National WASH Coalition
The WASH Campaign was subsumed into the Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Inter-Agency Coordination Committee (ICC, the former Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Working Group) which was established in April 2010. The ICC is chaired by the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, and includes representatives from the Ministries of Water Resources and of Education, Science and Technology, donors and development partners such as WSP, UNICEF and national and international NGOs. The ICC has six thematic working namely on School WASH, Hygiene Promotion, Sanitation Promotion, Policy, Resources Mobilization & Research, Household Water Treatment & Storage and General & Health Care Waste Management.
Focus
The general objective of the ICC is to raise the profile of water, hygiene and sanitation for all in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals in Kenya. The coalition aims as well to ensure that the voices of rural people, especially the poor, are heard.
Milestones and achievements
The ICC’s activities will focus on regional learning and exchange, sharing local experiences and strengthening partnerships between the ICC, district WASH forums and local programmes. Previously the activities of the old Environmental Hygiene and Sanitation Group focused on several themes, but stressed most importantly on school sanitation and hygiene, including the development of policy and guidelines, roll-out of of a child-focused participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation methodology (PHAST) and integrated its experience with school-related activities in the development of a school WASH package. During 2008 and 2009 the coalition carried out the following activities:
- conducted a rapid assessment on how key actors aligned themselves with the National Environmental Health and Sanitation Policy. The report highlighted the gaps in action and in the financing required to ensure the sustainability of WASH initiatives and the achievement of the MDGs.
- completed a nationwide study on the effectiveness of PHAST.
- undertook follow-up work on the National Sanitation Action Plan from the International Year of Sanitation.
- organise a two-day National Hygiene and Sanitation Fair to discuss the National Road Map for the International Year of Sanitation.
In 2010, WSSCC supported the ICC in sharing knowledge and experiences between the national and district level,by supporting 2 learning visists to districts in the west and the east of the country. The visits included the regualr coalition meetings as well field trips to local projects by partners.