Water Integrity: Contribution to the Water Integrity Network and to the Country Programmes

Water is a scarce resource and still not everyone has access to safe water and adequate sanitation. To improve the situation, large flows of both public and private money are invested in the sector. On the other hand, informal actors often play a key role in service delivery. As the sector is being regarded as highly technical by most actors, the voice of most vulnerable communities who lack access to water and sanitation facilities is often neglected. This makes the water sector particularly prone to corruption at all scales, from grand to petty corruption. The World Bank estimates that 20 to 40% of water sector finances are being lost to dishonest practices, which are both a cause and a consequence of poor governance in the water sector.

Water integrity is a common principle and practice in the water sector and right holders are empowered thus leading to better water management and equitable and sustained access to water and sanitation pursuing a pro-poor and pro-equity focus.

The final beneficiaries of the interventions are marginalised communities who are suffering from poor levels of integrity and cannot have access to safe water and adequate sanitation.

Direct beneficiaries include: i) local communities and civil society ii) governments at the local, regional and national levels iii) members of WIN and especially its Swiss-based members.

• Water Integrity is on the agenda of the global water sector and strengthened throughout all levels of action.
• The capacities and systems of governments to oversee and manage quality water services with integrity are strengthened.
• Communities and Civil Society advocate for improved WASH policies and demand better services.
• Water Integrity is a common principle and practice for Swiss-based organisations (and their partners) working with the Global South and is incorporated in their initiatives and projects
  

Erwartete Resultate:  

• WIN secretariat plays a leading role in collecting, exchanging and processing relevant evidence-based information from the country programmes for regional and global water policy dialogues.
• Country output.
• Swiss-based organisations and their partners share internally and with each other experiences in applying integrity principles of transparency, accountability and participation.
  

Resultate von früheren Phasen:  

• At a global level, WIN-S made proactive contributions to the OECD draft principles for good water governance, including a dedicated integrity and transparency principle. This confirmed WIN’s position as a strong advocacy network on water integrity at the global level.
• In Nepal, through the influence of Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and their local partner, the outline of the new WASH sector plan includes at the time being water integrity.
• In Mozambique, transparency and accountability were enhanced in the allocation and spending of budgets for the water sector.
  
• Tools and methodologies have been and are being implemented in various countries and initiatives (Guatemala and Kenya).
  

In addition to its advocacy and awareness raising work the secretariat coordinates the Multi Country Water Integrity Programmes, which are part of its global strategy, implemented in this case by Helvetas and Caritas.

Other project actors are: SDC cooperation offices, governments at the national, regional and local levels, civil society and local communities, members of WIN and in particular Swiss-based members of WIN

Phase 3 01.08.2015 - 31.12.2019   (Completed)