Meeting the Water and Sanitation Millennium Development

Goals: Tanzania, Mozambique and Burkina Faso

Capacity Building of Local/National NGOs/CBOs in Africa (Cap-WASH)

Meeting the water and sanitation MDGs A Synthesis report on human resource capacity in NGOs and CBOs in three countries

Tanzania, Mozambique and Burkina Faso

Funding for this publication was provided by the people of the United States of America through the U.S. Agency for

International Development (USAID), as a component of the Capacity Building of Local/National NGOs/CBOs in

Africa (Cap-WASH). The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the

United States Agency for International Development of the United States Government or Florida International

University.

Copyright © Global Water for Sustainability Program – Florida International University

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For bibliographic purposes, this document should be cited as: Meeting the water and sanitation MDGs: A synthesis report on human resource capacity in NGOs and CBOs in

three countries, Tanzania, Mozambique and Burkina Faso. Global Water for Sustainability Program, Florida

International University.

ISBN:

Front cover: Laying a concrete plinth for a borewell in Tanzania; women carrying washing to a river in

Mozambique; dug well in Burkina Faso. Rear cover: Importance of aquatic ecosystems in maintaining water quality - environmental education in Burkina

Faso

Table of contents

Introduction ................................................................................. 1

Methodology ............................................................................... 1

Disciplines to map human resources capacity ......................... 2

Work types ...............................................................................2

Assumptions and research scope ............................................ 2

Countries ..................................................................................... 3

The wash sector: role of NGOs and CBOs ................................ 3

Areas of work .......................................................................... 4

Assessment of existing human resources capacity.................. 4

Availability of qualified human resources ............................... 5

Human resource shortages ......................................................... 7

Tanzania .................................................................................. 7

Mozambique ........................................................................... 7

Burkina Faso ............................................................................ 8

NGO and CBO human resources shortages ............................ 8

Key constraints for human resource development ..................... 9

Financial constraints ............................................................... 9

Institutional constraints .......................................................... 9

Organisational constraints ....................................................10

Conclusions ................................................................................10

Recommendations .....................................................................11

Short term .............................................................................11

Medium term ........................................................................11

Long term ..............................................................................12

Introduction

The purpose of the national capacity assessments is to

provide recommendations for use by senior decision

makers, related to human resources (HR) requirements

in the drinking water, sanitation and hygiene promotion

sectors. The assessments focused on water supply and

sanitation with the hygiene promotion component im-

plied through the review of human resources issues in

the social development components.

The studies focused on identifying shortages (numbers)

and gaps (skills and competencies) necessary to attain

a) the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and b)

full service coverage by 2015 using a standardised

methodological framework to collect the data.

This document focuses on the capacity within NGOs

and CBOs in Mozambique, Tanzania and Burkina Faso,

superimposed against the public and private sectors

that impact directly on the human resources capacity in

rural areas, where NGOs/CBOs mainly operate. The pri-

mary goal of the Capacity Building of Local/National

WASH NGOs/CBOs in Africa (Cap-WASH) programme

was to support capacity building and knowledge man-

agement for African local/national WASH NGOs/CBOs.

This report had the aim to support the identification of

niche areas identified by USAID.

Methodology

The methodological framework defines the following

steps to assess the human resource requirements in the

sector, in terms of numbers (shortages) and skills and

competencies (gaps).

In order to achieve the main objective, Figure 1 shows the following activities:

Estimate the 2015 population to incorporate growth.

Determine the current water and sanitation cover-age and calculate the increase needed to achieve a) MDGs and b) full service coverage.

Estimate a proxy of human resources demand per type of service delivery for 10,000 people.

Determine the existing human resources capacity in the country in terms of numbers and skill set.

Assess the human resources supply in the years up to 2015 in terms of graduates as well as vocational training.

Calculate the human resources shortages and as-sess the human resources gaps.

Provide recommendations for the way in which training institutions can address the shortages and gaps, as well as provide recommendations for alter-native ways to meet the shortages and gaps.

