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NATIONAL COORDINATOR

Eboueme Bountsebe

Directeur Résident

CREPA - Cameroon

Boîte Postale 3 597

Yaoundé

tel:(+237) 22 21 25 76

bountsebeeboueme[at]yahoo.fr

Cameroon

Members of the coalition and partners

The Cameroonian WASH coalition formed in 2008 and started its activities in 2009. Its members and cooperating partners are up to date the Ministries of Water and Energy, Public Health and Basic Education, CREPA Cameroon, UNICEF Cameroon and the World Bank.

Focus and coming activities

Coalition building is the main aim of the first year of operation, primarily on national level but subsequently also regionally.
Mapping of the sector through a qualitative survey on knowledge, attitudes and practices related to the water, sanitation and hygiene of the rural population will also be undertaken in cooperation with UNICEF Cameroon.
The Global Handwashing Day will be celebrated through a media exhibition with facilitators.

Enhancing collaboration in the sanitation sector: birth of a new National WASH Coalition

During the International Year of Sanitation 2008, Cameroonians realized the unacceptable sanitation situation in their country. A lack of consultative structure was spotted and the need to improve the cooperation among stakeholders was highlighted. As an example, there are seven ministries concerned with water and sanitation, all working in an individual and not very concerted manner.

The Government took the problem very seriously and the Prime Minister himself launched the National WASH Coalition. The role of this newborn structure is to facilitate cooperation between sectors. One of the expected outcomes is an increased investment efficiency, for instance by making different actors focusing on the same region so that their action gets better results and more visibility. The new coalition also aims to be a platform where stakeholders can meet and share in order to advocate for water and sanitation issues within their own organization and towards their own target audiences.

In a short term perspective, the National WASH Coalition will help the government establish a national sanitation plan which doesn't exist yet. It has first bet on a high level strategy: sensitizing, supporting and collaborating with the government are its main aims. Awareness needs to be raised as the national sanitation budget is currently clearly too poor. In a long term perspective, the coalition will act at a local level too by raising awareness of the population; as for many Cameroonians hygiene still seems to be a vague concept. Monitoring those progresses can easily be done, says Mr. Eboueme Bountsebe, WSSCC National Coordinator, by studying the fluctuations of the number of people suffering from diarrhoea in the clinics and by evaluating the number of people openly defecating in the country.

Communication is needed to inform the actors about the existence of the National Coalition. Until now, the efforts have been concentrated on the big events and conferences when the coalition's work was exposed in the media. The WSSCC Secretariat is expected to provide advocacy and communications support to improve the visibility of the new structure.

Based on an interview with Mr. Eboueme Bountsebe, WSSCC National Coordinator for Cameroon, during the 2009 Planning meeting in Geneva, May 2009