Programming and Planning Frameworks Africa

Sanitation and hygiene planning and programming frameworks in southern Africa can be categorised at regional or national level as well as grass root level for implementation with local communities. There are policies developed by national and local governments that determine the success or failure of sanitation, water supply and hygiene interventions when incorporated into community development programmes. This section will look at the different regional agreements and policies that have shaped the planning and programming frameworks of countries in southern Africa. It also looks at common instruments, tools and methods used by local governments and development partners in instilling behaviour change in communities towards better sanitation coverage and use, improved sources of drinking water and improved hygiene practices.

An even more exhaustive collection of issues related to frameworks and approaches to sanitation, water and hygiene can be found under frameworks and approaches.

Regional and National Level Planning Frameworks

This section provides an overview of the governance frameworks within Sub-Saharan Africa pertaining to water and sanitation. It is widely acknowledged that the challenges within the water and sanitation sector in Africa are largely due to poor governance. Governance is defined, in its broadest terms, as identification of key role players and assignation of authority, responsibility and accountability with respect to water and sanitation. Governance frameworks identify the institutional and regulatory frameworks that have been put into place at international, regional, national and sub-national level to provide a consensus upon the direction and performance within water and sanitation (see also the Millennium Development Goals, water sanitation and development, and the right to water and sanitation). A key goal of these frameworks within the water and sanitation sector is to improve accountability (see also water corruption) and co-ordination.

1. Millennium Development Goals (the United)

In September 2000, the Millennium Declaration was ratified by 189 heads of states at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York. Related to water and sanitation, it calls for governments to “halve by 2015 the proportion of people without access to sustainable safe drinking water and sanitation”. The majority of countries within Sub-Saharan Africa are tracking their progress towards the overall attainment of the targets, many referencing to the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) within their individual national policies and legal framework (see for example policies and legal framework Zambia). The water and sanitation MDGs are particularly relevant within Sub-Saharan Africa, where access to safe sanitation is a basic service that is still lacking for many communities.

2. Declarations by Southern African Development Community (environmental development) Heads of State

There have been a number of high-level declarations made by the African Union Heads of State, reaffirming their commitment to the importance of water and sanitation for social, economic and environmental development within Africa. Key declarations are described below:

• Pan-African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water (2003): This conference was initiated following the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) eleventh session with the objective of consolidating inputs from within the water and sanitation sector. Some key ministerial statements emerged from the conference: “To significantly improve provision of water supply and sanitation facilities in un-served settlements. To increase information and communication for WSS and hygiene withincommunities. To translate international commitments into national policies. To utilise Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)” (UN-WATER/AFRICA 2004).
• Sharm El Sheikh Commitments for Accelerating Achievement of Water and Sanitation Goals (2008): The Heads of State and Government of the African Union recognised the importance of water and sanitation for development and acknowledged the need to accelerate progress in order to achieve the water and sanitation MDGs. Chief commitments were to increase efforts to implement past declarations related to water and sanitation and to raise the profile of sanitation by addressing the gaps in the context of the 2008 eThekwini Ministerial Declaration on sanitation in Africa adopted by African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW 2008).

3. African Water Vision 2025 (2000)

The African Water Vision 2025 (UN-WATER/AFRICA 2000) originated as part of the World Water Vision for 2025 developed by the World Water Council in 1997. It is considered to be the key framework aiming at addressing the existing water and sanitation backlog within Africa. The vision calls for partnership and cooperation at a regional level, whilst at the national level it requires changes in policies, strategies and legislation. In addition, it calls for changes within institutional arrangements and management practice.