Figure 1: Methodological framework to assess human resource shortages and gaps

1

Disciplines to map human re-sources capacity

The study used the following disciplines to map human resources capacity in the water supply and sanitation sectors:

Technical specialisation specific to water and sani-tation services: a person who is professionally en-gaged in a technical field specifically related to the provision of water and sanitation facilities or infra-structure (for instance civil/environmental engi-neers).

Technical specialisation, not specific to the provi-sion of water and sanitation services: a person who is professionally engaged in another technical field that is required in the planning, design or op-eration of water and sanitation facilities or infra-structure (such as hydro-geologists, mechanical/electrical engineers), but is not water and sanita-tion sector specific.

Management and finance: a person who is profes-sionally engaged in management (for instance fi-nance, human resources or strategic managers and office managers fulfilling administrative functions)

as well as persons who procure goods and services or cost planners.

Social development: a person who is professionally engaged in hygiene promotion or other relevant water, sanitation and health professions in the so-cial sciences (for instance health promotion special-ist, sociologist, community development worker).

Work types

The study also investigated the capacity of these four disciplines, whilst distinguishing the human resource requirements for three different types of work noted below. Whilst this study reflects data from the water supply and sanitation sectors, the research considered hygiene practices as defined by the WASH sector.

1. Design and construction

2. Operation and maintenance

3. Community mobilisation/sanitation and hygiene promotion.

Assumptions and research scope

The methodological framework was developed and tested over a two-year period, and hinged on a number of assumptions:

Existing coverage data is sufficiently accurate;

The methodology uses Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) coverage definition, which is ‘improved’ levels of water and sanitation;

Different agglom-eration sizes are typi-cally served in each country by the same water and sanitation service delivery mech-anism; and

The methodology assesses profession-als; hence it does not include household and community in-volvement.

2

Countries

The countries that were assessed under the CAP-WASH

programme were Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Tan-

zania. All countries experience significant growth in

population (between 5% and 9%) that will cause the

population to be 18.6, 25.6, and 49.9 million inhabit-

ants respectively, in 2015.

Figure 2 illustrates the enormous challenges that these

countries face with regards to achieving their MDG Tar-

get 7c. In comparison to achieving the MDGs, full ser-

vice coverage is an even bigger challenge. The figures

for rural sanitation illustrate the large service deficits,

especially given the fact that over 75% of the popula-

tion of these countries still reside in rural areas.

However, all three countries face significant rates of

urbanisation, 2.1 % for Mozambique, 4.5% for Tanzania

up to 7.1 % for Burkina Faso. This exemplifies the need

to continue paying attention to urban areas, particularly

peri-urban areas, in order to maintain the current cov-

erage and ensure that the coverage increases in tan-

dem with the urbanisation rates.

Obviously, the differences in size of the populations will

impact the number of human resources required to

cover the MDG and full service coverage deficit.

The WASH sector: role of NGOs and CBOs

NGOs and CBOs have a significant role to play, especial-

ly in rural water supply and

sanitation provision, where

they have traditionally en-

gaged more than in the urban

provision.

The case studies report that

42, 55 and 101 NGOs and

CBOs operate in the WASH

sector of Mozambique, Tanza-

nia and Burkina Faso respec-

tively. This appears to be rela-

tively limited compared to

other typical areas of engage-

ment of these organisations,

for instance the HIV/Aids sec-

tor in Tanzania. The case

study sampled 6, 13, and 25

NGOs respectively to investi-

Figure 2: Existing coverage rates versus MDGs in the three countries

Figure 3: Burkina Faso NGOs rural and urban divide

3

gate the human resource capacity of NGOs to deliver

water supply and sanitation services.

Areas of work

To gain an understanding of human resources required

in NGOs, there was a need to identify what areas of

work they are en-

gaged in.

Sanitation tends to

be neglected at pub-

lic sector level with-

in all three coun-

tries, often due to

the absence of one

single government

entity responsible

for sanitation; and

confusing roles and

responsibilities. In

addition, decentrali-

sation and reforms have devolved responsibilities to

district or municipal level for both rural water and sani-

tation services. The reality shows that the implementa-

tion of the delegated responsibilities is far from being

completed.

