Based on the categories of interest identified by the communities, a number of issues that appeared to have an effect on the sustainability of the pump were identified and the relationship between these explored. These were therefore also seen to be pertinent to both existing and future exit strategies.
The main conceptual categories used in the analysis of the data can be divided into the following presented in the Table 1 below. These in turn can be considered as three types:
These three groupings reflect the more intuitive discussion held with the partners, who effectively came up with the same basic framework (see below).
In order to investigate issues of project design and sustainability, the variables created from the coding of survey data can therefore be regarded as either independent (those issues that affect the outcome of a project) or dependent (indicators of outcomes). The independent variables generally represent the entry and exit strategies, whilst the dependent variables represent community social and water related issues which are affected by water supply interventions and sustainability. Note that several variables can be considered as either. Programme context variables are presented “fait accompli”. For development programmes these are physical items such as depth of pump, but for programmes attempting to exit from an emergency intervention this may include the entry strategy which was undertaken by the former programme management.
Programme Outcomes will be both the physical availability of the pump plus the social mobilisation. Borehole installation programmes include support elements such as community mobilisation, training, spares supply and maintenance network. The extent to which these are addressed varies according to the time and resources available at planning and pre-installation stages, which is heavily dependent on whether or not emergency conditions were prevailing at the time of installation. As these elements are widely regarded as necessary for sustainability, the degree to which programmes are successful in achieving these features may in themselves be regarded as indicators of success and sustainability. In an attempt to investigate the impact of the projects on these social mobilization issues, three categories of dependent variables were identified:-
Programme Design includes all independent variables such as training levels, etc. And for this research the context included both the actual physical context and the historical context (which captured entry strategies of emergency programmes).
Table 1 Conceptual Categories for Analysis
|
Categories |
Description |
|
Programme context |
|
|
Depth Alternative sources of water Pressure |
Contextual variables are considered regarding their impact organisational and pump performance indicators, however, it is recognised that the elements which make up the context category are not open to manipulation via specific exit strategy designs.
The main element considered in this category are the depth of the borehole and pump setting, the presence of alternative sources of water. Recording the time spent collecting water per day captures population pressure on the pump.
|
|
Settlement Emergency installation |
The historic background of the pump is taken into account by recording the instance of settlement due to the pump and whether the borehole was drilled in response to an emergency need.
These two elements are important to the questions addressed by this research. Although it is recognised history cannot be changed the ability to compare differences in the background of the pumps permits an adjustment of exit strategies to take account of the differing histories.
|
|
Programme Design |
|
|
|
Education represents the training provided, its level and length, when the training took place, i.e. at the time of installation or some time later. Also if follow-up has training has taken place. The other issue which is considered within this category is who was trained, the whole committee or specific local mechanics.
|
|
Programme Outcomes |
|
|
Function or performance of the pump |
This was taken to be the primary indicator of sustainability and was viewed as an expression of both frequency of breakage and length of time inoperative when broken. Other factors such as the condition of pumphead care were also considered. (This is taken to be the main dependent variable category).
|
|
A group of measures which capture level of organisation and structured management of the community pump. Issues such as the frequency of meetings, the existence and nature of rules for pump use, the payment of water quotas, the application of sanctions for non-payment of these contributions. Again this category is seen to be an expression or result of other planned or contextual circumstances.
|
|
|
The degree, to which the community and its various social sectors participate in the management structure or have participated in the installation and maintenance of the pump in the past i.e. The instance of prior contribution to the purchase of the pump head is one of the factors taken into account in this instance.
|
|
|
|
Competence is seen to be an outcome of educational input. The category is represented by the communities own perception of the competence of their water committee and /or local mechanics
|
From this construct over 70 variables were identified and coded. The variables are described in detail in the Appendix (chap. 13). The appendix presents the valid percentage of respondents to each variable. Since the process was not based on a formal fixed questionnaire, some variables did not attain a valid sample. However they are found to helpfully inform the discussion.
The results of the Mann Whitney test on the relationship between the independent and dependent variable clusters are summarised in the Appendix (chap. 14).
The issues surrounding the research were discussed individually with each agency as the project progressed. Towards the end of the project the issues surrounding the existing water programmes were jointly discussed in a workshop as a prelude to verifying the details of the data. This section combines all the discussions. The ideas presented are the opinions of individuals within the three partner agencies, and do not represent official agency policy..
At the workshop the partners were asked to brainstorm the most important issues surrounding their programmes. The partners mentioned:-
From this brainstorm list we can organise the main questions of partner agencies as follows:-
All partners agreed that community involvement was important. The community approach encourages involvement and decision making. In principle it should give room for the community to choose affordable options. It should encourage their own monitoring and feedback helping them to come to their own conclusions on how much things cost and helping them decide how much they can afford on maintenance.
