Institutionalising community management in Uganda

Year of publication: 1999

In 1999, the WaterAid Uganda Strategy was revised in recognition of the limitations of operating bilaterally with dispersed organizations. The new strategy aimed to implement community-managed water and sanitation projects through partner organisations within an overall framework of the decentralised government system. WaterAid developed a District Support Programme and focused on three priority districts.

Lessons learnt

While the District Support Programme does not in itself aim to address water supply projects on a large scale, it does show the importance of working with local government and draws lessons from the approach which could then be used by others when designing and implementing projects on a larger scale.

• Stakeholders must make a commitment to work together and capitalise on the current political moves to decentralise power to the village level.
• The chance of success is greatly improved if the powers to make decisions regarding how a system is planned, implemented and managed are maintained in the community.
• In spite of a commitment by the government to community managed water supply projects, existing institutional arrangements and human resources at district level to support community systems are insufficient. Intensive capacity building at the district level is required to implement the intended government policy.
• Efforts to improve accountability and transparency at all levels should be supported and strengthened.
• It is important to acknowledge that the private sector can contribute to the scaling up of water and sanitation projects, but their limitations, as service providers must also be recognised.
• NGOs and CBOs have a role in scaling-up community management, but their limited capacity is a major constraint.
• The overriding challenge to scaling-up water and sanitation projects is resisting quick-fix solutions and maintaining a level of community involvement, which we have seen is an essential ingredient to achieving long-term sustainability. Addressing large-scale coverage will require a major investment in institutional capacity to support and monitor the service delivery of new facilities as well as the maintenance of the water and sanitation facilities that are currently growing old.