In the meanwhile, as illustrated in the figure above, the

NGOs and CBOs direct the majority of their activities to

the rural water supply and sanitation sector, and when

present in urban areas it is mostly within peri-urban

(informal) settlements. The NGOs and CBOs assessed in

the three countries work primarily on community mobi-

lisation, capacity building, hygiene promotion and

sometimes implementation of rural water supply and

sanitation systems. They also tended to focus on com-

munity-managed facilities, which align with these areas

of work.

International NGOs in each of the three countries have

also indicated work in the areas of resource mobilisa-

tion and advocacy to strengthen the sector with re-

sources and through influencing policy.

Assessment of existing Human Resource Capacity

The case studies investigated the human resources

within the four disciplines described below and estimat-

ed the total existing human resource capacity at coun-

try level. Table 1 illustrates this.

Table 1: Existing Capacity NGOs/CBOs

Burkina Faso, with double the number of NGOs and

CBOs working in the WASH sector, has the highest hu-

man resource capacity, even when taking an average of

10.69 full-time staff members working in the water sec-

tor per NGO, while Mozambique has ten and Tanzania

6.54. NGOs in Burkina Faso also have more human re-

source capacity for the sanitation sector. This could be

the result of the prioritisation of the WASH sector

through their National Programme for Water and Sani-

tation (PN-AEPA), which is actively supported by NGOs

and CBOs because the public sector does not have the

capacity to achieve these targets by itself. Particular, in

the area of sanitation, where service coverage is cur-

rently 1%, NGOs and CBOs have a large role to play.

In Mozambique, the role of the NGOs and CBOs is

slightly different. The government is dominant in the

water supply sector, implementing a sector-wide ap-

proach with NGOs and CBOs following their lead. Re-

garding sanitation, this is still an area of neglect in

Mozambique, and NGOs and CBOs take up a much larg-

er role in implementation and community advocacy. In

Subsector/HR Categories

WATSAN tech-nical field

Other tech-nical field

Management & finance

Social development Total

Tanzania

Water 80 40 120 120 360

Sanitation 11 11 15 15 52

Mozambique

Water 163 6 94 157 420

Sanitation 120 6 13 173 312

Burkina Faso

Water 131 161 323 464 1080

Sanitation 121 151 313 525 1111

4

Mozambique, NGOs employ more professional staff

than the private and public sectors.

In Tanzania, the most populous country of the three

case studies, with double the population of Mozam-

bique and almost triple that of Burkina Faso, NGOs

seem to have a limited role and an equally limited hu-

man resource capacity. The Tanzanian case study re-

ported overall a far lower number of human resource

capacity, and indicated a very limited focus on sanita-

tion. Still, there could be a larger role for NGOs and

CBOs in the country.

The existing capacity of professionals within NGOs and

CBOs greatly depends on the nature of on-going pro-

grammes and activities and the geographical spread of

the activities. It was generally observed that the majori-

ty of the NGOs had a higher number of social develop-

ment staff such as sociologists and community workers,

which can be explained by the community-managed

systems and approaches that these organisations fol-

low in the rural areas, such as the community-led total

sanitation (CLTS).

To effectively implement a system such as the CLTS,

requires a multitude of sensitisation and training activi-

ties, such as awareness raising, hygiene promotion, and

training of communities on management of systems,

setting up of water-user associations, and operation

and maintenance of the systems. Most of these activi-

ties are performed by professionals within the social

development category.

Furthermore, most NGOs manage to recruit a water

engineer who would generally operate as a programme

manager providing their professional input from a man-

agement perspective rather than actual engineering

work in the field. These managers often outsource the

building of the infrastructure to private organisations.

Operations and maintenance of these community-

managed systems is often dependent on the communi-

ties themselves, but requires training that is generally

performed by a technician or engineer in the employ of

the NGO or CBO. Since this type of work is the responsi-

bility of the communities, or is sometimes contracted

out to private local organisations, NGOs have limited

staff working on the operation and maintenance of in-

frastructure. In all three countries, the lack of O&M is

indicated as an area of concern. In Tanzania concerns

were expressed over coverage rates dropping due to

high rates of system failure. In Burkina Faso the focus

has been on construction, especially for sanitation, indi-

cating a major obstacle to sustainable implementation.

