Training on WASH Bottleneck Analysis Tool (WASHBAT) and WASH Sector Governance launched regionally by WGF in Amman, Jordan

Requested by UNICEF Regional Office for MENA in Amman, the UNDP-SIWI WGF team was invited to conduct and moderate a four days Training of Trainers (ToT) on WASH Bottleneck Analysis Tool (WASHBAT) and WASH Sector Governance. The training took place in Amman and was attended by over 20 UNICEF MENA country level WASH technical specialist coming from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Syria and Yemen.

Being endorsed by the participants as a big success, this type of a training paved a way for a more enhanced collaboration under the ongoing partnership between UNICEF and SIWI, the Accountability for Sustainability.

MENA, being a fragile region consisted of many countries in crisis setting, illustrated how necessary is to invest in WASH sector enabling environment building blocks such as political leadership, policy, strategy and planning, institutional arrangements, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, financing, accountability and regulation.

Over four days, the participants learned about these important policy aspects contained within the WASHBAT tool and most importantly interacted through several simulation exercises, an accountability triangle and regulatory simulation exercise, being among them.

The event allowed the WGF team to present some of its landmark knowledge tools around the WASHBAT tool such as Implementation Guide and Facilitation tool. In turn, the team received very relevant feedback on its previous WASHBAT experience and learned about the regional gaps and needs for future programming.

Following the challenges and future perspectives coming from this workshop the WGF team envisages more active regional presence in the future.