ALLIANCE REPORT

MOLE CONFERENCE XXXIII

THEME: GHANA’S COMMITMENT TO WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE

(WASH); CONNECTING SYSTEMS TO BRIDGE SERVICE DELIVERY GAPS.

The Conference commenced at 9:00 am with the Opening Ceremony in attendance were special
guests and participants. The opening ceremony was facilitated by Mr Martin Dery who asked
for the acknowledgment of all fallen heroes in the sector. Bishop Nathaniel Adams gave the
opening prayer and Madam Basilia Nanbigne introduced the Chairman for the program as Nana
Kodjo Konduah IV.

The Chairperson stated how delighted he was to have been invited for the Conference and
grateful to CONIWAS for the impact it is making to promote WASH. He also cheerfully accepted
to be the Chairperson for the program.

Mr Yaw Attah Arhin the chairman for CONIWAS gave his welcome address and stated the
keenly interest of the Speaker of Parliament and his well wishes for the success of the
conference. He welcomed all members and gave a special welcome to first time participants
and encouraged them to make maximum use of the avenue. He mentioned the coalition’s
effort to work with citizens and various stakeholders to influence policies, remove barriers and
promote access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation for the poor and vulnerable.

The objective of the conference is to explore Ghana’s commitments towards WASH, explore
area-wide approaches to service delivery that addresses equity concerns, highlight cutting edge
for partnership with other sectors etc. He mentioned critical issues that would be considered as
pollution of water bodies, limited access to safe drinking water in homes and institutions,
widening inequalities, poor access to toilets facilities and open defecation. He later appreciated
all stakeholders for their support in making the Mole Conference possible.

Afterwards the sponsors of the conference were acknowledged and given plagues of
appreciation.

SOLIDARITY MESSAGES

 Child Sanitation diplomat represented children and therefore requested the participants
and the elderly to refrain from bad practices and set good standards for children to
follow. She also pleaded for a WASH to be constructed in her school to enable her
 advocate more for other children in different districts and regions. Another is for
CONIWAS to create a session for children to participate in the conference so that their
views can also be considered.
 ESPA was grateful to take part in the conference and also to support in making it
possible. Therefore wishes the participants the best and encourages all to contribute
fully to make the deliberations successful.
 Development Partners Lead stated that the theme for the conference was very relevant
in our current times and it will help review sector issues and challenges. Also mentioned
that WASH is essential for everyone and they are always ready and available to support.
 Parliamentary Select Committee for Works and Housing was excited to be part of the
conference and admonished CONIWAS for its effort all these years to promote WASH
Service delivery. He encouraged stakeholders to involve the traditional leaders in their
work because the Traditional leaders have strong and great influence in the conduct of
their subordinates.

CONFERENCE THEME was presented by Dr. Nashiru Mohammed who acknowledged the
growing interest in the Mole Conference and did a recap of conference theme in the past
three (3) years. He also mentioned the Commitments Ghana has made to WASH to adopt
strong systems approach. Dr went further to categorise seven building blocks that can help
strengthen systems, make them more functional and lead to stead change in WASH sector.
These building blocks are Leadership, Monitoring and Evaluation, Gender equality,
Accountability and Regulations, Service delivery and Coordination, Financing and Policies
and Strategies. He finally mentioned that when all these systems are strongly adopted it will
go a long way to promote resilient WASH Service delivery.

KEY NOTE ADDRESS was given by Deputy Minister for Water and Sanitation who
appreciated the rigorous effort of CONIWAS in promoting WASH service delivery. He stated
that the PHC 2021 presents a lot of interesting cases in the WASH sector and that WASH
improvement in Ghana can only be done by collective efforts by all stakeholders. Issues of
water quality, waste disposal at unauthorised places, inadequate funding and
infrastructure, technical challenges have to be taken into consideration. He concluded by
requesting members to bring out implementable suggestions to help promote WASH in
Ghana, and also wished participants fruitful deliberations.

CHAIRMAN’S CLOSING REMARKS he commended all individuals and institutions with

regards to their speeches and called on all members to collaborate fully in promoting WASH
in Ghana. He promise that He and his people will continue to do their bid to promote
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
GROUP DISCUSSIONS ON THEME ADDRESS BY FIVE GROUPS.

