The $4 million Rotary International– USAID H2O Collaboration is an integrated strategic partnership by the two organizations to complement each other by leveraging each other’s unique strengths: Rotary’s influential and committed network of volunteers and USAID’s technical expertise.

The overall goal of the project is to accelerate sustainable improvement in water and sanitation access and improve hygiene behaviours in some targeted communities in Ghana.

There are five Project objectives –

1. Increase use of improved household sanitation.
2. Improve community water supply services.
3. Improve water supply and sanitation infrastructure for schools and health facilities.
4. Expand key hygiene behaviours.
5. Improve sector governance and policies through leadership/advocacy activities.

The RI-USAID H20 Collaboration Stand at the West Africa Projects Fair in Accra 2017

The implementation period of the project is five years (2015 -2020) and there are three (3) main components namely:

• Water & Sanitation Infrastructure delivery (WASH) project design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Leadership and advocacy using Rotary members’ expertise and resources to leverage WASH resources and initiatives.
• Innovation of processes, tools, and partnerships in the WASH sector.

Project Target/Deliverables

The deliverables under the project with respect water and sanitation infrastructure are as follows:

• At least 95 Water systems consisting of Boreholes with hand pump and Mechanized BH water systems
• 144 Institutional Latrines consisting of KVIPs and WCs
• 165 beneficiary communities and institutions

Project Location/Beneficiaries

The project will be implemented in 13 Districts in 6 Regions benefiting a total of 103,000 people.

Achievements so far

• Latrines construction, the target is 144 Institutional latrines out of which 131 have been completed.
• Boreholes 90 units and 5 mechanized water systems targeted, 32 have been completed with the remaining at different stages of construction.
• Facility User Education / SHEP Training of the Schools Health Committees in the beneficiary institutions, the target is to train 93 Institutions out of which 74 Institutions have been trained.
• WASH Committee training, the target is to train 90 communities out of which 52 communities have received either the initial or the entire training.

For all these infrastructure delivery works and capacity activities, Rotary Club members have been involved in the field monitoring and also participated in the Facility User Education and the WASH Committees training sessions. This national project involves 40 Rotary clubs who have been assigned to the 165 communities and institutions to supervise and monitor the project activities to be undertaken in the beneficiary communities.

Policy Advocacy Campaign

This is a very important component of the project and the end goal is improvement in local and national level funding towards increasing and sustaining access to WASH services.

Advocacy champions from the Rotary clubs have been equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills through training to enable them advocate for an increase in the level of funding to provide more water and sanitation facilities in our rural communities and to ensure the sustenance of these WASH infrastructure after installation.

In Ghana the Key WASH Challenges are:

• Deficient allocation of financing to WASH in the National Budget coupled with the inadequate and unpredictable releases of such allocations for WASH activities.
• Weak Accountability Mechanisms once funds have been released to the Implementing institutions. Often it is difficult to get funds to be released on time for designated projects due to lack of knowledge by beneficiaries, and lack of commitment and, or control by coordinating / facilitating agencies.
• Poor Sustainability of WASH facilities due to high emphasis on Facility Delivery as against Community Participation in the decisions and planning relating to the selection and installation of infrastructure intended to benefit vulnerable populations.

The Advocacy champions are therefore required to engage the beneficiary communities to raise awareness on their rights and by so doing empower them so that they can engage local government to prioritize water and sanitation