Sanitation sub-group meeting MINUTES.

12th Sanitation sub-group meeting held at GIZ Isimani Office - Upanga

Main conference room on 15th December 2014 from 10:20-12:16 hrs

PRESENT:

Kaposo Mwambuli (WSP-WB)Chair / Kiwe Sebunya (UNICEF) / Sophie Mueller (GIZ)
Nsaa-Iya Amaniel (DPG W) / Faith Thuo (DPG-W)

Agenda

  1. Opening and Introduction.
  2. Adoption of the agenda.
  3. Approval of previous minutes.
  4. Actions arising from previous meeting, briefing on pending issues, reports and dialogue meetings.
  5. Sanitation & Hygiene’s institutional framework.
  6. AOB and Closure.

1 Opening and Introduction.

The meeting was officially opened at 10:20hrs and thereafter members were requested to introduce themselves.

2. Adoption of the agenda

The agenda was adopted and members were all in agreement.

3. Approval of previous minutes

Minutes were approved and the Secretariat was asked to proceed to the next agenda item.

4. Actions arising from previous meeting, briefing on pending issues, reports and dialogue meetings.

4.1 Matters arising from the 11th Sanitation meeting were:

1. DPs to agree when to meet and plan the next steps in following up on the Sanitation Policy with MoHSW.

2. Secretariat to share the revised WSDP Enhanced Dialogue Mechanism document.

3. Secretariat to share a template for DPs input on the budget, work plan, geographical area etc for FY 2014/15.

4. Secretariat to share a template requesting for DPs indication on support of the current action plan of the 12th JSM.

5. GIZ to co-ordinate the participation of DPs in the AfricaSAN conference.

6. WSP to co-ordinate the support to MoHSW on the Health BRN lab.

4.2 Status of the above items was reported as below;

  1. Agree when to meet and plan the next steps in following up on the Sanitation Policy letter with MoHSW.

This action point was reported that it was not done due to DPs other commitments. It was suggested that members should discuss and agree on a clear agenda when meeting with the PS. Some other initiatives were done during the 13th Joint supervision mission to meet the PS but the meeting had to be postponed. Members were keen to be notified the reasons the PS was not met and why the meeting was pushed forward.

It is still a great concern to members that the institutional arrangement is not clear because even the sanitation leadership is now becoming unclear and is affecting funding.

2. Share the revised WSDP Enhanced Dialogue Mechanism document. Done and completed.

3. Share a template for DPs input on the budget, work plan, geographical area etc for FY 2014/15.The Secretariat sent the template to all DPs but still awaiting feedback from them.

4. Share a template requesting for DPs indication on support of the current action plan of the 12th JSM. The template was sent. One DP provided response. DPs present in the meeting promised to fill the template and send by end of January 2015.

5. Co-ordinate the participation of DPs in the AfricaSAN conference. Coordination was done but the conference was soon after postponed.

6. Co-ordinate the support to MoHSW on the Health BRN lab. Done Members were notified that the BRN lab purely focused on maternal health. Sanitation was not considered. Drugs and human health were the key areas discussed in the lab.

Discussion:

Based on the status of action points given above, a discussion started. Members showed concerns that the previous Sanitation sub-group meeting was held in August 2014. This is contrary to expectations that the meeting should be consistent and held monthly like the DPG Water meetings. It was appealed that meetings should be held more frequent and members need to participate more.

Members were requested to show more commitment to attending these Sanitation meetings.

It was agreed that more dialogue is needed between the Technical Working Groups and the Sanitation Meetings for there to be a DPs united voice when responding in the TWG Meeting.

Sanitation sub-group members felt that the Sanitation concerns should be felt more by or make the MoHSW to be overly concerned but unfortunately they didn’t appear to be worried When MoHSW prepared the Health Sector Strategic Plan, Sanitation nor its budget was never included

Conclusion.

There should be an agenda in the TWG meeting for meeting with the PS on the Sanitation Policy letter.

4.3 Dialogue Calendar;

Embedded above is the dialogue calendar.

Secretariat presented the new dialogue calendar (embedded above) and emphasized on events for the 3rd quarter of FY 2014/15 (January – March 2015).

5 Sanitation & Hygiene institutional framework

There was a concern that the Institutional arrangement, funding streams and programming of the current Sanitation campaign is limiting progress of sanitation improvement efforts.

A suggestion was made that WSDP Phase II, S&H should give more focus and priority on rural sanitation and not the peri-urban or transport hubs.

In order to get results, a suggestion was made that DPs should be strategic in approaching the GoT and be well co-ordinated in order to move forward. They should work together and share information so as to make sure the Sanitation budget is used only for Sanitation matters. Members were notified that in order for changes in the institutional framework to be adopted, discussions should be started in the Technical Working Group for S&H in a form of dialogue. It was reported that a Task force to discuss the institutional framework was formed in the recent TWG4 and some DPs are also in the taskforce.

DPs were also informed that in the previous Steering Committee held on November 24th 2014, PMORALG notified members that they will be more involved in handling the sanitation implementation aspects of WSDP. PMORALG was expecting that MoHSW role will be to pursue policy matters.

It was finally agreed that members should wait for the Steering Committee (SC) minutes to confirm GoT’s formal position on the S&H structure. With the SC minutes, updates in PIM will need to be done accordingly. DPs should ensure that the institutional arrangement is according to the PIM.

S/n / Points for Action / Responsible / Date
4. / Obtain the PMORALG’s current Organisation structure (organogram) of PMORALG / Secretariat / 15th Jan 2015
5. / Get the minutes for the current Steering Committee to determine what was discussed regarding the S&H institutional arrangement. / Secretariat / 15th Jan 2015

6. Closure.

The moderator thanked all members for attending and closed the meeting at 12:30hrs. Date for the 13th Sanitation sub-group meeting will be communicated after DPG Water meeting planned to be held in the afternoon.

Minutes approved by:

Name…………………………………………

Signature…………………………………….

Date…………………………………………

Page 1 of 3