to do for 'information' to be updated. In the WASH sector, developing countries are doing too many things but, unfortunately, there is insufficient documentation, so it is difficult to have good data. Good and updated data require financial and human resources;
• An information initiative often needs a network of organizations and when the process starts, it is necessary to have contact with a governmental agency. Most of the time they have good data;
• The process facilitators needs a clear mandate from all the actors involved;
• To finish, we can say that the ambition to cover the whole Water, Hygiene and Sanitation sector (as opposed to starting with a more focused approach) has been the main problem of the process in CREPA network

Conclusion

After analyzing the difficulties and the lessons learnt, it can be concluded that CREPA doesn’t put in enough human and financial resources for its ambition to become a resource centre network in the WASH sector. A new starting point is necessary for the process before the end of CREPA phase 5. For that, strong institutional commitment is needed. CREPA will focus on one topic in each country instead of a wider ambition, to ensure that adequate human and financial resources are available.

The involvement of other organisations in the RC network is an important factor that is often overlooked. They have a key role to play and perhaps if Benin appears to be doing so well it is because they have involved other organizations to create a wider support base from which to develop the RC activities.