Any stakeholder analysis or participatory approach must be gender sensitive noting the different roles for men and women. In both countries the government recommendations are for committees to be 60% women but this is not often followed to the letter and the committees gender mix varies quite considerably.
The structure of the committee is important. Should there be non traditional leadership i.e. the agencies or local government encouraging the formation of a different committee from the local leadership.
All partners noted the trend towards decentralisation, but wished there was a coherent set of guidelines and some communal responsibility (across agencies and government). They also noted the trend towards democratisation, i.e. local ownership with elected leaders to co-ordinate VLOM.
SCF Malawi, who was not a full partner in the research but kindly gave extensive interviews, raised the question of village social power structures. They noted that although one could set up a committee, the initial committee would probably reflect the power structures within the village. If, over time, these social dynamics changed then a committee might cease to function and the training or capacity building would have been wasted. SCF have considered mapping the social dynamics of a community as a first step in the development process.
On the question of finance the partners questioned the availability of money for communities – do they have money, what is the poverty level of that community? It was felt that communities varied in their ability to find cash. It was noted that the rural per capita for Mozambique is only $50. The partners have experience of credit programmes and noted that credit doesn’t work well in the rural areas. To raise 2 to 3000 per month is enough for an Afridev but not a Volanta handpump. Most rural communities don’t have money but do have capital (goats, chickens, etc). In some cases interviewees reported that money was raised by working for someone in the village who needed labour and was rich enough to pay for it.
The question of “How do they raise the finance?” provoked considerable discussion. What were the prioritisations within a village, how was the collection divided between men and women? Examples from the interviews suggested that families paid on the basis of how many women were in the household (since a household may have more than one wife per male).
The agencies experience and the interviews showed that another critical issue for the village was the timing of collections. Should money be collected in advance of breakdowns and stored in some form, in order to give a rapid response to the breakdown? Or should the money be collected when the repairs are required? In practice most villages collect the money after the breakdown in order to repair it. This can be difficult if the breakdown is during a season when resources are low. On the other hand there was a case of one village that had 3,000,000 Mt collected and stored under the bed of the treasurer. All the agencies have tried to encourage the communities to store the collected finance in the form of pump spares (inflation proofed) which are then readily available to attend the breakdown. The difficulty of this is that some spares may be stored for too long (perishing of rubber) and may be the wrong spares for the breakdown (perhaps the problem might be a broken handle when the spares stored are the O-rings).
Should the communities be trained only in simple handpump maintenance, or in maintenance and repairs? The government is unable to respond quickly and on time. Private mechanics have a key role. Some agencies have created mechanics for the locality. In some cases the government through UNDP undertook rehabilitation of boreholes, and trained communities in preventative maintenance, simple repairs and complex repairs in a three phase training. A complementary approach proposed is to train the local shops so that the spare parts are sold correctly.
Regarding training and forming the committees, it was noted that elected members are there to serve the community but what is their motivation and how can we give them the incentive to continue working for many years?
In addition to the difficulties outlined above, there is the added question of availability and accessibility of spare parts. They are often not within easy reach of the communities. Agencies are currently addressing this problem through private entrepreneurs. However this strategy has a number of difficulties:-
The partners were agreed that one of the major constraints to a private supply of spares which reaches down to the villages through local retailers is the constraint of profit margin. The private sector needs a minimum turnover to make a it worthwhile handling the stock. It is a credit to the pump design that they do not breakdown very frequently – but that in turn means that there is very low turnover of spares for retailers. They then need to add a substantial handling charge if they are to make a worthwhile profit.
In the interviews with agencies and communities there was very limited discussion about what breaks on a handpump. There was some consensus that rods remain a slight problem, it is easy to either crack them that leads to a break, or drop them during the process of maintenance or repair. Once dropped it is a particular skill to fish them out again. The stress on the rods seems very much related to the depth of borehole. However, although this is an example of some necessity for extra repair skills, the partner agencies all agree that the Afridev is a very appropriate pump and can be maintained at village level.
There were a number of questions arising about the resources of agencies to create a sustainable supply. How much time is required to engage and then exit from a community? Partners questioned whether this was actually possible in a 2 year programme. Although each agency has been engaged with water programmes for over 7 years, every step has been on a maximum 3 year programme. Examples have been given of donor pressure on the agencies. Donors were quoted as saying, “other agencies ran a 6 month programmes where the supplies were considered sustainable at the end. If agency X did it in 6 months why cant you?”
The agencies also feel that they are often constrained in their other resources too. Another quote from a donor was “If agency Y undertook a similar programme with 1 car, why do you need 3 vehicles?”
At the workshop, a Malawian government representative discussed the lack of resources available to local authorities responsible for the water supplies. Most water agents are responsible for about 100 villages. It is not practical to do a preventative maintenance circuit with the resources available. There is a history in Malawi of a very hierarchical tiered maintenance system, and the partners acknowledged that in some cases it takes time for people to adjust their understanding of participation and community involvement.