Availability of qualified human resources

The qualified personnel are

more common in large cities

than in small towns and vil-

lages where NGOs generally

operate. This makes it more

difficult for NGOs to attract

qualified personnel to live

and work in the rural areas.

In Tanzania, the younger

professionals prefer urban

over rural settings to live and

work, because of the availa-

bility of services and facili-

ties. In Burkina Faso, alt-

hough the majority of NGO

personnel are based in the

cities, their personnel also

5

work in the rural are-

as where the greatest

demand is. Only

Mozambique showed

that over 65% of NGO

and CBO personnel

live in the rural areas.

International NGOs

have less of a problem

attracting qualified

staff, mainly because

of better remunera-

tion packages. These

organisations general-

ly hire better qualified

and educated staff,

with longer work ex-

perience, attracting

them from the public

sector agencies. In

two of the case stud-

ies, this was thought to cause a brain drain from public

sector working in the water supply and sanitation sec-

tors.

Local NGOs are generally financially precarious and

tend to have more temporary contracts with staff ra-

ther than offering them long-term employment.

CBOs are the organisations that face the largest capaci-

ty gaps (both in numbers and quality). These are the

organisations that rely largely on volunteers as they do

not always have financial resources to hire or pay quali-

fied staff.

Education and training

As indicated above, international NGOs tend to attract

higher educated personnel in most countries. The staff

at the NGO head offices will generally have a university

degree or technical diploma. The following general

trends have been extracted from the research:

In Mozambique, the overall evaluation indicated that

many personnel working in the rural areas – for inter-

national NGOs as well as local NGOs and CBOs – have

not been professionally educated to work in the sector,

as the more experienced workforce suffers from the

stagnation as a result of the long conflict period in

Mozambique. The current workforce primarily consists

of professionals with only a primary education, but with

work experience that they have built up over many

years.

In Burkina Faso, NGOs and CBOs represent an educa-

tion level between primary and university levels and

most of the staff has at least some form of training.

Here, a particular reference was made to the lack of

engineers employed by NGOs and CBOs due to their

lack of financial capacity.

In Tanzania, the sampled NGOs all had at least one wa-

ter engineer in place, who would generally manage the

projects and be capable to do so.

Gender

In all three countries gender inequality is prevalent. In

terms of gender participation in the NGO and CBO

workforce, in Burkina Faso, 34% of the NGO/CBO staff

is female and this percentage decreases further when

6

investigating the technical disciplines. Mozambique has

an overall female participation in the WASH sector of

27%, whilst this percentage increases slightly in NGOs

and CBOs. The Tanzanian NGOs and CBOs seem to have

a higher ratio (half of the organisations have a 50-50%

gender distribution), but this was indicated

to be specifically in the social development

discipline.

All countries have forms of gender participa-

tion strategies and / or policies in place to

promote female participation in WASH pro-

grammes.

Human resource shortages

The studies evaluated the supply to the WASH sector

from universities and training institutes. It looked at

overall supply, but faced challenges investigating the

actual supply to NGOs and CBOs. The studies illustrated

that Tanzania’s supply of professionals entering the

water supply and sanitation technical fields by far ex-

ceeds that of Burkina Faso and Mozambique. This in-

cludes water engineers, hydro-geologists, technicians

and water quality specialists. While in Mozambique, the

education institutes have increased student enrol-

ments, those entering the water supply and sanitation

sector is generally still very low. Burkina Faso has a par-

ticularly low level of entry of qualified, professional

staff into the WASH sector and to compound the chal-

lenge, the country also does not have any education

programme that specifically targets water and sanita-

tion professions.

Statistics for Burkina Faso and Mozambique show that

graduates from tertiary education institutions are

scarce at the decentralised levels, being district, provin-

cial and municipal), and can hardly ever be found at

municipal or village level. All organisations, recruiting

local people will face this challenge.

