Information and Documentation Strategy

1. About the strategy

In this phase, the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) and the Localising Agenda 21 Programme (LA21) will decentralise efforts at regional and national levels to improve specific assistance to its municipal partners. The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, based in the Netherlands, have been selected to deliver specific support and provide advice on urban basic services. With over thirty-five years of experience, IRC has been identified for its recognised expertise on supporting Southern water and sanitation institutes, facilitation and design of participatory processes, capacity building of key stakeholders and relevant experience on information and knowledge development and management.

The Basic Urban Services (BUS) initiative intends to promote actions and methodologies for improved basic urban services delivery and implementation. The initiative will act as a catalyst to mobilise existing and potential local resources and focus them for effective action. Additionally the information management and documentation expertise of IRC will assist SCP to address any gaps in its capacity building strategy.

Through the implementation of demonstration projects, BUS expects to generate increased support by other major national and international programmes in order to complement the initial local mobilisation of resources. Likewise, this process may generate enough interest and support from local partners to get organised and advocate for the improvement of existing policies and legal frameworks which then could be translated into specific strategies and plans. To fulfil these ambitious goals BUS requires a solid information sharing and documentation strategy. This strategy should be able to capture all the lessons and experiences learned in the BUS initiative, signal potential factors of success and failure identified from previous experiences and promote the strategic use and reformatting of this knowledge by the partners according to their specific contexts.

The following document outlines the main guidelines that IRC will follow to fulfil its objectives in relation to information sharing and documentation in the BUS initiative. These guidelines are not limitative and a creative combination of approaches will be defined to reach the objectives of the initiative according to the specific abilities of the anchoring and partner organisations and municipalities involved.

2. Who are main BUS clients and partners?

The scoping paper that guides the BUS initiative identifies local governments as the main actors and recipients of the support. Indirectly other partners that could benefit from this support can also be identified at local and international levels.

Local partners are of special interest vis à vis the sustainability of the BUS experience. Among the most relevant for the BUS initiative are NGOs, CBOs, private sector (1) , educational and training organisations, women's organisations and local government associations. On the other hand, international partners will be involved as potential supporters of the replication processes and as enablers of the knowledge sharing efforts.

(1) When talking of the private sector BUS refers with preference to small and medium size enterprises.

3. What do the BUS clients and partners want or need to know?

Each key stakeholder operating at local level has specific information needs that suit its implementing capacities better. The way information generated by BUS will be repackaged and further distributed will also depend on the level of accessibility and management of different communication media that these stakeholders have. For these reasons, one of BUS initial priority activities will be to survey the information needs and capacities (2)of the stakeholders involved in the demonstration projects.

Complementary, the BUS anchoring strategy envisages the development of strategic partnerships at local level to enhance the use of specific capacities and access to information by the different partners of the initiative. For instance, local officials, managers, researchers and academicians will have information needs that may be answered by the appropriate anchoring organisation. However, when trying to reach the CBOs that represent the ultimate beneficiaries of the actions perhaps a suitable intermediary partner must be used. Proposing, assessing and finding creative solutions for the diverse information needs and demands generated will be a clear challenge regularly faced by the initiative.

(2) Capacities are defined as the existing financial, methodological, human resources and time that the stakeholders are willing to invest in the BUS initiative.

4. How to get the information across?

To get relevant information across to this variety of actors, BUS envisages the use and promotion of a variety of communication and information means that will consider accessibility, readability, content and most adequate format as the basic elements for its development.

Section 6 covers the communication and information means that BUS will use throughout the experience. A combination of these means will be considered and preference will not be given to one over the others. For instance, while an interactive web site can prove to be very useful for local municipality managers, researchers and academicians, the publication of a hardcopy of the sourcebook could reach a wider range of stakeholders. Similarly compared to the sourcebook, the production of an educative calendar will reach the grassroots organisations involved in the implementation experiences better.

The information provided by BUS to its partners should preferably be demand-driven. The contents of this information will come from a combination of IRC's expertise in the water and sanitation sectors, the identified needs of the user groups and relevant aspects of the BUS experience.

5. What will be documented?

The experiences and lessons emerging from the demonstration projects are basic inputs for the documentation strategy. IRC's knowledge and expertise will be used to document among others:

• Key elements of the BUS process, components and new approach developed.
• Identification of key areas of advocacy for improved BUS provision at local level.
• Identification of the learning processes, training methodologies and support services that are relevant for improved BUS provision ranging from local officials to grassroots groups.
• Identification of the key elements that make up a successful ToT programme.
• The potentialities and risks that make different PPPs a successful strategy for poverty reduction in relationship with BUS.
• The process of anchoring as a successful strategy for BUS sustainability.
• How successful incorporating and institutionalising gender in the BUS planning and implementation process can be. Special attention given to opportunities and limitations created in the process.
• Achievements obtained by extending support capacities to national and local levels.
• Role played in the development or strengthening of issue-specific (BUS) networks in the area.
• Lessons learned by promoting pro-poor BUS initiatives. Factors of success and constraints faced.
• Elements that enhance successful partnerships for the development of city-wide investment packages.
• Relevance of replication as a strategy to promote policy and legislative changes.
• Private sector initiatives for improved BUS provision with special emphasis on community-based interventions.
• Roles played, expectations created and fulfilled and obstacles encountered by the different stakeholders in the process.