The partner agencies proposed the following framework for gathering data. Three main states can be considered to the supply.
1) = prior condition (context)
2) = input given by the agency
3) = output or end state
The partners then went on to brainstorm the essential elements of Sustainable Water Supply from their own experience.
|
Lack of water |
1 |
Without a suitable demand for water, a supply is unlikely to be sustainable. |
|
Clear policy, political commitment |
1 |
This was seen as a pre-requisite to a sustainable supply. |
|
Role of key individuals |
1/3 |
Key individuals such as the chief might be considered a starting condition which cannot be changed by the programme, or as a desirable end condition. |
|
Prior contribution |
2 |
This is part of the entry process to a community |
|
Training |
2 |
Part of an ongoing process. Training needs to be defined more clearly – see other text |
|
Follow up (post pump visits) |
2 |
Part of the process of exiting |
|
Information (education, dissemination) |
2 |
The processes should include hygiene education and result in an increased desire for clean water. |
|
?Selection of affordable technology? |
2 |
This was presented as part of the process. It relates to the question as to whether the Volanta is an affordable technology. |
|
Community involvement and participation |
2/3 |
Considered here an end state rather than process, because it is desirable for a sustainable supply |
|
Gender, changing committees |
3 |
The ability of a committee to change members and to retain some gender balance is an essential element for a sustainable supply |
|
Spares (Availability/ Access) |
3 |
There must be some way for the communities to access spares. |
|
Ability of someone to repair pump |
3 |
There needed to be someone capable of repairing the pump who was available at short notice and who could be paid (either in kind or by cash) |
|
Ongoing contributions |
3 |
VLOM must be paid for – there needs to be a mechanism in place for financial contribution |
|
Savings of contributions |
3 |
This was a debateable point since finance could be collected at the time of the breakage – hence this is a desirable end condition rather than an essential |
We should note that the in the above the inputs (1) cannot be change by a single agency. The processes (2) are part of the entry and exit strategy, while the outputs (3) were those elements partners felt needed to be in place if the water supply was going to be sustainable. This framework was used as part of the conceptual construct and is explained more fully in section 4.
The opportunity of the 1999 WEDC Conference in Addis Ababa was used to circulated a questionnaire amongst delegates at the 1999 whose programmes were concerned with handpumps. An analysis of responses is given in the Appendix (chap. 12)
The responses confirmed that training is considered as the single most important issue in determining programme sustainability, and that there are many aspects of training that need to be thought about (e.g. who, what, when). They also highlighted the importance of technical issues, mentioning the need for VLOM technologies, and reliable mechanisms for supplying spares. Community participation at a number of levels was widely viewed as a key issue; the major aspects were participation at or before installation, participation in management and maintenance, and community ownership of boreholes.
Although most programmes had been handed over to community organisations, a recurring issue was that of ongoing relationships with external agents – local government or implementing agency. One aspect concerned ongoing monitoring and evaluation of both community structures and local government, and the other was the need for local government to support communities.
Other points raised included entry strategy issues of participation and prior contribution, either financial or in kind, links to other programmes e.g. health and hygiene, and inability of people to pay. Interestingly, corruption did not appear to be regarded as a major barrier to sustainability, ranking alongside other motivation issues such as migration of trained personnel.
Regarding the issue of whether emergency conditions during installation are likely to have a detrimental affect on the future management of boreholes, most respondents felt this need not be the case, although most gave conditions for achieving this e.g. training, cohesive community.
This exercise confirmed that experts involved with implementation in the field regard the following as the key issues for sustainability:
The combination of the open enquiry process plus verification by the practitioners and the review of the literature, has showed that the following general areas are regarded as important or of interest:
The DFID guidance manual specifically states that it does not address emergency projects. However the issues above are addressed in the context of best practice for development projects.
These broad categories were then used as the framework for questioning in the interviews, and each is represented in the variables coded from the survey data.
Issues regarded as important by the partner agencies were raised throughout the project, and the data gathered was jointly discussed at a workshop towards the end of the project. This raised some specific and practical questions that partners have to address. Again, points raised fell into the principal categories listed above - community involvement, cost recovery, training, and technology.
Feedback from delegates to the WEDC conference revealed categories of concern that were remarkably similar to those from the literature review. This confirmed that the framework used for data collection did indeed cover all of the appropriate subject areas.
A general observation is that issues raised by project partners and delegates to the conference tend to reflect either broad opinions, or specific problems. They are unlikely to mention issues that have a positive influence on their work, as most of their attention at work is dedicated to dealing with issues that cause problems. Most items raised in the literature are specific points of fact or interpretation that help explain a more general assertion. Table 2 summarises relevant issues raised in the literature, and indicates where this has been mentioned by practitioners (either as a concern or an opinion).