4. Ministerial Declarations by SADC Countries

Several ministerial declarations have been issued in order to build upon the commitments made by the Heads of State. These are briefly highlighted below:

• The eThekwini Declaration and AfricaSan+5 Plan (2008): The first African Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene was held in 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa and was instrumental in formulating the sanitation MDGs. Following the success of the first conference, the second African Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene - AfricaSan+5 - was held in Durban. Ministers from 32 countries joined together to endorse the eThekwini Declaration (AMCOW 2008) towards the consolidation of an action plan identifying critical actions and challenges that should be further developed, funded, and monitored in order to put Africa ‘back on track’ to meet the sanitation MDGs. The ministers agreed to review, update and adopt national sanitation and hygiene policies within twelve months. Establishing a national plan for accelerating progress to meet national sanitation goals and the MDGs by 2015 and taking the necessary steps to ensure national sanitation programmes are on track to meet these goals.
• The Declaration on Climate Change in Africa and Development (2008): In Addis Ababa, at the 11th Ministerial Meeting of the African and European Union Troikas, and as part of the declaration on climate change, it was noted that the immediate priority for Africa is development. This needs to be supported by economic growth, poverty alleviation, and measures to achieve MDGs such as access to improved sanitation (UE/AFRICAN UNION 2008).
• African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Water and Sanitation (2009): The African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Water and Sanitation is colloquially known as the Johannesburg Ministerial Statement (AMCOW 2009). It emerged from the African Ministers of Water and Heads of State delegation that assembled in Johannesburg (South Africa) in November 2009 during the second African Water Week and the second Pan African Implementation and Partnership Conference. Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate the translation into action at the Africa Water Vision 2025, the Sharm el Sheikh Declaration, and the eThekwini Declaration on Sanitation.
• AfricaSan 3 Ministerial Statement (2011): The third African Sanitation and Hygiene Conference was held in Kigali, Rwanda from 19-21 July 2011. The conference built upon the momentum that was generated through the preceding sessions. At the close of the conference, ministers committed themselves to reaffirm their support and commitment to achieve the eThekwini declaration commitments and accelerate progress to meet the urgent water and sanitation needs in the region. Further, to support actions ‘in our own backyard’, focus is laid on the resources available locally and support is given to disseminate best practice and experiences (AMCOW 2011).

5. SADC Regional Water Supply and Sanitation Program (RWSSP)

Whilst each SADC member state has its own specific national sanitation frameworks and policies (see also policies and legal framework Zambia), there are a number of global frameworks to which they adhere. The SADC Regional Water Supply and Sanitation Program is based on the following components: Financing and funding options for water supply and sanitation services to achieve the MDG or national targets; strengthen human capacity of water supply institutions to plan, implement and manage services; implement a water and sanitation development support plan to meet the MDGs; develop and implement a monitoring and reporting system; enhance knowledge management, advocacy and information sharing.

Community Level Planning Frameworks

Typical government frameworks and policies are implemented at community level using different techniques (see also invalid link and invalid link). The following are the most documented and popular in the southern Africa region:

Community Action Planning

Community action planning (CAP) grew out of communicative planning practices developed since the 1970s. It is part of an emerging group of “community planning” or “community design” approaches, which make it easier for people to participate in the creation and management of their built environment. The underlying philosophy of CAP is interdisciplinary, collaborative, and community-based. The assumption is that better environments can be created if local communities take the driving seat and work closely and directly with a range of specialists.

Participatory Rural Appraisal

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) includes the same tools as community action planning but goes beyond them by being participatory and empowering rather than extractive. In PRA, the behaviour and attitudes of facilitators are fundamental and more important than the chosen methods. PRA facilitation seeks to be inclusive, with care to involve those who are marginalised: often women, children, and those of low status groups and minorities. Often, group activities are used to facilitate information sharing, analysis, and action among stakeholders. Although originally developed for the implementation in rural areas, the PRA approach has been successfully employed in domains such as natural resources, agriculture, health, poverty, sanitation, as well as urban and organisational settings. In a community, PRA activities can have many combinations and sequences of methods, new ones being constantly developed. Some of the most commonly used are:

• Social and resource mapping and modelling
• Matrix scoring
• Wellbeing (‘wealth’) ranking
• Seasonal, historical and trend and change diagramming.
• Causal linkage diagramming
• Sorting and/or ranking cards or symbols

Regional and National Level Programming Frameworks

An enabling environment created by national and local governments in the water supply, sanitation and hygiene management sector is a key factor in determining which programming approach is most appropriate and how it is implemented. It includes policies and legal frameworks, institutional frameworks, as well as financial, economic, educational, technical and social conditions, within which a hygiene or sanitation programme operates. It is also important to recognise that an environment may have both positive (enabling) and negative (constraining) characteristics.