GROUP ONE (BUILDING BLOCKS IN SYSTEM STRENGTHENING).

The group identified both the building blocks that are either weak or strong. They
mentioned Monitoring and Evaluation, Accountability, Gender inequality, Service delivery
and Coordination and Financing as weak building blocks that has to be strengthened.

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

 Mutual Accountability
 Advocate for prioritising the institution of Sanitation Courts to aid in law
enforcement.
 The existence of a Comprehensive and harmonised Monitoring and Evaluation
system.
 Institution of National architectural design or structure for sanitation facilities.
 Advocate for behavioural change among citizens.
 Empower communities to make decisions and demand for what they deserve and
also be committed to maintain the facilities built.

GROUP THREE (WASH FINANCING)

Identified sectors for financing WASH were Government, Private Sector, Donors and domestic
(citizens).

CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED IN WASH FINANCING.

 Inadequate funds
 Government and other stakeholders are not intentional in using available data to solve
sanitation needs.
 Sanitation sector not packaged enough to seek for support.
 Inability to identify potential investments.
 Public and private partnership. Problematic.

SUGGESSTIONS

1. Formulation of realistic budget for Sanitation.

2. Increase in release of funds
3. Advocate for monitoring and release of funds through budget tracking and expanding
capacity.
 4. Sanitation fund
5. Government to create incentive packages and institute policies that would encourage
more people and institutions in WASH.
6. Intense domestic financing

GROUP THREE (3)

Discussed CWSA which is into rural water systems managements. And some of the challenges
faced were;

 Refusal of some Organizations to pay for water.

 Destruction of pipelines

ELABORATED SOLUTIONS

1. Private sector partnership

2. Implementing of smart meters
3. Review of prices.

GROUP FOUR (4) INFORMATION SYSTEM

The group spoke of the need to accelerate Information Management Systems.

CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED

 Disconnection among institutions to collaborate.

 Organisations not committed to use systems
 Funding gap
 The ideal institution to house the system.

SOLUTIONS

 There is the need for institutions to collaborate more.

 Make Institutions accountable and committed to provide accurate data.
 Encourage more institutions to participate.

GROUP FIVE (5) ACCOUNTABILITY

The group stated that there is the need for mutual accountability where all stakeholders are
very transparent in the discharge of their duties.

1. The Media stands as the watch dog to keep Government to deliver on its promises and
commitment.
2. The general public or citizens.
3. Traditional and Opinion leaders.
PRESENTATIONS

The presentations were done under five broad sub themes under which various topics were
elaborated on by selected participating organizations

SUB THEME 1 (AREA-WIDE APPROACHES IN WASH SERVICE DELIVERY)

The theme highlighted equitable service delivery methods and innovations that promote
universal access to WASH services as well as promising solutions for improving access to safe
water, paying attention to equity issues, water safety and sustainable management of Ghana’s
WASH resources.

The presentation was done by Madam Vida Duti of IRC where she highlighted the need for
effective systems through Monitoring, learning and Adaptation, Water Resource Management,
Planning and Finance. She stated a conceptual framework in Phase 1 (visions and diagnosis) and
Phase 2 (solutions and testing) and Partnership with key stakeholders very necessary. The role
of the Hub is to ensure harmony, support individual systems and sharing of knowledge and
information.

She further mentioned the ANAM initiative and the progress that have been achieved so far
whilst collaborating with other organizations. The objective of the project was to improve
access to water, improve sustainable management and governance of WASH facilities and
improve hygiene behaviours and practices. Madam stated that the success of the project can be
attributed to effective leadership, strong communication support and high level of interest and
financial support.

The benefits of sustainable management of WASH resources are

 Helps to maximise resources to achieve outsized impact

 It deepens ownership in leadership for sustainability.
 Inclusiveness and mutual accountability.
 Stimulates creativity, innovations and learning to improve delivery approaches.

Madam Vida was joined by representatives from World Vision, WAG and Safe Water for the
plenary discussion where they mentioned their individual contributions (technical knowhow)
and support in making the project successful.

