This mid-term review of Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council’s (WSSCC) medium-term strategic plan was undertaken to assess its progress against intended outcomes and suggest improvements.
Background
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) is a global multi-stakeholder partnership and membership organization, with coalitions in over 20 countries and members in more than 150 countries. It stands upon twenty years of extensive experience in water, sanitation and hygiene issues at community, national and international levels. The council Approaches its work on a five year basis. It sets out its mission, goals and work-plans for a period of five years in its Medium-Term Strategic Plan (MTSP). In 2015, the WSSCC commissioned a Mid-Term Review to assess its progress against the intended results of the MTSP. The MTR covers the period 2012-2014, with additional analysis of progress made as part of the 2015-2016 Biennial Work Plan up to February 2016.
Approach
This review aims to understand WSSCC’s contributions to AfricaSAN and SacoSAN and the consistency in WSSCC’s Approach under both Regional SANs. The case study investigated the content of AfricaSAN IV (2015) and SacoSAN V (2013) and VI (2016) proceedings, all three of which were held during WSSCC’s ongoing Medium Term Strategic Plan (MTSP period). Key themes from the conferences were highlighted, outcomes were compared against intended results and challenges expressed. A review of documents and literature was conducted, including WSSCC’s internal documentation on the SANs programme along with semi-structured interviews with 23 stakeholders. To guide the assessment process, the MTR team developed a Theory of Change for WSSCC’s engagement at the Regional SANs platforms.
Key Findings
WSSCC’s experiences to date suggest that inefficiencies have affected its performance in certain areas during the MTSP. These are primarily evidenced through time delays in carrying forward planned activities and programmatic underspend. Membership and NCs are identified as central to achievement of MTSP outcomes in translating WSSCC’s global and regional advocacy to the country level. However, the membership strategy has not been integrated into programming as intended in the MTSP. The review finds positive contributions from WSSCC in generating new evidence, debate and recognition particularly around sanitation and hygiene issues focused on women and marginalised groups. However, progress on a Community of Practice in promoting knowledge sharing among sector professionals is modest to date.
Implications
The review provides recommendations for charting out the future strategy of the WSSCC. Insights from the study suggest that the WSSCC strategy should include a map of what an integrated RBM system would look like in WSSCC, with clear resourced strategies for ensuring all the key components are in place with realistic timelines and with appropriate prioritisation. A participatory and iterative exercise to produce a Theory of Change that determines the linkages between desired outcomes at various levels and strategies to achieve them can lead to better results.