Let there be life: making water sector funds work for the people
Source: Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN)
This paper looks at the water supply and sanitation sector financing and expenditure to determine the levels of investment into the sector. This is done by analysing the figures from the national budgets and other sources of funding and looking at actual funding trends during the past five years.
Overall, the water and sanitation sector is not receiving as much priority as it should have been accorded. However, within the sector, this report’s findings show that water is receiving some priority than sanitation in Malawi. In terms of finance, the government needs to show good commitment in supporting the sector. Comparatively, the financing from government alone is still extremely low compared to other social sectors. Without an improvement in this area neither the problem of equity in safe water availability will be fully addressed, nor will the sanitation problem be resolved.
There are also a number of areas that need improvement regarding the sector as a whole in order to improve its effectiveness and coverage. First, it appears that the sector is mostly donor and NGO dependent. The role of government seems to be passive in terms of both policy support and grassroots implementation. The district offices need to be fully empowered so that problem of equity within the districts is addressed. This can only happen with sufficient resources available to them.
Secondly, support from the donors need to be well coordinated, so that the right targets for achieving good results are realised. The health sector has shown considerable progress in SWAp, which is basically a shift from individual project approaches to a new arrangement where donors contribute to the strengthening of the entire sector based on agreed priorities. The current situation in the sector shows a lot of different projects spread geographically, with some areas getting a better share than others. With well coordinated support, all players can effectively take an active role. This can start with good planning, implementation, and then, monitoring and evaluation, right from the village level to ministry headquarters level.
Finally, the overall civil society involved in water sector is also not well coordinated, and has little interface with the government and donors at national levels. NGOs are not in the mainstream of issues despite their good share of the budget in the sector. These organisations have a potential to play a major role in monitoring the sector in terms of general development, equity on distribution of water points, sustainability of the interventions, and above all, push the government on funding of the sector. There is an absence of a good active network of organisations in the sector and neither is there a Parliamentary Committee on water to represent such issues in the legislature.
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