Triple-S Uganda, Ministry of Water and Environment review District Implementation Manual

Published on: 04/09/2012

The DIM provides guidelines for sector stakeholders operating at district level, including district local governments and NGOs. The DIM sets out the policy and institutional environment as well as sector stakeholder’s roles in line with the sector wide approach (SWAp) and the sector approaches for harmonized strategies.

Though the DIM was meant to contribute to the improvement of sector performance, five years on, the WASH sector still faces challenges in standardization, harmonization and coordination of rural water service delivery. The WASH sector has not realized significant positive changes in rural water service delivery. A key challenge hindering progress towards the desired goals stems from ineffective coordination and harmonization of actors and interventions as well as the inadequate enforcement of policies and guidelines.

In March 2011, the Triple-S initiative of IRC in Uganda undertook to assess the utilization of the DIM. The purpose of the study was to assess the application and effectiveness of DIM and make recommendations for improvement of the process and quality of implementation of the DIM strategies and approach. One of the key recommendations was that the DIM should be reviewed and updated and that user-friendly versions be produced and disseminated widely.

It is on this basis that IRC/Triple-S in partnership with the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) contracted a consultant to review and update the DIM, produce a user-friendly version and information products to be used by sub county and district level WASH practitioners and service users. To date the consultant has completed the stakeholder consultation and documentary review processes and has produced a draft version of the updated DIM and dissemination strategy. This write up presents the key issues emerging from the process.