“To identify elements of a successful exit strategy for water programmes with resettlement rural populations in Southern Africa.”
The research project considers three case studies in southern Africa of water provision for large rural resettlement populations in drought prone areas. It compares and contrasts the approaches investigating the elements of a successful handover to local government and communities.
This work is intended to enhance programmes working with vulnerable resettlement communities in southern Africa. The risk of an inadequate exit strategy is that any gains in quality of life made during the programme are threatened by failure of the water supply once the external agency has withdrawn. The project result is intended to be a clear analysis of the dangers and opportunities presented to agencies who complete their programmes and withdraw from an area handing over to local communities and local government. The project has attempted to identify strengths and weaknesses of various approaches. In particular it has looked at capacity building of the local communities, resources and local government.
The intention of this output report is that it may be used throughout the world with water projects and programmes that deal with displacement and resettlement as a “lessons learned” document.
“Sustainability is the capacity to maintain service and benefits both at the community and agency levels even after external agencies (i.e. NGOs) “special assistance” (managerial, financial and technical) have been phased out.” (Evaluation of the HESP/VLOM Programme, Concern Universal 1996)
Throughout the world borehole drilling in drought prone areas creates unnatural settlements which have a high dependency on the water supply. This is true particularly of southern Africa where there have been a number of large resettlement programmes. Agencies have been working with displaced (through conflict or environmental factors) populations to restart communities in their home areas or in new areas. These programmes have involved creating new water points or rehabilitating derelict ones. These new water points are sometimes magnets for returnees. The communities become very dependent on the new water supply and are vulnerable to its breakdown. The overall population densities are low and the areas of the programme sometimes vast (e.g. Mozambique World Relief programme 400 by 200 miles). This causes a tremendous challenge for creating sustainable maintenance systems. Handover of maintenance from the NGO to local communities and local government is often difficult and it is at this point that much of the gains of the agency can be undone. Reductions in Malaria, Bilharzias, increases in general child health, increases in food security, even some income generation activities are all dependent on the water supply.
In “development” activities agencies (mainly) install the pump after a participatory approach, they mobilise the people and create village level maintenance structures. This entry strategy is seen as critical to gaining the ownership of the people of the new water point. This mobilisation of the community is complemented by other technical and policy factors. The agencies often use standardised pumps to fit government recommendations, organise the flow of spares and train local government teams.
However. even with this apparent coherency of (developmental) programme approach, end of programme evaluations often question the sustainability of the water system, and point to the vulnerability of the communities to the future. They note that communities vary in their stated ownership and capacity for caring for the pump.
In emergencies or (rapid) rehabilitation, the participatory approaches are sometimes (often) compromised. The urgency of helping populations to have an acceptable water supply causes agencies to take rapid and often centralised decisions. These emergency water points therefore have even less chance of survival because of ownership and support issues resulting from non-participatory entry strategies.
This research considers the difference between water points that were installed with rapid entry and those that have been undertaken in the same region with a more participatory entry. The case studies involve three programmes that started as emergency programmes and have evolved into development programmes. .
The logical framework for the project is given in appendix 1
The basic methodology concerned:-
This included an initial literature review, three project visits including focus group discussions and a workshop of the major players in case studies. In addition, attendance at the WEDC Water Conference was used as an opportunity to hold wider discussions with practitioners.
The project undertook a thematic comparison of three case studies in Southern Africa. This was for the practical objective of identifying common elements of a successful exit strategy for resettlement programmes that have introduced new water supplies particularly those dependent on deep bore systems. The three programmes have each respected government standards and introduced water pumps according to the dictated specifications. They have trained the community in maintenance procedures, organised the communities to lobby local government for spares, created precedence of good maintenance and ensured as far as is possible access to parts etc. However there are some variants in the approach.
The three programmes involved in the research project are:
|
Organisation |
Care |
World Relief |
Concern Universal |
|
Country |
Mozambique |
Mozambique |
Malawi |
|
Province/Area |
Inhambane |
Gaza |
Central and Southern |
|
No of wells |
170 |
163 |
172 |
|
Start date |
1993 |
1993 |
1992 |
|
Average depth |
60m |
63m |
53m |
|
Average dynamic water level |
50m |
46m |
35m |
A map can be found in the Appendices. Due to the nature of the research and the central question, this report does not contain a comparison of the partner agencies. The differences of approach vary between agencies but also within agencies over time and between districts. An agency may have a well motivated team in one location and a less motivated team in another. Similarly they may have applied a particular entry and exit strategy during a two year programme and then modified their strategies for the subsequent years. During the analysis, data was checked for agency differences to eliminate elements that might be agency specific. However, the research group took a decision not to discuss those agency specifics.
The research project visited two partners in Mozambique and one in Malawi in 1999. In each case about 15 village communities were visited. For each community there were both focus groups discussions and individual interviews resulting in a total of 305 useable responses (average of 7 per community). Interviews were kept as open discussions allowing the communities to define the important factors. A more detailed description of the respondents profile and the construct is given in section 4.
The data from the pump user and key informant interviews, and observations were coded and entered into computer software for analysis. Given the nature of the data, non-parametric tests were applied to identify possible relationships, i.e. Mann-Whitney test for differences, and Spearman’s correlations. These relationships were then used to highlight those important links to pump availability and ownership. These relationships were further investigated using the qualitative data gathered during the interviews.