Participation - which way?

The Ghana National Community Water and Sanitation Programme (NCWSP) is now in it’s second phase which has a long-term period of ten years. This second phase is being implemented in three stages, with each stage lasting approximately three years. The long duration of the NCWSP II enables districts and communities to play a central role in project implementation. The policy of decentralization, which encourages participation in the water and sanitation activities by all stakeholders at the district level, is laudable considering the history of development projects in the country. In the past, the government provided infrastructure without community participation. There was therefore no maintenance culture and when facilities broke down, beneficiaries did nothing about them – they expected the “government” to maintain broken-down facilities be they water supply facilities, schools or roads. With the decentralization policy, however, all stakeholders from the community, private sector, District Assembly (DA), the Regional Coordinating Council and the Nation are participating in the programme. Roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders are clearly defined and stakeholders are to be trained accordingly. This paper presents the key elements of the NCWSP II, which are participatory, Comments on the issues that may arose and makes recommendations.