Navigating the Complex Landscape of Emergency WASH Response
Humanitarian crises, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks pose immense challenges to providing essential water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. As the world faces an unprecedented level of complex and protracted emergencies, the humanitarian community often struggles to meet the critical WASH needs of affected populations. Too frequently, WASH responses fall short of meeting humanitarian standards or addressing the diverse needs of communities.
To overcome these obstacles, enhancing coordination and partnership across multiple stakeholders has emerged as a pivotal strategy. By bringing together government entities, development agencies, local leaders, the private sector, and affected communities, emergency WASH coordination can be strengthened to deliver a more predictable, quality humanitarian response.
This article delves into the key elements that characterize and enable effective emergency WASH coordination, drawing on valuable insights from diverse country experiences. From inclusive approaches to structural considerations, capacity building, and political enablers, we explore a comprehensive framework for strengthening multi-stakeholder collaboration in emergency WASH preparedness and response.
Inclusive Coordination Across Government and Beyond
Effective emergency WASH coordination requires an inclusive approach that engages a wide range of stakeholders. This begins with robust coordination within government, bringing together not just the health sector, but also ministries responsible for water and sanitation, social protection, disaster management, and finance.
In Sierra Leone, for example, the COVID-19 response saw the Ministry of Defence lead on overall coordination, operations, and logistics, while the Ministry of Information and Communication took the lead on risk communications. This cross-sectoral collaboration helped to identify and mitigate the impact of public health measures on areas like education and livelihoods.
However, gaps in multi-sector coordination have also been observed, leading to delays, duplication, and insufficient attention to critical issues. In Ethiopia, limited coordination between the health sector and other departments hindered the COVID-19 response, as teams working on water, sanitation, and hygiene had insufficient links to case management or infection prevention and control efforts.
Effective coordination also requires strong linkages between national and local governments. Positive examples from Ethiopia and Rwanda showed how technical and financial support from the national level helped to strengthen the functionality of subnational emergency coordination structures. Conversely, in Kenya and South Sudan, limited integration of local priorities into national plans and inadequate communication from the center contributed to delays and inefficiencies in the COVID-19 response.
Beyond government, emergency WASH coordination must also engage a diverse range of external stakeholders. Country experiences highlighted the valuable contributions of civil society organizations, local leaders, research institutions, and the private sector in areas such as risk communication, community engagement, technical guidance, and service delivery.
In Ethiopia, India, and Sierra Leone, local governments worked closely with civil society and community leaders to disseminate critical messages on COVID-19. In Ethiopia, the establishment of a national research consortium and scientific advisory councils supported the government’s pandemic response with technical advice and operational research.
However, gaps in stakeholder engagement have also been observed. In Sierra Leone, traditional women leaders were not represented in district-level decision-making on COVID-19, while in Bangladesh, women’s rights organizations reported being excluded from local and national consultations.
Ensuring equitable gender representation in coordination structures is crucial, not only as a matter of rights, but also to inform decisions that account for the diverse needs of men, women, boys, and girls. Yet, country examples indicated that women were often underrepresented in emergency coordination bodies, highlighting the need for targeted efforts to promote inclusive participation.
Structural Considerations for Effective Coordination
Beyond inclusive engagement, the structural aspects of coordination bodies play a vital role in enabling effective collaboration. This includes the availability of regular coordination fora, clear mandates and sufficient authority for coordinating entities, and the value of building on existing coordination mechanisms.
Country experiences demonstrated the importance of having functioning coordination structures in place, both at the national and subnational levels. In Ethiopia, the presence of national and regional public health emergency operations centers (PHEOCs) provided platforms for joint planning, information sharing, and resource mobilization during the COVID-19 response. Conversely, the absence or irregularity of such coordination fora hindered effective emergency management in some settings.
The mandate and authority of coordination bodies also emerged as a critical factor. In Ethiopia, for example, the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC) experienced changes in its positioning within the government structure, which affected its ability to coordinate effectively with line ministries. When the NDRMC was an autonomous body, it had greater convening power and authority, but its absorption into a ministry reduced its status as an equal partner, hindering its capacity to promote disaster risk management across sectors.
