Jaff Francis Agiamntebom (ELP 2022) | Coordinator, Forest and Agroforestry Promoters (FAP NGO),Cameroon
According to Cameroon’s decentralization laws, water supply is under the authority of municipal councils in rural areas. Councils are building water infrastructures like water points, boreholes, and otschemes. Within the council areas, various stakeholders, including government technical ministries in charge of water, environment and nature conservation, village development associations, and NGOs are involved in the process of supplying water to the population of the village in their council area. These stakeholders do not consult with each other before implementing their relevant activities which leads to the duplication of actions in the same area, competition, lack of cohesion amongst stakeholders, and conflicts of interest between stakeholders.
At the village level, there are different water supply schemes operating independently from each other and the management procedures are not known to the other schemes in the same village. And there have been no planned strategies and regulations put in place to ensure participatory management of water resources at the village and council level.
The goal of FAP NGO, through the leadership of Mr. Jaff Francis, has been to reduce the duplication of activities and to put in place transparency, accountability, stakeholder participation and good governance in the management of water supply sector. This has taken place in councils in the North West Region of Cameroon, and with support from the Netherlands Development Organization we have assisted three councils (the Ndu, Kumbo and Bafut councils) in identifying the different schemes used to supply water operating at both village and council levels through a baseline survey. The results of the survey identified the different water supply schemes in villages that made up the three municipal councils, including: supplying water by gravity, bore holes, stream water catching with the use of generators to pump water, and forage drilled water supply.
The representatives of the different water supply schemes at the village were invited to the council premises to form a platform for water supply dialogue. All the members of each council engaged in a dialogue made up of representatives of the different village water supply schemes. There were also water management technicians trained by some national and international NGOs, like HELVETAS and Community development training centers in Cameroon, who were members of the Village Water dialogue platform. The government’s technical stakeholders, including the Ministry of Water and Energy, Cameroon Water Corporation, the Environment and Nature Protection, the Agriculture and Rural Development, the Forestry and Wildlife Departments, and NGOs intervening in the sector, were also included in the technical team on the council platform.
The aim of the water dialogue platform processes at the village and council level was to support stakeholders' technical ability to develop and sustainably manage water resources.
At the village level, water supply dialogue platforms were working on joint actions that benefited the entire village community. These platforms were coordinated at the council level and facilitated the work of councils and other developmental stakeholders in carrying out water resource development projects within the council areas.
The councils were one of the main targets for developmental projects and they hosted the dialogue platform where all the water resources management issues in the council area were coordinated. The water dialogue platforms also acted as a communication medium for development partners.
Information boards were placed in front of each of the councils as a communication avenue for the public. Decisions and actions of the platforms and any other information were for the benefit of the entire community. All action plans at the village levels were submitted to the council platform to source for technical and financial assistance.
This action has stimulated dynamic relationships between water stakeholders and council authorities, who have to work together to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of their actions.
Water dialogue platforms are now active in their different councils, and are bringing different actors together to come to a strategic consensus. The platform brings in different opinions, perceptions, preoccupations, assumptions, and judgments of the actors involved. It identifies opportunities to improve the exchange of information, social organization, and decision-making between stakeholders in order to create the proper conditions for innovation. At the same time, it contributes to creating awareness of the constraints and opportunities that affect the performance of relevant actors. A dialogue platform identifies potential actors who do or could act more effectively together to remove constraints and make use of opportunities for innovation. Dialogue platforms enhance institutional and technological innovation through active networking, involving all relevant actors including community members, governments, NGOs, and the private sector.