National WASH Coalition
The India WASH coalition, active for many years in bringing water and sanitation organizations and individuals together, became a legal entity called the India WASH Forum (IWF) in 2008.
The Forum comprises a large number of member organizations and individuals from all over India, and works in close cooperation with several civil society groups.
Focus
The Forum aims to bring together all major initiatives by organizations and networks in India in the spirit of transparency, sharing and learning.
The charter includes the following commitments:
- promoting knowledge generation through research and documentation. Special emphasis given to sector-specific and cross-cutting thematic learning;
- supporting field-based NGOs and civil society organizations (CSOs) in technical work and programmes;
- using monitoring, evaluation, media, campaigning and fact-finding missions to underpin advocacy and work to influence policy;
- lobbying and networking to promote common objectives.
Milestones and achievements
The Forum’s members decide its agenda and activities. Some recent highlights are :
- Supporting civil society groups in the Sacosan conference: IWF co-hosted civil society’s involvement in SACOSAN III (the third South Asian Conference on Sanitation) in Delhi in November 2008. This included preparing and conducting the pre-meetings, and drafting and presenting the Civil Society Declaration. The preparations for Sacosan IV in 2011 are now starting, and IWF is the regional coordinating body.
- Advocacy on national policies: in 2008, the Forum contributed suggestions to the new urban sanitation policy of the Government of India.
- In 2009, IWF helped to organize a Right to Water and Sanitation workshop to learn from recent initiatives and struggles for securing enforceable constitutional guarantees. The Statement of Intent was disseminated by the 400 participants and the official workshop report.
- With WaterAid India and the Freshwater Action Network-South Asia, suggestions were sent to the Department of Drinking Water Supply aimed at improving the official guidelines of the Total Sanitation Campaign Programme.
- Dialogue and knowledge exchange: a monthly IWF update series of relevant news, events and information on government water and sanitation programmes was distributed to members and others interested.
- In 2008, with WaterAid’s support, the Forum studied the Indian Total Sanitation Campaign in five states and produced a report, “Feeling the Pulse.”