Tanzania

In Tanzania, the assessment team was able to indicate

the human resources shortages within NGOs, listed in

Table 2 below. Notwithstanding the need for finances

to recruit personnel, Tanzania’s NGOs and CBOs face

significant shortages requiring almost five times the

current capacity. This is partly due to the larger need to

focus on sanitation sector, and the role that NGOs and

CBOs can play in achieving this MDG target or full ser-

vice coverage. The table below illustrates this, where

particularly social development staff is required to raise

awareness and mobilise communities on sanitation and

hygiene issues.

Mozambique

In Mozambique human resources shortages in the sec-

tor seem to be most significant in the water sector.

Management and finance and social development per-

sonnel, respectively, are the most needed. However,

under current circumstances the biggest challenge is

finding the various categories of engineers and particu-

larly water engineers. On the social development side it

is interesting to note that the numbers are short for the

water sector but not the sanitation sector. This could

mean an underestimation of the demand for sanitation

professionals, which follows the general neglect of sani-

tation in the country over the last years. Following the

current figures, between 45% and 50% of the human

resources shortages in sanitation sector will be a short-

age faced by NGOs. To achieve MDGs, this means that

94 water supply and sanitation, ten other technical, 193

social development workers need to be trained and

employed.

Graduates in management and finance have been grad-

ually increasing which accounts for a) the a general high

supply of graduates entering the workforce and b) even

considering a low absorption rate into the WASH sec-

tor, this resulted in a surplus of human resources in

some categories. The tables below illustrate this.

NGOs WATSAN technical field

Other tech-nical field

Management & Finance

Social Devel-opment

Water 425 203 988 375

Sanitation 319 293 419 1602

Table 2: HR shortages in Tanzania

7

Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso human

resource shortages pre-

vails in the whole sector,

but is most pronounced

in the water sector be-

cause technical special-

ised positions for water

supply are very difficult

to fill. The supply in this

discipline has remained

low despite the fact that

about ten new engineer-

ing enter the WASH sec-

tor every year. Within

the social development

discipline, large shortag-

es exist, for which the

supply has been increas-

ing. It will thus be a matter of devising strategies to

attract them into this sector.

To estimate the shortages within NGOs and CBOs, and

working on the assumption that the current percentage

of personnel is maintained, NGOs face a shortage in the

water sector and the tables below depicts total shortages.

The Burkina Faso case

study report indicates that

the shortages within NGO

and CBO are approximate-

ly 400, 525, 180 and 2,500

in the technical field, other

technical field, manage-

ment and finance and so-

cial development. For sani-

tation, only the social de-

velopment category is far

higher with an estimated

capacity of 1,500. The wa-

ter supply and sanitation

technical field lacks ap-

proximately 275 people, the other

technical fields 220 and the man-

agement and finance 20 people.

NGO and CBO human resources shortages

The research has shown that while there is a general

shortage of qualified staff within the sector, NGOs and

CBOs are particularly vulnerable and there is a critical

shortage of the following skills: hydraulic technicians,

hydraulic engineers, water engineers and technicians;

MOZAMBIQUE WATER SECTOR WATSAN tech-nical field

Other tech-nical field

Management and Finance

Social devel-opment

HR shortage for achieving MDG 1,589 235 715 2,486

HR shortage for achieving full service coverage

2,392 376 1,755 4,322

Table 3: Mozambique total human resources shortages in the water sector (- figures show oversupply)

MOZAMBIQUE SANITATION SECTOR

WATSAN tech-nical field

Other tech-nical field

Management and Finance

Social devel-opment

HR shortage for achieving MDG 2,283 146 -2,604 449

HR shortage for achieving full service coverage

3,983 187 -2,367 1,253

Table 3: Mozambique total human resources shortages in the sanitation sector (- figures show oversupply)

BURKIA FASO WATER SEC-TOR

WATSAN technical field

Other tech-nical field

Management and Finance

Social develop-ment

HR shortage for achieving MDG

4,778 3,899 3,346 9,390

HR shortage for achieving full service coverage

6,448 5,231 6,503 12,529

Table 5: Burkina Faso human resources shortages in the water sector

Table 6: Burkina Faso human resources shortages in the sanitation sector

BURKIA FASO SANITATION SECTOR

WATSAN technical field

Other tech-nical field

Management and Finance

Social develop-ment

HR shortage for achieving MDG

2,061 1,680 365 4,295

HR shortage for achieving full service coverage

4,590 4,209 7,395 9,352

8

sanitation specialists; civil engineers; senior personnel

with experience and who has mastered water and sani-

tation issues in decentralised areas; communicators;

human resources specialists; directors and managers;

and monitoring and evaluation specialists.