6. How will the information be presented?

The following communication and information means will be used to fulfil the information sharing objectives of the programme:

6.1 Electronic media

Web page

As an initial step all the information generated by BUS will be compiled and presented on IRC's web page. This will help other IRC partners and frequent visitors to find out more about the experience. Sections that can be included on this page are: frequently asked questions, a link to the SCP page, all the downloadable articles and key informative documents, main contacts and relevant internet links, a choice of selected or recommended readings and an area for questions and suggestions. IRC will ensure that the contents presented on the web are regularly updated. However, considering that updating is very costly, the financial limitations of the initiative should be considered for this.

IRC's experience with the Managing W ater for African Cities programme will help BUS to develop the best strategy to use this means of communication most effectively. A fundamental consideration is that the web page must be very user friendly in order to motivate the regular use of the information by the main partners of the initiative.

CD-Rom

If possible and considered necessary, BUS will compile in CD format relevant information generated by the initiative from the web site or produced through other means. This CD will be distributed once a year to main SCP partners.

E-conferencing

If considered convenient, issue-specific electronic conferencing can be started to allow the free exchange of ideas, improvement of strategies and knowledge sharing among SCP partners on this initiative. Previous experience with Yahoo-groups for other IRC projects will be analysed for this purpose.

E-learning

If the capacities of the anchoring organisations allow it, the possibility of transferring knowledge through electronic training sessions will be explored and if possible implemented.

Community telecentres

There is wide experience, especially in Africa, with the development and use of community telecentres for the dissemination of information for development. IRC may consider the use of this mechanism for information dissemination in the regions where the demonstration projects are taking place and as an alternative strategy to reach CBOs with specific BUS information.

6.2 Hard copy dissemination

Articles and write-ups

It is of great interest to the initiative to reach out to stakeholders that could benefit most from the approach that BUS will bring to the EPM process. In order to reach the "not necessarily easily connected to Internet" constituencies, IRC will also produce articles, fact sheets and short write-ups on the progress of the initiative and on content issues considered relevant. These articles and write ups will be published not only by the SCP newsletter and IRC's Source News Service but ideally also by publications from other partners such as the WSSSC, OneWorld, WELL, ID21, Habitat debate, Environment and Urbanisation and others. Special attention will be given to the sharing of all relevant information produced with local partners so they can version it and incorporate it in their own publications.

The Sourcebook

One of the main outputs of the documentation strategy is the production of the Sourcebook on "Partnerships for the provision and management of basic environmental services" during 2006. The sourcebook will be produced using all the information generated from the documented demonstration projects and relevant information from other SCP and LA21 partners in the sector.

While following the format used by the SCP in the production of the previous sourcebooks, IRC will make some suggestions to improve the format and presentation of the information to make it available and better accessible to specific audiences. For instance, a CD-Rom could be attached to the hardcopy including the whole version of the Sourcebook, copies of other relevant documents such as key workshops reports, training sessions and a selection of interviews with different stakeholders involved at different stages of the process for training purposes.

The core of the Sourcebook will be the documented experiences of the demonstration projects. This information will be complemented by information on other initiatives and additional approaches from SCP and LA21 partners. In order to compile a selection of quality case studies, a process should be defined with SCP to define the best and most efficient methodology to gather this information. In terms of contents, the sourcebook could include:

• The BUS approach
• Common problems and main BUS related concerns of towns and cities
• Strategies, methodologies and approaches used as solutions by towns and cities.
• PPPs and poverty reduction initiatives. Effectiveness and impacts achieved.
• International and regional support of BUS initiatives
• Innovative policies and legislative frameworks of the sector that promote sustainability.
• BUS management approach and influence in the supply chain.

The Handbook

The handbook is a technical tool which synthesises the approaches and methodologies proposed by IRC for the demonstration projects focusing on basic urban services delivery.

The document will cover among others: mobilisation of political support, stakeholder participation, issues prioritisation, consensus building, development of action plan, support for implementation and monitoring. The handbook will be distributed to selected SCP partner cities to share the knowledge, check its suitability and determine changes and improvements.

Case studies and good practices

A key outcome of this strategy is the production of case studies that reflect the different approaches used for building private public partnerships in the sector as well as the potentialities and constraints faced. Identified good practices will be further documented and shared.

6.3 Events and seminars

Progress made in the demonstration projects will be presented in the global SCP/LA21 meetings. These meetings will also be used to get feedback from SCP and LA21 partners who will be used to design the BUS annual planning. Progress made with the experience will also be presented in other types of seminars and events that IRC could be involved in or invited to.

Capacity building and training workshops

All the capacity building and training events involving the national and regional anchoring organisation will be adequately documented and made available to the rest of SCP and LA21 partners in adequate formats. Special attention will be given to the compilation of training material used and outcomes from the ToT sessions.