Strengthening Decentralization and Governance in the Water and Sanitation Sector of Peru

Timeframe: 2007 – 2008

Implemented by WSP

Partners: CIDA, WB Operations, NGOs, donors

Desired Project Outcome:

Improved water supply and sanitation services in five regions of Peru (La Libertad, Lambayeque, Cajamarca, San Martin and Madre de Dios)

Project Description:

The Project will mainly consist in providing Technical Assistance to the strengthening of the decentralization process and governance capacity that the Government of Peru would like to implement in conjunction with its new massive investment strategy in the Water and Sanitation sector.
This will be done mainly through participatory analysis and planning workshops at Regional levels, as well as Training Workshops at Provincial levels for all municipalities that belong to a specific Province, and working meetings with key stakeholders. As a whole, the development of the regional plans will be implemented through the following logic:
1. Initial contact with the Regional authorities in order to get their formal agreement on the full cooperation and organization to the whole process. The National Director of Sanitation has already specified to WSP the full adhesion of the Regions in this process as it is of a high demand. The sector authorities at Regional and National levels are expected to provide to the project team all the existing relevant information and to provide the active professional support of their relevant staff at local level.
2. First Regional Workshops with the expected presence of major stakeholders for the sector (Regional authorities,
Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, Provincial Mayors, Representatives of the major EPS (Empresas Publicas de Saneamiento), local Universities, Private Sector, key NGOs and local projects). This first Workshop will serve to provide a participatory assessment of the situation of the sector in that particular region (Institutional set-up, coverage, financial needs, main constraints, and main information gaps). Finally, a priority analysis will be elaborated on the main issues to be tackled in the region.
3. Provincial Workshops where all Mayors at District levels are invited together with EPSs, key NGOs and Representatives of the civil society. Besides the training and planning component, these workshops will also serve as a basis for fact finding at local level and will serve to provide more precise information for the Regional Plans.
4. Further analysis. In the meantime, it is also expected that the staff of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of
Housing will work in working on information gaps (both technical and financial).
5. Second Regional Workshop, implemented after a period of about four to six months after the first one, will invite the same stakeholders as in the first one and define with more details the Regional Sector Plan, using the information gathered through the Provincial Plans and the work done by the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Housing.
6. Writing of the regional Plans. Once the second regional workshops implemented, it is proposed to hire consultants that will elaborate in a draft final version these plans (estimated time: one to two months)
7. Final validation. Finally the draft final plan will be presented to and discussed with the regional and national sector authorities.

Assumptions:

1. CIDA provides financial support to develop the project
2. The five regions are ready to be incorporated in the project as indicated by the National Directorate of Sanitation
3. The Government of Peru will finance the plans that have been developed

Indicators of Outcome:

1. Agreements and Plans are signed by all parties in each of the provinces
2. Municipalities at provincial and district levels have sent appropriate financing requests to the relevant authorities
3. All have been trained including relevant community groups with an appropriate gender balance
4. Regional stakeholders have signed the sector plan
5. A regional sector management is on the way to developed / consolidated
6. All regional and provincial agreements and plans include an analysis of the local gender and environmental issues as well as a plan of activities concerning their development

Project Milestones:

1. Five firms contracted for implementation in the five regions
2. Field guideline prepared for planning and training
3. Regions have provided a written agreement on their acceptation of the project schedule and activities
4. Launching Workshop implemented
5. Five Regional initial workshops implemented
6. 41 Workshops implemented at provincial level
7. Five Regional Sector planning workshops implemented and elaboration of 5 regional plans
8. Activities of firms are monitored by the coordination team on a monthly basis
9. Development of a final manual and proposal of a scaling-up strategy.
10. The National authorities are ware of all project advance and are actively contributing to the success of the project
11. A scaling-up strategy is developed

You can access the description of the programme through the database of WSP activities.