Partnerships: Improving Water and Sanitation Service Delivery
Misheck Kirimi, Editor
Throughout history people have forged strategic alliances to fight a common enemy. Partnering is still a powerful tool for overcoming modern enemies such as poverty, disease, ignorance and insecurity. By ratifying the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the world’s governments created a roadmap to significantly reduce the suffering among the poor. However, the magnitude and complexity of scoring MDGs at national and local levels call for partnerships—for participatory approaches that harness the potentials of all actors.
The question now is, how are productive partnerships initiated, developed and managed? What are the incentives? What are the rules of the game? Under what enabling environment do they thrive? We have scattered success stories to learn from. For example the School Sanitation and Hygiene (SSH) coalition in Kenya comprising NETWAS, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, UNICEF Kenya Country Office, , Plan International and (Practical Action(ITDG) has managed to successfully keep the nation’s eye focused on the sanitation and hygiene needs of poor children in overcrowded schools. And a report (2005)1 based on interviews with 31 community leaders currently engaged in public-private partnerships says satisfaction with partnerships is high; customers and the community are positive.
However, there is still need for a complete analysis and understanding of the partnership paradigm. A few initiatives have emerged to respond to this need. An example is Building Partnerships for Development (BPD), a UK-based not-for-profit multi-stake-holder learning organisation, which has provided valuable articles for this issue of... Read full article