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VOICES FOR WETLANDS AND WATER: CASE STUDIES ON WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT & WASH IN KENYA
Lessons Learned
Building Strong Partnerships for Change
The Centre for Social Planning and Administrative Development (CESPAD) is a non-governmental organisation that specialises in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), Sanitation, Hygiene, Environmental Conservation, Agriculture and Poverty analysis. CESPAD had been working on IWRM governance in Kajiado since 2012 and was an attractive partnering organisation for Watershed whose key objective was to empower citizens to improve WRM and WASH. Under the Watershed Programme, CESPAD was the implementing partner that was tasked with building institutional capacity for water governance in Kajiado County on behalf of Wetlands International. Their key role was, first, to train citizen groups about their rights and responsibilities and build their capacity to participate in decision making from an informed perspective. Implicit here was the need to enable WRUAs to know their rights and call the government to account in respect to access to sustainable environment services such as clean and adequate water. Second, CESPAD focused on building institutional capacity within the then newly established Kajiado County Government to help them customise water-related laws and policies to the needs of urban and rural water users and livestock and wildlife in the vast, water-stressed county. This included providing technical support for policy implementation and helping the new county government to bridge gaps in the financing of WRM and WASH projects in collaboration with other stakeholders.
Ashah Shaaban
as one of the best successes of the Watershed Programme. The Council has proven to be a strong force in lobbying, particularly in the area of budgets for WRM. The Kajiado County Water Policy, now awaiting approval, is an offshoot of the Programme. This policy, once approved, will guide water resources governance and reinforce the integration of WRM and WASH. The organisation also engaged media to create awareness within the community on the significance of participating in budget making at the County level to ensure that water projects are sustainable. CESPAD team leader Ashah Shaaban, however, says the Programme should have had a longer time frame because it takes about ten years for such an undertaking to take root. “Because of the short time frame, we were not able to bring in more stakeholders, especially the private sector who are heavy water users,
Among others, CESPAD counts the formation and capacity building of the Kajiado WRUA Council
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