The Communication Component of our Program

The Communication Strategy (CS) of this program was designed as a coherent and comprehensive plan that aims at allowing a better relationship among all the stakeholders of the program, as well as disseminating the benefits of the application of social accountability tools. Promoting a good communication among stakeholders is a crucial part of this program because only with good communication:
(i) Local stakeholders can understand better concepts of social accountability and transparency and mechanisms that are used to improve governance in the water service provision.
(ii) Local stakeholders can learn how to build a permanent, sustainable and constructive way of providing feedback to providers as well as informing general users about water service provision.
(iii) Providers can learn that listening to users can be constructive and fruitful when it is done using social accountability tools.
(iv)The Ministry of Water and Environment and the Directorate for Water Development can learn from this program how social accountability mechanisms implemented by the communities could help them to monitor the performance of providers hired by them, etc


The strategy is key also to promote a change in the water sector, in the sense that the program expect to promote the concept of users’ feedback and social accountability as an institutionalized mechanism for improving service quality. Thus, a communication strategy is key to developing change in actors’ behaviors and perceptions about social accountability. A good communication should help to achieve different and crucial goals of the program:

a) Information sharing: communication may be used to announce objectives and goals of the program or provide stakeholders with information about the nature, timing, and significance of the program.
b) Participation: Change agents may create communication processes that actively involve even common citizens from Wobulenzi into the program to: provide them with new and creative ideas, and change their perceptions about the service delivery in the water sector. In addition, change agents may construct communication processes that allow the upper-level management from the water sector to get feedback and fresh ideas from implementers and citizens.
c) Vision and Motivation: Communication can be utilized to convey the vision, set of goals, and highlighting the important drivers for changing existing organizational or individual attitudes, beliefs or practices within the water sector in Wobulenzi, or even at national level. For example, communication in this project could provide information about perception on OBA (Output-Based Aid) provision. This new financial system is supposed to pay the provider after confirming delivery of the product or service.
d) Social Support: when efforts are put to produce a change, high-levels of anxiety can arise within the government and providers, and communication may be needed to determine people responses to change, alleviate potential fears to social participation, and encourage partnerships for improved service delivery and the establishment of networks support systems for the program.
e) Evaluation/Feedback: Impacting a public service requires the structuring of communication processes that provide providers feedback about their performance during the program and provide feedback to implementers regarding strengths and weaknesses during the implementation.

Sharing information with stakeholders during the process of a program involves all types of stakeholders in decision-making, implementing process or feedback mechanisms in a two-way communication process. When some one raises his voice, sh/e must feel that sh/e is being heard, and thus must get an answer or a respond, even if it is negative. Focusing on increasing understanding and relations among stakeholders through the use of communication enables participants to move forward with implementation plans, because stakeholders dialogue is important to avoid blaming for the past mistakes and creating a shared future.

This program is basically a program devoted to promoting dialogue and building partnerships among stakeholders which is what CRC/CSC is about. NETWAS will be implementing through the Community Score Cards process, a dialogue between users and providers of water services, in Wobulenzi. It will take place with the participation of local authorities to promote partnerships and good governance within the sector. In order to generate a productive dialogue, NETWAS will be doing the following actions:
a) Engaging frequently and systematically with stakeholders to determine mutually beneficial actions.
b) Remembering that communication must be two-way. Communication is not the same as information. The aim of the dialogue should be to achieve mutual understanding and rational agreement or consent about the goals of the programs and its achievements. Information is crucial, but it must go beyond by incorporation channels fro sharing ideas and worries.
c) Inviting stakeholders to become involved in our program also exploring their concerns about our initiative.
d) If there are not channel with stakeholders, create them! NETWAS will be trying to reach silent stakeholders and form partnership with stakeholders early, as we have been done since the beginning working with the local government of Wobulenzi.