Crystal Clear - August 06

Contents:

Publications

• Rethinking Relationships: Current trends and issues in service delivery
• Harnessing Sanitation Partnerships
• Adapting Regulation to Meet the Needs of the Poor
• Partnership Enablers

Events

• World Water Week in Stockholm
• BPD Partnership Training Course in Kampala
• BPD Board of Directors' Meeting
• BPD Annual General Meeting in Stockholm

Works in Progress

• Partnership Evaluation
• Enhancing the role of independent entrepreneurs
• Seven City Study in Latin America

Publications

Rethinking relationships in water and sanitation: Current trends and issues in service delivery - Relationships between public, private and civil society sectors in the provision of water and sanitation services in poor communities are less formulaic, more complex and more nuanced than ever.  This four-page document, which forms part of the draft BPD business plan for 2006-2010, looks at some of the primary influences on the way stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector relate to each other. 

Harnessing Sanitation Partnerships - BPD has just launched its Sanitation Partnership Series, which looks at where partnerships fit into efforts to improve on-site sanitation and discusses what makes them succeed or fail.  BPD recently worked with sanitation partnerships in five African cities - Dar es Salaam, Durban, Maputo, Maseru and Nairobi.  Using a partnership lens to look at a range of sanitation initiatives revealed that organizations need to think proactively about how to broaden the "sanitation ladder" in poor urban communities; urban sanitation needs to be seen as part of a system where removal and treatment of waste are as important as providing access to a facility, and it is crucial to understand how land tenure and landlord / tenant relationships frame attitudes to sanitation investments. 

Sanitation partnerships can play one of three broad roles, the first being to improve existing 'sanitation transactions', the second in harnessing these transactions towards public health goals, and the third to overcome the institutional fragmentation that bedevils sanitation delivery.  Click here for access to the series of BPD publications, news on the case studies and links to other resources.

Adapting regulation to the needs of the poor: Experience in Four East African Countries - BPD recently led an initiative together with GTZ and the World Bank Institute to review the impact of certain regulatory policies and practices on the poor.  Working with four regulators (Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and Zambia) and their local partners over the course of a year, the activity sought to clarify how their action or inaction impacts upon the poor and then to propose mechanisms including partnership approaches to resolve these challenges.  BPD's overview note and case studies present a timely overview of how regulation impacts the poor and the role that partnerships involving the regulator can play in improving the service that poor people receive.

Partnership Enablers - BPD is delighted to announce the publication of a new piece of work entitled Creating Space for Innovation with the subtitle Understanding Enablers for Multi-Sector Partnerships in the Water and Sanitation Sector.  The primary aim of this piece of work is to provide partnership practitioners with a tool to guide them through discussions around obstacles that might inhibit their progress.  Having completed the dialogue tool, practitioners will come to see quite clearly how much scope they have for success.  The document goes into some detail on issues that affect partnerships including organisational cohesion, relationships between partners (aspects of trust, participation and information sharing), and whether the partnership's scope matches the context in which it is attempting to operate. 

The main 32-page document (781 KB PDF file)

The 4-page Practitioner Note (352 KB PDF file)

Events

World Water Week in Stockholm - BPD will attend this year's event, hosting a half-day seminar to present and discuss its work on sanitation partnerships, and participating in the GWP "Consulting Partners Meeting".  BPD's seminar on partnerships will be chaired by Darren Saywell of the International Water Association (IWA) with contributions related to on-the-ground experience from South Africa and Madagascar.  A mixed group of participants will be encouraged to participate fully as BPD discusses the three roles it sees partnerships playing for on-site sanitation and some of the challenges faced.  BPD is liaising with WSSCC and WSP, who precede BPD's seminar by looking at related issues, including joint sanitation policy-platforms.  BPD's AGM will be held in the same week (see below).

Partnership Training Course - BPD recently delivered the second Enhancing Professional Practice course for East African practitioners and policymakers in Kampala, Uganda (7-12 May 2006).  Designed with minimal lectures, the course encourages peer-to-peer review of critical issues around the creation and maintenance of partnerships.  As with the original course held in Nairobi a year ago, BPD is indebted to the 30 participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for their enthusiastic engagement in the issues and design of the course.  BPD is grateful to the participants for their very practical contributions to BPD's thinking on a number of issues including in particular the challenging area of partnership evaluation.

BPD Board of Directors Meeting - The next Board meeting shall be held in Stockholm at the Stockholm World Water Week.  The primary issues for discussion shall be around the findings of the BPD Organisational Review and how these can be incorporated into BPD's draft business plan for the next period.

BPD's Annual General Meeting - The BPD Annual General Meeting shall be held in Stockholm at the Stockholm Water Week (Friday, 25 August 2006).  All members and non-members are welcome to attend.  We regret that we do not have funding to cover the costs for members to attend.  Along with the standard review of BPD's finances and activities for last year, BPD shall also provide a general overview on the challenges of working in partnership and more specific work on partnerships that contribute to pro-poor regulation. 

