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Why and What of Capacity Building in WASH
Welcome to the First Blog
The Sanitation Capacity Building Platform(SCBP) website now has a rich source of learning material on Decentralised Sanitation Systems : including technical reports, Training Modules, Government report and Reports and other independent reports and Publications, Technical Reports and Learning Videos. We understand there exists an overload of information on the internet, our website therefore tries to capcture key documents and learning material that we believe are important for Decentralised Sanitation Solutions and specifically for Faecal Sludge and Septage Managment(FSSM). We welcome contributions from readers, peers, experts and organsiations to contribute to the SCBP website and to this Blog for enhancing mutual learning.
Most programs of WASH have capacity building as an integral component of work. It is not wrong to assume that regular capacity building is required to improve skills and performance of the teams to achieve improved WASH outcomes. However, what is not considered very often is what should be the focus of capacity building, should it be only for imparting functional skills or a combination of perspective building and funcitonal skills, should capacity building not be a part of normal working of any organisation instead of a seprate add on for its staff and volunteers, can capacity building training be undertaken separately from implementation work, etc.
Importance of Perspective
Where is water. Capacity building if defined in terms of skills and competencies only, is a narrow definition. A good trainer needs to have a larger perspective of the context and challenges within which his/her focus on capacity building is situated, besides knowing the nuts and bolts and hands on experience in problem solving. So, if you are dealing with WASH capacity building and there too sanitation only, you need to place it in the perspective of drinking water access, crisis of availability, inequity (social, rural-urban, intra urban, agriculture-industry, etc.) and then come to water for sanitation. If there is an appreciation of water crisis, then sanitation capacity building can be situated in this reality and not be reduced to an agnostic technology and skills trainings fr sanitation.
Approaches and Social context. Even management education has a history and an understanding of how management tools have evolved from industrialisation of early 1900s to the cyber technology era of digital marketing today, is important to understand what has changed and what remains the core approaches in management training. Unfortunately in sanitation, we seem to forget the context, the rationale and change in different sanitation promotion approaches followed since the 1970s. Suddenly CLTS becomes fashionable, forgetting all other community based approaches. Then different agencies start adtopting tweaked versions of CLTS each giving a different name. Similarly when you are dealing with behaviour change for WASH, then you have to place it in context to all the approaches followed ranging from market based to social movements based approaches of mobilizing people to demand water and sanitation as rights. Adopting a very short term functional capacity building programme aimed at changing people’s immediate behaviour may not lead to success. Unless you look at deeper self-perception barriers they face in building and using toilets and hand washing at critical times, simply adopting a clever approach to santition behaviour change may bring short term results but no sustainability.
Perspective building needs to be situated in the larger context of livelihoods and needs of people. When people were living in kuchha houses in the 1980s, we had a rural sanitation programme that gave Rs. 2000 toilet subsidy for pucca toilets. In early 2000 when people had started building pucca houses we gave them Rs 500 subsidy for toilet construction. Now again we are giving Rs.12,000 individual toilet subsidy.
Understanding the larger institutional and legal systems, governance structures, their shortcomings and limitations, is also important for capacity building. If institutions that administer and regulate WASH sector are not performing or are under staffed and corrupt, then your focus, key messages and options for improvement that you suggest in capacity building programmes – need to to factors these in carefully. So that you don’t end up seeking more or less of regulations that worsens the problems, dont offer quick fix solutions that will fail. Yet at the same time, you retain a focus institutional strengthening and accountability, as a critical part of your training and capacity building perspective. Not becoming advocates for short term solutions.
Functional skills
Functional skills are important but need to be integrated with perspective building. With a plethora of tools, approaches, technologies, compendiums, case studies…. there is an excess of what is available and not enough clarity on what is useful and how it can be used for specific WASH capacity building. The Pracitioners Meet on FSSM Capacity Building in Dec 2017, identified some key lessons for making capacity building. Please refer to that report in our Activities - Consultations tab of this website.
Different aspects of decentralized sanitation capacity building in FSSM: Technology, Financing, Planning, Behaviour change, Gender, etc. are covered under the larger functional classification of a Sanitation Service Value Chain. What has to be prioritized and communicated under each thematic aspect, needs to be carefully identified and creatively built into the content of capacity building modules. Otherwise it can become an overload of information that does not have a linkage with the larger perspective of WASH sector challenges (water scarcity, staff and financial resources with small Urban Local Bodies for O&M).
What functional skills can be imparted to staff of Urban Local Bodies needs to be identified and exercises and practical work needs to be built into the training modules. Key Messages and Facts need to be culled out and placed upfront for Trainers to emphasise in training sessions. For example Scheduled de sludging of septic tanks is recommended : is this a requirement in a particular context for addressing septage overflow concerns or is it a requirement for making a business case for O&M by operators – needs to be understood for capacity building by Trainers. A graded learning set of modules helps in defining higher learning goals, aligned with practical work on the ground.
Depinder Kapur
NIUA