LIBERIA: Regional Water Integrity Training opens in Monrovia
By: WASH R&E Network – In an effort to ensure the Promotion of Water Integrity in Saharan Africa, a week long training of Stakeholders in the Water Sector has opened in Monrovia, bringing together participants from Liberia, Nigeria and the Gambia.
Participants at the on-going weeklong Regional Stakeholders Water Integrity Training in Monrovia
View of Participants at the on-going weeklong Regional Stakeholders Training on the Promotion of Water Integrity in Sub Saharan African
Water Integrity Regional Stakeholders Training Participants in Monrovia
The Regional Water Integrity Capacity Building Program in Sub-Saharan Africa is sponsored by the Water Integrity Network and ECOWAS’ Water Resource Coordination Center (WRC), among other international partners.
A release from the WASH Reporters & Editors Network of Liberia says, the Training is jointly organized by the Ghana Integrity Initiative and the Center of Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL), and is third in a series of five Regional capacity development workshops on water Integrity for the West African Region.
The training which got under way Monday, July 5, 2013 seeks to among other things address issues of corruption which is said to be very severe in the various water resource management sectors of countries in Africa.
“Water is a fundamental resource for sustainable development and is essential to eradicate poverty, to secure food and energy,” stated Franciose Nicole Ndoume, WIN Program Coordinator for Francophone and English Capacity Building, in her opening address Monday. “In most countries,” she noted, “water crises are not due to resource scarcity but primarily to governance failures.”
According to the Global Corruption Report of Transparency International and Water Integrity Network, almost US$48 billion are diverted every year from the sector because of corruption practices, she said.
“It is high time to take a line of action and reverse the status quo so that funds for the Water Service Delivery worldwide and particularly in Africa are utilized for the correct purposes,” Ndoume asserted, adding, It is with the view to reversing this situation that ECOWAS, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) are, with the help of their partners, implementing the capacity-building programme to ensure that “water integrity ambassadors” are built who can take the lead in this issue in their respective countries.
She observed that fragmented institutions obstruct accountability in a sector with high investment and aid flows, making the water sector particularly vulnerable to corruption. “Lack of water-related integrity incurs huge cost for societies, lost of lives, degraded resources, just to mention a few,” said.
Among other things, the overall objective of the training program is to develop capacities of different stakeholder groups and government levels to improve transparency and accountability practices in the water sector in Africa.
On the personal level, the training will strengthen water sector stakeholders’ awareness and understanding of corruption, its risk and ways to promote good practice and put in place integrity mechanisms.
On the operational level, it will strengthen the capacities of water sector actors to ensure integrity in their daily work within their organisations, and regionally, encourage and stimulate dialogue and learning on how corruption can be addressed in the water sector at a regional and national level, drawing on local experiences for new appropriate approaches; furthermore to build the capacities of RECs and other regional actors to work with integrity issues in the water sector with their members and member states.
Madam Ndoume furthered that working towards water integrity requires concrete actions, including using and expanding existing networks and building new alliances between sectors to develop a broad consensus on water integrity, and use multiple communication channels to raise awareness for issues and available solutions.
It also requires encouraging organizations to consider water integrity in the development of organizational policies, strategies and action plans; investing in inclusive multi-stakeholder processes that foster collaboration beyond the water sector, engaging user organizations, investors, planning authorities and core governance institutions at country level to join reform agendas, the WIN executive pointed out.
“The main purpose of this training is to create ‘water integrity ambassadors’ in each of the participating countries,” Dr. Daniel K. Yawson, one of the facilitators said in an interview.
Yawson said corruption was a serious challenge in the WASH sector, noting that no every country has established effective water management policies nor invested required resources to make the sector effective.
“At the end of the day we believe that the sector will improve when the participants get back home; there will be improvement in policies; there will be practical steps adapted so that whatever little money that comes to the sector will be properly managed for results,” he intimated.
He believes that the change will be possible because those who are participating in the training are part of the decision makers in the sector of the respective countries.
Many of the participants noted that the sector remain fragmented in their countries, while there was lack of political will either by action or inaction in supporting and strengthening the sector. They said several of the water-related projects were “political” meaning lacking durability and sustainability.
Augustine N. Myers, the Chairman of the WASH Reporters & Editors Network of Liberia, one of the participants, described Training as vital and said it will help hold Regional leaders accountable to pay more attention to the WASH sector.
“We first need to understand the issue, and that’s the essence of the training,” the experienced and professional senior WASH journalist said. “With this fresh knowledge, our advocacy will also be strengthened, and that’s why we want to applaud the sponsors for this weeklong training,” Mr. Myers stressed.
About 30 participants are undergoing the training taking place at the Palm Spring Hotel in Congo Town, Monrovia.