Works in Progress

Partnership Evaluation - BPD has begun a new piece of work funded by the World Bank-Norwegian Trust Fund on partnership evaluation.  Multi-stakeholder partnerships are being widely promoted as mechanisms to improve access to water and sanitation services for the poor.  Whilst we understand more and more about how to structure partnerships, the evaluation of these collaborative ventures has largely been ad hoc and focussed primarily on project outputs.  Solid examination of the outcomes of partnerships (in terms of institutional change, integration of partnership learning within and across organisations, and the development of new attitudes, perceptions and skills) continues to challenge practitioners on the ground.  If senior policymakers are to continue to advocate the use of partnerships to address development challenges, practitioners need to be able to make the case more clearly and systematically of the value of the partnership approaches they are undertaking.  Please keep an eye out for the final document which should be available on the BPD website in October.

Enhancing the role of independent entrepreneurs - In an effort to improve wider understanding of the role that entrepreneurs play in providing water services, BPD, the French Development Agency (AFD) and HydroConseil are completing a two-year action research programme in Ghana, Mali and Mauritania.  Recognising the important role that these entrepreneurs can play in serving poor communities, and given their general absence in public policy, this work focuses on the institutional and regulatory environment that influences their activities, the nature of the service they provide and the constraints they face.  See the BPD website for case studies and upcoming reports.

Seven City Study in Latin America - With WSP/Latin America and the Caribbean, BPD is in the process of completing a field study of different institutional arrangements that provide water and sanitation services to poor people in seven cities in Latin America (including Arequipa and Lima (Peru), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Managua (Nicaragua), Medellín (Colombia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia) and Tegucigalpa (Honduras)).  This work will culminate in the publication of a report and a workshop to be held in September.  Though the findings of the work have been interesting and helpful, the process of extracting the information through carefully designed multi-stakeholder processes are what seemed to have made the exercise potentially invaluable.  See the BPD website in September for case studies and the main report. 

News

Public-Private Partnerships for Water and Sanitation Services: Policy Principles and Implementation Guidelines - BPD is keen to announce our new association with the Policy Principles and Implementation Guidelines for Sustainable Services.  Equally relevant for public utilities or the design of PPPs for water supply and sanitation, these documents have been developed through a multi-stakeholder process lead by a consortium of Swiss organisations.  They provide a wealth of solid guidance and advice on how to ensure smoother relations between stakeholders.  BPD's intention is to further test their application, incorporate the materials into BPD's own training, and use the materials to inform our own research and analysis.  (Available at www.partnershipsforwater.net )

For those not yet familiar with these materials, we encourage you to read through them.  As the original authors intended, BPD also aims for the materials to remain "living documents".  We thus welcome your feedback particularly from those who have actively used them in your own project work.  Those interested in collaborating on the application of the materials are encouraged to contact us.  

BPD External Programme Review - BPD is delighted with the findings of an external organisational review funded by DFID.  The primary findings from a number of interviews, survey responses and a BPD document review were overwhelmingly positive, suggesting that BPD is clearly "doing the right things" and "doing them well", addressing issues of concern to its primary stakeholders.  The main recommendation is that based on its past performance, BPD is a success and should continue.  It is, however, in reality a "three-person organisation with an unequivocal statement of demand that far exceeds its current ability to deliver."  The Review team believe that BPD has come to a crucial junction and careful consideration of the next phase of BPD activity is clearly warranted.  BPD staff have already begun to incorporate the findings into strategic discussions at BPD's Board level.  

New BPD Staff - BPD is very pleased to welcome Urooj Amjad who will take on the new position of Programme Learning Co-ordinator in September.  Urooj has a Masters degree in urban and regional planning and in the final stages of completing a PhD with the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), King's College London in water management focusing on regulation.  Urooj's primary responsibilities will be two-fold: 1) to further test and apply the PSP materials described above, ultimately integrating them into BPD's own body of work, and 2) to support the rest of the team by systematically extracting lessons learned from across the wide range of BPD's activities.  We are very much looking forward to Urooj joining the team. 

BPD is also pleased to announce that we have recently hired a part-time accountant to manage BPD's finances.  Kathy Taylor is a fully trained ACCA accountant and has worked for a variety of organisations in the finance sector and the public sector.  She has extensive knowledge of current accounting and audit practice, including that which specifically relates to UK charities.  The BPD team are delighted she has joined!

WaterAid: Trustees and Honorary Treasurer - WaterAid, the UK-based international NGO focusing exclusively on water, sanitation and hygiene education, is seeking to fill three positions on its Board of Trustees.  Qualified applicants should have a demonstrable track record of achievement, excellent networking ability, and professional skills that can make a difference to the organisation's cause.  An understanding of international development would be useful.  In particular, WaterAid seeks representation from women, disabled people and people with origins in Africa or South Asia.  For further information and to apply, visit www.wateraidtrustees.com  For a confidential discussion, please contact Ann Watts or Grant Taylor, WaterAid's consultants at GatenbySanderson, on +44 (0)20 7426 3960.