Mid-term review of a partnership project in Singida, Tanzania

Project description

Established mid-2002, Singida Peri-Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project is a partnership that aims to provide water and sanitation services (WATSAN) to the peri-urban areas of Singida Town and build local capacity for the delivery and maintenance of WATSAN services.   Local government reform will soon mean that Singida Town Council (STC) becomes responsible for delivery of local services: DFID and now WaterAid are helping to install some 189 water points in 19 peri-urban villages.  At the partnerships core lies SAMME, a cross-functional management team, including two staff seconded from WaterAid, based within the Town Council.  Local NGOs HAPA, SEMA and CBRC are responsible for the delivery of the software (community engagement processes) and hardware (infrastructure installation) elements of the project.  The duration of the partnership is initially three years.

Context

DFID's Urban Authority Partnership Project (UAPP) has been helping STC prepare for local government reforms this support has included work to empower local communities and survey their needs.  A strong demand for water services has been revealed, especially in the 19 villages.  Currently SUWASA a recently formed autonomous public urban watsan provider, whose objectives include a need to become financially self-sufficient reaches less than 50% of the urban core of Singida Town.  The 19 peri-urban villages, traditionally lacking state-sponsored service, have drawn their water supply from wells and share many characteristics of rural areas.  The project has thus borrowed elements from the new Rural Water Supply Strategy (RWSS) a strategy developed with assistance from the World Bank that encourages local government to work with non-governmental and private sector organisations to deliver services.

Project Beneficiaries

Communities in the 19 peri-urban villages.  As elsewhere in Tanzania communities are very poor, have low levels of education and, in line with Tanzanias socialist past, look to the state to solve their problems.

Objectives and Structures of Partnership

The stated aim of the partnership is to improve the health status and reduce poverty of the peri-urban population through improved access to adequate and safe water.  Four key objectives are: to provide WATSAN infrastructure; to integrate water, sanitation and hygiene approaches; to build and accelerate community capacity and demand; and to develop local organisational capability. 

The structure of the partnership borrows elements of the RWSS as well as building on WaterAid Tanzanias existing approaches, including the WAMMA structure used in other districts (a cross-departmental approach to providing demand responsive watsan services in rural Tanzania).  A Memorandum of Understanding guides relationships between partners, complemented by sub-contracts to deliver on specific workplans.  This approach, together with joint planning, has helped foster a good degree of partnership identity.

Roles and Responsibilities

DFID, through UAPP, finance much of the capital investment, whilst their work on understanding community needs underpins much of the partnership.  WaterAid have brokered the partnership from the outset and provide two staff to SAMME.  SAMME is the project coordination unit formed by WaterAid within STC.  HAPA is responsible for community liaison, SEMA for the installation of WATSAN services, and CBRC for the formation of the local Water User Groups (or WUGs, also considered partners over the longer term).  WUGs are responsible for day-to-day operations and maintenance of the infrastructure and contribute financially to its installation.  Private sector organisations have been contracted to deliver other services (such as drilling).  Many of the partners are local, as from the outset WaterAid was keen to build on existing assets and build local capacity.  At an initial stakeholder workshop prospective partners suggested their possible roles, which were then incorporated accordingly.

Community and Liaison

Community involvement has been a key element from the beginning, with the project evolving from community needs identified by UAPP.  DFID and WaterAid are both keen to scale up successful demand responsive approaches to community engagement in order to meet Millennium Development Goals.  The establishment of the WUGs and a WUG association by CBRC will help to further formalise this engagement and give voice to these communities.

Communications and Feedback

The operations manual and MOU detail mechanisms for discussion, grievance procedures and decision making  and the partners meet regularly.  Two challenges exist. The first is to guarantee that feedback into the partner organisations achieve senior level buy-in, and the second is to ensure that critical information, in particular concerning the pace and progress of hardware and software delivery, is communicated in a timely and constructive manner. 

Evolution and Institutionalisation

SAMME, composed of extension staff in order to emphasise delivery, has started to report monthly to STC Heads of Department, helping it gain support within STC.  Further evolution is keenly awaited, for instance capacity development within STC and the partners so that WaterAid can withdraw. 

SAMME, as a vehicle created for the project, may not need to continue, however many of its roles and much of its co-ordination will need to outlive the current partnership. 

Results

At the halfway stage, the project was largely on track, having served roughly two thirds of the villages (which were clustered according to need with the worst off dealt with first).  Infrastructure was by and large being installed as expected, despite some challenges related to the integration of software and hardware and savings levels within communities.

The capacity building elements of the partnership were also making headway, though progress and indicators for these aspects are less clear.  Capacity building within SAMME has also been set back by the untimely death of the training officer, who took several months to replace. 

Strengths

i) Complementarity of partners with an emphasis on building on and reinforcing local capacity; ii) well defined on-paper roles with room for partner innovation and flexibility, especially when challenged by low capacity levels; iii) a high level of community inclusiveness from the start and good understanding of community needs; iv) visible delivery against project objectives and quick wins; v) well defined medium-term goals to build capacity and localise roles; vi) good partnership identity and inter-partner relationships.

Next Steps and Replicability

In order for this project to be sustainable in the long-term, DFID and WaterAid need to carefully hand over their roles and responsibilities to local actors.  The project will likely need some external technical and financial subsidy in the long-term, perhaps incorporated in STCs budgeting.  Dialogue with SUWASA may help ensure better alignment with public policy. 

Replicability is a further issue: the acknowledgment of the new RWSS when designing the project could help influence this nascent framework.  The project has however benefited from intensive support from DFID (in identifying and supporting community needs) and WaterAid (dedicated staffing) this strong base may not be available elsewhere. 

Tensions between the legislative status of peri-urban communities and practice on the ground (with urban WASAs ill-equipped to meet their needs) may impair replication in other peri-urban settings.

Wider Lessons

i) an inclusive building on local assets approach must remain open and transparent if it is not to clash with national procurement guidelines; ii) the ability to build on assets may be constrained by a lack of local capacity - it being hard to delegate where local NGOs or the private sector are very weak;  iii) strict application of national minimum service levels may undermine demand responsive approaches once high levels of coverage are being reached; iv) communities must be able to hold service providers accountable and community-focussed partnerships thus need to put robust accountability mechanisms in place; v) special structures within local government to co-ordinate and manage delivery may provide short-term gains, but in the longer term functions must be mainstreamed within existing structures; vi) all partners need to plan for the evolution of partnership, with external partners having clear exit strategies; and vii) once sustainability replaces delivery as the key issue, partnerships may need to change or dissolve. 

Synopsis content update: 20 May 2004