To develop an enabling environment (see also creating an enabling environment), the following issues need to be considered:

• Level of government support (see also government contributions) for the project in terms of political support
• Favourable national policies and strategies
• Legal framework, with appropriate invalid link and codes at national and municipal levels (see also policies and legal framework)

Community Level Programming Frameworks

In the context of this fact sheet, hygiene and sanitation “programming frameworks” are limited to social interventions and/or interactions, that: empower individuals, schools and/or communities with knowledge through education and/or training (see also invalid link, invalid link, invalid link as well as invalid link), enable a change in behaviour through advocacy, create demand for services, facilitate establishment of supply chains, or improve the planning and implementation of hygiene and sanitation projects (see also demand creation tools). Programming is highly culturally and socially sensitive, human behaviour and interaction is built on what local people know, do and want.

It consists of five basic strategies that can be applied alone or in combination depending on the nature of the programme. The primary target audiences are rural communities, community health workers, school children (see also empowering young people as promoters), the general public in urban areas in response to sanitation or hygiene crises and caretakers of vulnerable groups such as people living with HIV/AIDS, young children, the elderly and widows.

Communication

A comprehensive communication strategy raises awareness (see also awareness raising) about sanitation and hygiene facilities and practices, shares information, and promotes behaviour change by highlighting benefits to the target audience. In southern Africa, a variety of communication channels are used, such as traditional media, music, song and dance, community drama, literacy materials, leaflets, posters and flyers, pamphlets, videos, and home visits, participatory sanitation or hygiene mapping as well as pocket voting. Typical venues for hygiene promotion are community gatherings, health centres, schools (see also invalid link), day-care and nutrition centres, and the household. In some settings, training health workers, teachers, and community agents in hygiene promotion skills may also be an important strategy. This has revolutionised the role of community health clubs, village health workers and school health clubs in southern Africa in transforming community attitudes to sanitation and hygiene management practices.

Social Mobilisation

Social mobilisation(see also demand creation tools) is a process to obtain and maintain the involvement of various groups and sectors of the community in the control of disease. For example, a community group might design and implement a campaign to increase the use of soap for hand washing or to promote the proper use and maintenance of sanitation facilities (see also operation and maintenance). This includes such tactics as participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation (PHAST).

Social Marketing

Social marketing makes use of marketing principles and strategies to achieve social goals such as better hygiene and sanitation. A social marketing approach may involve a partnership between the public sector and manufacturers of soap or water purification products (see also invalid link and invalid link) to both expand the product market and promote improved hygiene. Social marketing can create a demand for sanitation facilities and services from the agencies that are supposed to provide them. At the moment, two methods are popular in southern Africa. One is infrastructure based, consisting of an upgradeable ventilated improved pit latrine with a super structure built out of any locally available material and upgradeable to the recommended brick and cement when the owner has saved enough money. The other method is community led total sanitation (CLTS), whereby communities are made aware as to why they need toilets and to practice good hygiene. They are convinced to acquire them as a matter of dignity (see also water sanitation and dignity), health and hygiene (see also water sanitation and health) as a personal investment.

Community Participation

Community participation (see also decision making tools) is an essential component of the hygiene promotion process, typically involving activities such as collective examination of barriers to practising hygiene in the community, designing measures to use sanitation facilities and to improve practices, or community-based monitoring of progress in achieving behavioural change. Participation means that community members from all socio-economic, ethnic, and religious groups have a voice, including women, men and children. This is often accomplished through community action planning (CAP), participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and community aided total sanitation (CATS).

Advocacy

Advocacies an integral part of all aspects of hygiene promotion. Donors, programme managers and community representatives can advocate for improved hygiene behaviours and for interventions that support these behaviours to governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. Schools and school children are good entry points for hygiene improvement through additions to the curriculum and providing safe drinking water, sanitation and hand washing facilities for boys and girls (see also invalid link and invalid link and invalid link). A UNICEF project in Mozambique demonstrated, that primary school children could play a dynamic role in promoting hygiene. Public health and hygiene education (PHHE) through village health workers (VHWs) and community health clubs (CHCs), can improve water sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) in schools (see also school campaigns).