Equally important is the presence of ongoing, standing coordination structures that can function before, during, and after emergencies. Country experiences highlighted how coordination bodies that only activate during crises face challenges in rapidly initiating a response, and miss opportunities to build preparedness and facilitate learning from previous events.
In contrast, using pre-existing coordination mechanisms can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency response. In Ethiopia, the COVID-19 vaccine rollout leveraged structures and personnel from the routine immunization program, enabling clear delineation of roles and faster activation of coordination processes.
Strengthening Organizational Capacities for Coordination
Effective emergency WASH coordination also requires sufficient organizational capacities, including skilled personnel, funding, infrastructure, and mechanisms for learning and adaptation.
Across countries, human resource capacity emerged as a key determinant of coordination effectiveness. Challenges such as staff shortages, high turnover, lack of technical expertise, and insufficient political skills within coordination bodies hindered their ability to fulfill their mandates. In Nepal, the temporary nature of staffing in the National Reconstruction Authority, along with gaps in complementary skills, contributed to coordination challenges.
Capacity gaps were also observed at the subnational level, where local governments often lacked the human resources, equipment, and funding to activate and sustain effective emergency coordination mechanisms. In Ethiopia, the variation in capacity between regions and districts influenced the functionality of coordination structures and the speed of the COVID-19 response.
Beyond human resources, infrastructure and communications capabilities played a vital role in enabling coordination. In Pakistan and Nepal, poor internet connectivity and disrupted transportation networks limited the ability of subnational entities to participate in coordination meetings and share information effectively.
Crucially, the capacity for learning and adaptation emerged as a key enabler of effective coordination. Countries with experience in managing past shocks, such as Kerala, India and Sierra Leone, were better positioned to leverage existing coordination mechanisms and strengthen stakeholder engagement for the COVID-19 response.
However, barriers to learning, such as the lack of opportunities for structured reflection, high staff turnover, and the tendency for coordination structures to become dormant after emergency response, hindered the institutionalization of coordination capacities in some settings.
The Catalytic Role of Political Enablers
Underlying the technical and structural aspects of coordination are the political enablers that can either facilitate or impede effective collaboration. These include high-level political leadership, incentives for coordination, and the management of political tensions.
Country experiences highlighted the critical influence of political leadership at both the national and subnational levels. In Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Pakistan, strong political ownership and engagement from the highest levels of government promoted cross-sector collaboration, facilitated development agency coordination, and ensured the functionality of coordination structures.
Conversely, in some settings, political tensions between national and local governments hindered coordination across levels. In Pakistan and Nepal, friction between central and provincial/local authorities undermined the effectiveness of emergency response coordination.
Beyond leadership, the incentives and transparency around information sharing also shaped coordination dynamics. In Ethiopia, for example, political concerns about the country’s image as an aid-dependent “famine country” contributed to delays in the publication of early warning data, hindering the effectiveness of coordination efforts.
Balancing political leadership with technical expertise also emerged as an important consideration. In Ethiopia and South Sudan, coordination benefited from the inclusion of health professionals, researchers, and other technical stakeholders alongside political decision-makers. In contrast, the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in South Sudan suffered setbacks when senior officials overrode technically informed distribution strategies without adequate consultation.
Strengthening Coordination for Effective Emergency WASH Response
The experiences across diverse country contexts underscore the critical importance of effective coordination and partnership in shaping the humanitarian WASH response. By addressing the key elements of inclusive engagement, structural considerations, organizational capacities, and political enablers, the humanitarian community can work towards enhancing the predictability, quality, and impact of emergency WASH assistance.
As the world continues to grapple with complex and protracted crises, strengthening emergency WASH coordination through multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential to ensure that essential water, sanitation, and hygiene services reach those most in need. Through sustained and coordinated efforts, we can move closer to the goal of delivering a predictable, quality humanitarian WASH response, anywhere and at any time.
To learn more about the Joint Action for Water initiative and explore opportunities for collaboration, visit https://jointactionforwater.org/.
