Eighteen senior water service professionals from Timor-Leste, Ghana, Uganda, India, Burkina Faso, Belgium, and The Netherlands gathered from 12 to 16 November 2012 in The Netherlands to participate in the training event: ‘An Introduction to the Concepts of Service Delivery: The Role of the Service Authority’.
Published on: 22/11/2012
The week-long programme aimed to enhance participants’ understanding of the concept of “ service delivery ”, as well as their knowledge of the role and functions of service authorities.
Workshop sessions outlined the range of service authority functions related to water service provision within a designated service area— the primary unit for planning for water services delivery (i.e., district; municipality, commune, gram panchayat, etc.). Functions include planning, finance, direct support, regulation, monitoring, asset management and oversight of service provider(s). Definitions of, and differences between, water service authority and provision functions were identified.
Providing water services that last relies greatly upon recognised and clear division of roles and responsibilities between water service providers and water service authorities – the entities responsible for delivery of water services. Participants learned the importance of making explicit and known to all concerned the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in service authority functions in order to ensure sustainable access to water services in a given service area.
Planning and budgeting for all life cycle costs of a water service is also an important building block of the service delivery approach. Training attendees acknowledged that no ‘one-size-fits-all’ model exists for achieving sustainable service delivery, prompting a lively discussion on which building blocks are important for indefinite water services and how these building blocks can be applied in different contexts. The 18 WASH professionals drew from training programme content as well as their experiences from their respective countries and agencies in order to present detailed action plans for putting the service delivery approach into practice within their own organisations.
IRC’s Triple-S and Aguaconsult hosted the five-day training event. Participants represented local and national governments, civil society organisations, bi-lateral development agencies, and international non-governmental organisations.
For more information on training events please contact: triple-s@irc.nl
