National WASH Coalition
The Philippines WASH coalition has a wide membership, including about 20 organizations, over 30 local government authorities, national government agencies, communities and individuals. The local government authorities are mostly based in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Click here for their dedicated website and a list of WASH coalition members.
Focus
The coalition aims to increase water supply and sanitation coverage in communities most in need of them, and has identified five provinces in ARMM as its focus area. Its strategy, developed in 2008, defines the scope of its interventions:
- to work with national and local policy makers and regulators as well as the poorest communities to improve access to water supply, sanitation, health and hygiene in areas most in need of them to promote appropriate technologies that improve access to WASH;
- to influence local WASH institutions to prioritize the delivery of WASH services in conflict- and poverty-stricken areas;
- to strengthen partnerships in WASH with local, international and other relevant organizations;
- to promote WASH education, advocacy, and dissemination of policies and standards at the local level;
- to work at the community level as an active partner of WASH national agencies for policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation.
Milestones and achievements
The coalition’s broad range of activities in recent years include:
- Capacity building of local actors: the coalition provides technical information and support to build the capacities of local government, communities and civil society organizations. This lets them improve water supply and sanitation service delivery to the poorest and the most disadvantaged. With water governance the coalition particularly emphasizes the formation of grassroot-level organizations and networks, which it encourages to manage their water resources – both practically through supply systems and strategically through planning.
- The promotion of low-cost, appropriate WASH technology options is a special advocacy priority of the C coalition as a means to prevent corruption. It undertook several forums, broadcasts, write-ups, training sessions and speeches to make communities aware of low-cost options. In this way it sought to encourage local initiatives and empower people to believe in their own capacities. Coalition members also provided technical assistance on the design, construction, operation and maintenance of low-cost technologies to communities, NGOs and local governments.
in 2011, the coalition was engaged in an advocacy campaign on well maintained toilets and WASH facilities in schools in 14 provinces. For this work the coalition produced several materials that can be found in the resource section.
During 2009, these efforts inspired the passing of enabling WASH policies at local government levels.
Rainwater harvesting to supply small island communities with drinking water: the coalition teaches the poorest families in small island communities how to build their own ferro-cement rainwater harvesting tanks and share the knowledge with others. The construction serves as a WASH training venue for the other members of the community.
Sanitation and hygiene promotion: the coalition produces WASH advocacy materials emphasizing that WASH technologies are affordable ways to improve well-being; the materials are used in lobbying local governments. The coalition provided briefing items for broadcasting various WASH messages on the Silliman on Air radio programme and to the local press in the Bicol and the Eastern Visayas.
Compilation of legal documents on sanitation: the Philippine WASH coalition has produced and electronically distributed a compilation of laws, policies and guidelines regarding sanitation. This was used by members in meetings and seminars, and was included in websites and information kits to encourage WASH implementation, which is legally backed by the Sanitation Code.