Table 2 Summary of Issues raised by Literature and Partners as important to exit strategies
|
|
|
Issue raised by practitioners |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Participation |
|
|
|
|
Design recommendations |
Community participation at or before installation |
Despite the time taken, effort should be made to maximise the room for manoeuvre that community members have in relation to aspects of service design. |
x |
|
|
Promotes ownership |
Community participation is important to developing a sense of responsibility for, and control over, the local care of systems |
x |
|
Women have a beneficial influence on decision making |
x |
||
|
Design Constraints |
Ability and training |
People should only be allowed to participate in decision making where they have appropriate information and skill |
|
|
|
Conflict in community |
Participatory systems will not be appropriate where conflicts of interest as so severe that they cannot be resolved through agreement |
|
|
|
Sustainability of participation |
Although a project can be implemented with a high degree of community participation, if the issue of how participation is to be sustained thereafter is not addressed it will not continue. |
x |
|
|
Genuine contribution by women |
Initiatives taken can be based on the interests of men, who ventriloquise their plans through women, especially in areas which have traditionally been the responsibility of men. |
|
|
|
Cultural standing of women |
In some villages, women were reluctant to take part in meetings in the presence of men. |
|
|
|
Heavy workloads of women |
Women’s involvement is hindered by their work load, leaving little time to attend to additional duties. |
|
|
Outcomes |
Access to local knowledge and skills |
The benefits of community participation include local knowledge of water supplies, understanding of socio-cultural structure and improved communication. |
|
|
|
Capacity building |
Participatory approaches empower people to take responsibility for their own services. The empowerment of women can often be more important to overall development objectives than contributions they may make to the work of water committees. |
x |
|
|
Participation in maintenance |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Organisation |
|
|
|
|
Design recommendations |
Role of external agencies |
It can be attractive to use existing structures e.g. local government. Public and private partnerships can make optimum use of all stakeholders. |
|
|
|
On-going support |
On-going consultative processes are important in instilling ownership and maintaining shared responsibilities. |
x |
|
|
External support (government) |
Community management and motivation initiatives require a low level but ongoing input from external agents and assume that a water agency has not actually exited from the area. |
x |
|
|
Payment of members |
Create paid jobs wherever possible and reduce reliance on volunteer labour. This is critical to ensure that members are motivated, and women’s non-economic status is improved if they earn income. |
|
|
|
Complementary activities |
Benefits associated with improved water supplies will only be realised if programmes are complimentary to health, sanitation and hygiene programmes. |
x |
|
Design Constraints |
Ability to pay - level of education and family size will influence WTP; ability to pay varies between communities. |
x |
|
|
|
Motivation of members |
Once the motivation of a capable member has been eroded, it commonly gives way to corruption and abuse of position. |
x |
|
|
Local power structures |
Mechanisms for appointing water committees are often irrelevant, as chiefs and powerful leaders manipulate procedures behind the scenes. |
|
|
|
Fragmented communities |
Where the social structures that make up a society have been destroyed, leadership types of institutions are unlikely to be sustainable. |
|
|
|
Method of election (women) |
Where women are appointed by powerful people, they will feel obliged to agree with these people. Male committee members may simply refuse to include token female members imposed by NGOs. |
x |
|
Cost recovery does not automatically lead to project ownership and sustainability. WTP is low where people believe government should provide free water. |
|
||
|
Problems of non-payment and affordability require effective community management. |
x |
||
|
[specific issue raised by partners] |
x |
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
Design recommendations |
Committees will only be effective when given training in technical, organisational and financial skills. Appropriate training is the key to solving concerns of participation, management and gender. |
x |
|
|
|
Contributes to motivation |
Ongoing training provides a number of benefits as it can help to motivate community organisations, to refresh skills, and to counter migration of skilled personnel |
|
|
Design Constraints |
Gender issues |
Women tend to be offered training in “soft” skills such as health, hygiene and administration, whilst men receive training in practical skills such as masonry and mechanical maintenance; this can exaggerate differences in status. |
|
|
[specific issue raised by partners] maintenance and/or repairs |
x |
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
Design Constraints |
Capacity of link organisation |
Government departments generally have a technical focus and are not equipped to deal with socio-economic aspects of development programmes |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
Design recommendations |
Technology must be appropriate |
Technology should be simple to maintain and repair. Familiar technology can contribute to success and unfamiliar technology to failure. |
x |
|
Availability of spares is critical in achieving low downtimes. Existing government structures may be able to supply spares. |
x |
||
|
Design Constraints |
WTP is higher where no alternative supply exists. Without adequate demand, a water supply is unlikely to be sustainable. |
x |
|
|
A difficulty for the private supply of spares seems to be the combination of low turnover and small profit margins. |
x |
||
|
|
|
There were a few issues which were raised in all four sources: