Joint Sector Review (JSR), what I learnt

In our recent Joint Sector Review (JSR) journey, we witnessed an impressive level of participation and collaboration. More than 800 individuals engaged in a series of over 30 meetings, covering both thematic and non-thematic discussions, marking the successful conclusion of this phase.

Initially, we grappled with over 150 questions, but our systematic approach prevailed. By carefully categorizing these questions using the invaluable insights from GLAAS, country self-assessment (SWA), and Financial BAT analysis (SWA), we streamlined our focus, ultimately narrowing down to 35 key questions.

Our journey extended to the provinces, Under the leadership of all 7 provincial WASH ministries, where we encountered similar challenges. It became apparent that there's room for improvement in terms of programmatic approaches and system thinking. Political sensitization and mutual accountability mechanisms were rarely addressed at the sub-national level, highlighting the need for capacity building initiatives at the local and provincial levels. Additionally, nascent organograms require nurturing. We always talk about devolution of work from federal to local but no one has noticed the glaring gaps in local governments where the local bodies are almost helpless, where all accountability lies but lesser resources , be it human, financial or technical.

While there's a significant financing gap, promising examples of diversification emerged, such as revolving funds, cooperative initiatives, and successful market linkages. Repayable financing in small-town water supply projects has already received global recognition. Yet, mainstreaming Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) and Climate Resilience remains a challenge, prompting us to rethink our guidelines and designs, take a look into our knowledge repositories and create if there is none.

The fragmented and non-categorized service delivery underscored the importance of forthcoming regulations. A key realization during our introspection was the critical role of effective documentation in facilitating communication. We must prepare impact briefs and communicate more effectively with ministries responsible for finance, climate financing, and organizational setups to reposition WASH into a strong agenda, that will require commitments, strategic negotiators, great leaders ,champions , hope we will be able to create those.

Neglecting communication materials and advocacy efforts could weaken our position in the competitive landscape. And while moving forward its imperative that we move together with private sectors, CSOs, research and academia's. We hope to lay the foundations for progress through this JSR. It's our firm belief that this review will prove instrumental in our journey forward."

-Personal Feelings