Overall, 69% of the surveyed NGOs and CBOs indicated

that they are satisfied with the skills of their staff, as

they already have some experience of working in the

sector. However, they indicated a need for continuous

strengthening of their capacity through education pro-

grammes, sharing experiences and specific training.

The rest of the sample (31%) indicated that the skills

that were lacking include the level of academic staff,

the general lack of experience, and the fact that there

were not enough water supply and sanitation sector

specialists.

Key constraints for Human Resource De-velopment

The case studies indicate that the

throughput of competent people into the

sector is insufficient for various reasons.

These can be summarised as being relat-

ed to the following areas:

Financial constraints

The problem of lack in quantity and quali-

ty of human resources working in the

WASH sector is intrinsically linked to the

low financial capacity of organisations to

recruit staff. Most organisations, particu-

larly local NGOs and CBOs are heavily de-

pendent on external funding from large

donors or International NGOs and often

work with temporary staff rather than full

time employees. As a result In addition to

this other sectors seem to attract many

qualified resources available, causing a

brain drain from the sector

Institutional constraints

Unclear roles and responsibilities, especially in the sani-

tation sector and particularly rural, can be a constraint

for NGOs to operate. Lack of an overall coordinating

body and official and formally- constituted roles of

NGOs can be an obstacle in their interventions and

could have an impact on the financial as well as human

resources available.

Within the various countries there seems to be a lack of

coordination between the sector organisations, includ-

ing NGOs, and the Education sector. This causes defi-

ciencies between the supply and the need in the sector.

Additionally, it was mentioned that coordination of hu-

man resources between NGOs at national level is still

relatively limited. In Mozambique and Tanzania they

9

have high level coordination meetings, but the

exchange of human resources or combined use

of resources is still an unexplored area.

Inappropriate training and ill-equipped training

institutions – The problem of increasing access

to water and sanitation is not just associated

with the total number of workers but the quality

of the training. Often recently-qualified staff

lacks some important competences that are

needed for work in the WASH sector. As well as

outdated curricula, standards of teaching can be

linked to poor incentives due to low salaries and

a general lack of resources.

Organisational constraints

NGOs faced fewer problems of availability of

human resources in quantity and quality com-

pared to CBOs and associations. Indeed most of

the (international) NGOs working in the WASH

sector are involved in the programme which

takes into account the human resources recruit-

ment, which is not always the case for CBOs and

associations with limited resources or operate

on the basis of grant NGOs.

Lack of opportunities for practical WASH related work

experience – The lack of opportunities for graduates to

get practical WASH-related experience is a significant

problem. This is compounded by inadequate support

for the transition from academia to the work environ-

ment and lack of mentors to train less experienced

staff. In Mozambique the NGOs typically look for expe-

rienced personnel, and more often than not, hire em-

ployees that have been working in the public sector.

Gender inequalities – WASH is a male dominated sec-

tor; the case studies demonstrate clear gendered occu-

pational boundaries, with men and women tending to

do different jobs in the sector; with men working more

on water supply and women more on hygiene promo-

tion. Even though the various countries have taken

measures, in forms of policies, scholarships for women

and promotion of technical jobs for women, there still

is a low level of women graduates from universities es-

pecially from technically orientated courses.

Conclusions

In all three countries, the WASH sector faces difficulties

attracting qualified personnel. There are numerous rea-

sons for this, one of which is the limited financial capac-

ity of NGs and CBOs to pay decent salaries or offer job

security. The results are that there is a brain drain to

organisations outside of the WASH sector, high staff

turnover in the water supply and sanitation sectors and

professionals working in temporary capacity or project-

linked tasks, rather than in fulltime employment. This

leads to a heavy reliance on volunteers and interns to

fill the human resources gaps.