SUB THEME; MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING IN WASH SERVICE DELIVERY.

It threw light on sector monitoring, evaluation and learning systems and approaches including
Sector Information System (SIS), The BASIS, ESICAPS, Hackathon, DIMES and other frameworks
relevant in evidence based data gathering, analysis, reporting and effective decision making.
The presentation was done by MR. Kwabena Gyasei Duku of MSWR who explained that SIS
when fully operational will provide adequate information on access to water supply and
sanitation services, the quality of those services and their sustainability. SIS would help track
the progress of sector activities and the degree of objectives achievements. He highlighted
fourteen golden indicators that would be used for data collection and analysis.

Also SIS Data collection process was elaborated on where secondary information through
research can be gotten from, Local Government, Utilities, and GSS and Government
departments. Whilst subsector MIS through BaSIS, DIMES and GWCL.

Afterwards representatives from UNICEF, CWSA, WAG and World Vision joined Mr Duku for the
plenary discussions. All of them shared their institutional commitment into the materialising of
the SIS project, they embraced the initiative as a solution to a lagged long problem of tracking
information in the sector. Also it is a good thing which will harmonise all available systems to
bring out consistent, accurate and current data for decision making. It was also mentioned that
it would be prudent for more capacity to be built and that investing in Monitoring and
Evaluation has to be optimised and started. Issues were raised about it being expensive but
panellists mentioned that the relevance and impact of the system should be of more priority.

BREAKOUT SESSION ON MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING IN WASH.

WATERAID GHANA presented on mWater for data collection and Management: The WaterAid
experience.

mWater is a survey app which is used for data collection, helps one to manage enumerators,
review and check responsible design survey. It also has benefits of been fast and free, flexible,
quality data, track responses, offline access and data collection, immediate results, uses GPS
and allows direct analysis. It helps to promote project monitoring and sustainability and it been
used by other countries like MYANMAR.

ALLIANCE FOR WASH/ CRS ASSESSED SDG 6 INDICATORs: GHANA’S VNR 2022.

The Convener for A4WA presented on the SDG 6 indicators that has been captured and
reported on in the VNR report and the ones that are yet to be reported .

WVG presented on Data management and use practices at MMDA level for WASH monitoring.
The convener admonished the use of SIS at the district level and the objective is to understand
external environment in the use of ICT, also to assess competence and interest. He stated that
there is the need for a centralised platform (standardised system) because sector data is
currently scattered.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I. Support MMDA’s with ICT Equipment’s.

II. Ensure proper maintenance
III. Basic training
IV. Harmonising information.

SUBTHEME: SHARED ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WASH SERVICE DELIVERY.

The theme analysed the current accountability mechanisms for the sustainable WASH services
delivery. Shared accountability is an important tenet for accelerating sustained progress,
strengthening collaborations, reinforcing inclusive participation and connecting systems:
especially through sharing information and ensuring transparency to meet commitments and
obligations. Discussing the role of Government, NGO’s and the private sector in WASH service
delivery.

Presentation was done by A. Y. O Modoc of APDO, he mentioned that key issues to note are
grassroots organizations have a critical role to play in advancing progress toward the SDG’s at
the sub-national level. Also grassroots involvement in social accountability is essential and helps
to address local problems. Strategies used for social accountability are;
 presentations

community community
score card mobilisation

focused group community

discussions representatives

video
presentations

NGO’s play important role in supplying and managing WASH services particularly in rural areas.

Community score card is an assessment tool used to analyse and score indicators and it is a
very important tool that can be used for social accountability it helps to promote engagement
and involvement of citizens in matters of discourse and for them to also submit their inputs.
That helped his organization and the districts they worked in to be rendered Open Defecation
Free.

He concluded by saying that social accountability at the grassroots is very crucial for
sustainability of WASH service and therefore encouraged stakeholders to work with it to
promote participatory governance.

SIDE EVENTS

It was done by breaking out into three groups where each group had particular topics for
discussion.

THE ROLE OF WASH STAKEHOLDERS IN FLOODING EMERGENCY