Building IRC’s partnership with UCLGA

Published on: 22/02/2011

IRC's Southern Africa Regional Programme is building a partnership with the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA) Water and Sanitation Focal Point Network (FPN). Following consultations with UCLGA in the IRC offices in the Hague, the IRC Southern Africa Regional Programme participated in the inaugural working session of the UCLGA Water and Sanitation Focal Point Network in August 2010, which was attended by 14 associations from African countries.

Here is the list of countries, the name of the local governance assosication and contact person:

• Benin National Association of Councils of Benin (ANCB), Sègla Lihoussou
• Botswana Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA), Senata James Rutherford
• Burkina Faso Association des Municipalités du Burkina Faso (AMBF), Ousséini Thanou
• Cameroon United Councils and Cities of Cameroon (CVUC), Léonard Emmanuel Bomba
• Côte d'Ivoire Union des villes et communes de la Cote d'Ivoire (UVICOCI), Médard Mezzan Kouadio
• Ghana National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), Audrey Smock Mensah
• Malawi Malawi Local Government Association (MALGA) Lusako Mwenechanya
• Mali Association of Municipalities of Mali (AMM),  Amadou Doumbia
• Namibia Association of Local Authorities in Namibia (ALAN), Jennifer Kauapirura
• Rwanda Rwandese Association of Local Government Authorities (RALGA), Alexis Rukundo
• South Africa South African Local Government Association (SALGA), William Moraka
• Uganda Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA), Stella Mugera
• Zambia Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ), Bornwell Luanga
• Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Local Government Association (ZILGA)

These national associations of local government are participating in a UCLGA-led project called Local Initiatives in Promotion of the Attainment of the Water and Sanitation Millennium Development Goals, which is a European Union-funded initiative, implemented in cooperation between the UCLGA and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability – Africa. IRC’s Jean de la Harpe gave a presentation on the water service sector and challenges facing Africa. (see below). In particular UCGLA expressed interest in making IRC’s WASH governance training programme accessible to its member associations. 

 

Local governance tools to support provision of sustainable water and sanitation services

UCLGA has invited IRC to participate in their conference on “Local initiatives towards the water and sanitations MDGs, unlocking the benefits of infrastructure asset management” to be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 1 March 2011. This will be followed up by a working session at the WAMTechnology offices in Stellenbosch at the beginning of March 2011 where the FPN national associations of local government will plan to implement a pilot utilizing a tool called the ‘municipal assistant’.

Presentations will focus on the UCGLA’s water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals’ project, sharing O&M good practice (from Rwanda), demonstrating the Municipal Assistant asset management system, and looking at the impact of the Municipal Assistant on asset management. 

The working session on the Municipal Assistant tool will:

• share the pilot project implementation plan
• provide the participating National Associations with a detailed opportunity to understand the Municipal Assistant asset management tool to prepare them for their role in the pilot
• plan for the rapid implementation of the pilot at the two selected municipalities (who, what where, how, when)
• learn from existing South Africa municipal experience
• set the basis for the good practise documentation output from the pilot
• provide a learning opportunity for other national associations present

This work compliments IRC’s local governance focus on tools to support the provision of sustainable water and sanitation services, where the Municipal Assistant is one of the tools IRC has been researching with a view to promoting it as best practice. This initiative by UCGLA provides the opportunity to further review the Municipal Assistant as a best practice sustainability tool for achieving sustainability water and sanitation services at the local level.