The Mole Series –20 years Of Achievements And Challenges

Wednesday July 29, 2009
By Fred Osei-Agyeman

WATER is life, so the saying goes.

We also know that good sanitation helps to reduce the incidence of diseases such as malaria, especially when we destroy the breeding places of mosquitoes.

But according to research, water quality as well as its availability, especially in peri-urban areas in the country has fallen.

The reasons for the fall include inadequate waste management systems that cannot cope with urbanisation, resulting in pollution of water in all facets of the physical environment, and mostly affecting the health of the poor and vulnerable groups.

Solving the problem to achieve quality water and sanitation requires multi-sectoral approach involving participation at various levels by the state and the private sector including non-governmental organizations.

Faced with this challenge, in 1989, a group of non-state actors in the water and sanitation sector in the country organised a national conference at the Mole Game Reserve in the Northern Region, to create the needed platform for policy makers and practitioners in the sector to dialogue on issues and build the capacity of local organizations in sharing their experiences and articulating key energy issues to government for redress.

Subsequently, the Mole Series, as it is known today, have witnessed a consistent growth of interest and importance among civil society, policy makers, local government and development partners.

The Mole Series, has come to stay. It has evolved from what was primarily an NGO forum to, perhaps the most important multi-stakeholder platform within the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Sector.

The impact of its achievements and potentials on the sector has been recognised at the national and international levels.

As the Mole Conference celebrates its Twentieth Anniversary some of its notable successes are worth mentioning:

* The Mole series has played a major role in facilitation of networking and capacity building of sector NGOs and in the establishment of Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) as the umbrella body for the network of WASH sector NGOs.

* Influence on Sector Policy: It has been a central forum for the pursuance of an advocacy effort aimed at changing government policy towards key sector issues such as the adoption of hand-dug wells as viable sources for potable water delivery in Ghana.

For instance, debating the issue of five per cent community contributions.

* Facilitation of NGO Participation in Sector Reform Process:
Before the formation of CONIWAS, the Mole Conferences played a key role in facilitating NGO participation in the Water Sector Reform.

It played a significant role in the debate that led to the formation of Community Water and Sanitation Division (CWSD) which subsequently evolved into the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) in 1998.

* Highlighted the Neglected Status of Sanitation:

The Mole Conferences held in 2007 and 2008 were both centered on the theme of sanitation. And this increased awareness on sanitation and triggered other key interventions such as the first presidential debate on sanitation.

* Facilitation of Learning and Knowledge Sharing:
Format for the series has increasingly shifted onto monitoring, co-ordinating, sanitation services delivery, knowledge management.

The planning of Mole has increasingly focused on learning and knowledge sharing.

Overall the progress with WASH services delivery in the country has been slow and several constraints still affect the sector; constraints that have relevance to the objectives of the Mole Series.

These include:
* Ineffective mechanisms for ensuring accessibility to potable water supply by low-income and peri-urban consumers.

The result of this problem is that the poor bears the greatest brunt of the deprivation and in many urban areas pay over 10 times to access water through secondary and tertiary providers.

* Lack of a learning and knowledge management culture.

This is reflected in the low level of documentation of sector experiences.

Such that lessons learnt are not adequately put in sector policies thus making services delivery less effective.

* Low level of NGO advocacy.

* Low level of government funding to Water and Sanitation Sector (WSS) compared to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

* Lack of harmonised approaches by various actors including collaboration between the Ministeries of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Local Government and Rural Development, Health, and the National Development Planning Commission.

The above-listed constraints establish the important potential role that the Mole Series play in terms of the goal to create a forum for dialogue on sector issues and to build the capacity of local organisations in sharing their experiences and articulating key emerging issues to government for redress.

As the key platform for advocacy and multi-stakeholder dialoguing, the conferences will still have a key role in the sector’s advocacy.

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