Another serious ramification of this incapacity to attract

and retain staff is felt in the sanitation and hygiene sec-

tors in the rural areas which rely heavily on NGO and

CBO staff interventions to implement; operate and

maintain the infrastructure; and educate the popula-

10

tion on health and hygiene issues. Traditionally, the

public sector does not pay much attention to this geo-

graphical area or sector.

This inadequate capacity of NGOs and CBOs is one ma-

jor reason why there are limitations to achieving the

sanitation MDG targets as well as the ultimate goal of

reaching full service coverage.

Recommendations

To tackle the significant deficits with regards to achiev-

ing the MDG target 7c and full service coverage, a huge

number of professionals are required to mobilise and

sensitise the communities; to design and construct the

infrastructures and to operate and maintain the sys-

tems to ensure sustainability.

The following recommendations constitute

some of the remedial action that can be

implemented to assist governments to

overcome their water supply and sanitation

service deficits as well as the human re-

sources shortages in the sectors.

Short term

Mobilise large cadres of volunteers, such

as graduates or final year students, who will

then be able to

Immediately fill the shortages in the organisations;

Make use of an ideal opportunity to gain practical experience;

Provide channels for NGOs and CBOs to acquire competent and committed people to work in the sector.

Train and build the capacity NGO manag-

ers on governance and institutional settings

and for CBOs capacity building on resource

mobilisation. This will strengthen collabo-

ration and ties with, for instance public-

sector role players and stakeholders. It will

also strengthen the NGO/CBO itself to effi-

ciently manage their organisations and thus push up

the productivity.

Develop inter-communality so that resources can be

shared. This is a good alternative to bridge the hu-

man resources gap in communities. Municipalities

share commonalities and can share senior profes-

sional staff, such as technicians and engineers.

Medium term

Creating a directory of human resources NGOs and

CBOs in the WASH sector at national level will assist

these organisations in sharing resources – human

resources and otherwise. This will strengthen the

ability of NGOs/CBOs to communicate and collabo-

rate.

11

Creating opportunities for personal development to

enable the rural officers to be trained on specific and

appropriate water supply and sanitation modules

through offering short courses;

Strengthen vocational training of water and sanita-

tion engineers and community mobilisers and there-

by create intermediate skills levels which are appro-

priate and meet the needs and capacities of munici-

palities, and NGOs and CBOs;

Developing strategies for attracting and retaining

educated and professional staff in NGOs and CBOs.

These strategies could include elements that are

broader than just the adjustment of salaries to

attract staff, such as offering additional training and

doing advocacy work to make the water supply and

sanitation sectors an attractive sector to work in. De-

signing and implementing such strategies will pre-

vent the current brain drain to other more attractive

sectors. The strategies need to include incentives for

professional staff to work in rural areas.

Devise ways to ensure that trained and professional

staff are deployed to work in the field, rather than

using them to do administrative tasks.

Longer term

Improve the over-

all sector coordina-

tion of the private,

public and NGO/

CBO sectors to

work together, ra-

ther than perpetu-

ating the current

fragmentation. It is

also of great im-

portance to create

synergy amongst

the education and

WASH sectors.

Develop a national

plan for human

resource develop-

ment in the WASH sector, which will allow for a reori-

entation of the sector’s capacity.

Strengthen education and training institutes by regu-

larly assessing the education and training shortcom-

ings and plan for additional, applicable and appropri-

ate courses. Streamline the curricula to meet the

needs of the water supply and sanitation sectors.

Incentivise and subsidise education and trainings in

the areas where the country lacks resources by offer-

ing scholarships, internships and work-study pro-

grammes.

Accredit the education and training programmes to

track people who have obtained training in other

forms than degrees or diplomas from universities or

technical colleges. There is a need to measure the

impact of shorter training courses and this can be

done through accrediting the training programmes.

Formalisation of a deployment strategy, particularly

of engineering and management staff to under-

resourced geographical areas and organisations.

12

Global Water for Sustainability Program

Florida International University

Biscayne Bay Campus

3000 NE 151St. ACI-267

North Miami, FL 33181 USA

Phone: (+1-305) 919-4112