UNICEF's Programme for Water and Sanitation in Central America

Valdelin, Jan et al. (1996)
Stockholm, Sweden, Commissioned by Sida, Department for Natural Resources and the Environment

A UNICEF sponsored programme for water and sanitation in Central America, aimed at improving women's and children's health and reducing the burden of women in water collection, consists of seven water and environmental sanitation country programmes, one special programme for former conflict areas in El Salvador and a subregional component. This evaluation study, assessing the period from 1991 to 1995 in all participating countries (Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama), focuses on the programme as a whole. Although the programme has been successful in terms of service delivery of water and sanitation infrastructure, it has not performed so well in health and hygiene education outputs. Achievements in capacity building, institutional development and empowerment have been even less impressive. Improvements in these areas may come from the wealth of experience and knowledge gathered in the programme. The evaluation team recommends that future planning and management of the programme be improved by increased emphasis on participatory planning and implementation.

Although there is no culture for decentralization in Central America at the moment, UNICEF can build on the experience it has already acquired in municipal planning, but must avoid the risk of becoming a "doer" rather than a "promoter" and focus on providing models, training and follow-up. UNICEF aims at empowerment of the target groups through the promotion of community participation, advocacy, cooperation with a diversity of organizations of the civil society, and the strengthening of community organization before implementing projects. A special relationship with IRC, who have defined and guided the content and direction of the software component of the WES programme, and have organized a series of workshops at country, subregional and regional levels, has contributed to the development of gender sensitive sanitary education based on the change of hygiene behaviour and practices, and to the incorporation of community-based monitoring systems. Although it is too early to assess the full impact of the IRC-assisted training, it is clear that many of the UNICEF counterparts are beginning to address the elements of an integrated approach to empowerment - community participation with promotion of a learner-centred, concept-based approach to hygiene and sanitation education and gender orientation in programme planning and management. In Panama, for example, the "software" component of the projects at community level includes community participation and sanitary education through women's and children's groups. In Guatemala City, the basic services programme begins with a community request for support and continues with a participatory problem-based methodology. The programme in El Salvador has developed a gender focused sanitary education strategy including community-based monitoring. However, in Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica sanitation education components have not been integrated as successfully into WES programmes.

In general, since the WES programmes' principal counterpart almost invariably has been the national water and sewage utility, they have generally demonstrated poor capacity in regard to social mobilization, hygiene education and often sanitation. Their overall educational strategy is frequently flawed, principally because promotion and education activities are handled as separate activities, rather than as an integrated component together with gender concerns. On the other hand, committee or organizational structures are designed to suit the needs of the programmes rather than adapting the programmes to already existing local decision-making mechanisms and leadership patterns. As well, the promotional materials available to the social promotion staff are limited and tend to be message-focused rather than process-oriented, which would strengthen the analytical, planning and organization skills of the community groups.

In spite of regional gender-based hygiene and sanitation training, the country programmes continue to have a strong gender bias in favour of men, and women's participation is frequently token and very much within stereotypical roles. Women are generally represented within the local committees, and most frequently assigned the more "female" functions such as health-hygiene education, responsibility for the cleanliness and upkeep of the water or sanitary facilities, and responsibility for overseeing the finances. Because hygiene and sanitation promotion is often delegated to a separate organization, the consequence is that, along with women, the entire hygiene and sanitation promotion function is marginalized. Effort is now needed to change the traditional attitudes of men and women and to change the male dominance in the WES Programmes. The study concludes that there is a need for the entire decision-making process in the subregional component and the country programmes to be "feminized".