Grant Completion Report

Report Submission Date: / 15 September 2017
Project title: / Enhancing Water & Sanitation Governance, Access in 02 Union Councils of Badin, Sindh
Grantee organization: / INDUS CONSORTIUM
Grant agreement number: / SGAFP/2016/SG/97 3
Period covered by report: / 16 September 2016 – 15 September 2017
Sr. # / Project Activities / Total Targets / Achievements / Variance / Remarks
1. / Staff Hiring / 05 / 05 / 00
2. / Hiring Vehicle for Field Mobility / 01 / 01 / 00
3. / Staff Orientation / 01 / 01 / 00
4. / Project Opening Ceremony / 01 / 01 / 00
5. / Orientation to key project staff by NRSP / 01 / 01 / 00
6. / Base Line Survey / 01 / 01 / 00
7. / Organizing Community through forming 20 VDOs and 4 LOs / 24 / 24 / 00
8. / Conduct two day workshop for 240 members of VDOs/ LOs / 24 / 24 / 00
9. / Formation of 02 Alliances / 02 / 02 / 00
10. / Establishment of 02 Offices for two Alliances / 02 / 02 / 00
11. / Development of Training Manual for VDO/LO members and Government Officials / 01 / 01 / 00
12. / 4- Day Residential Training exercise for 240 VDO/LO members and 20 Government Officials / 13 / 13 / 00
13. / Development of Village/ Town Development Plans ( VDPs) & Analysis of Annual District Budget on WASH / 24 / 25 / 01 / 24 Village development plans are developed and 0 UC vision was developed during the training with officials
14. / Holding Bi- Annual Assembly / 02 / 02 / 00
15. / Conducting H&H Sessions for 1200 participants / 48 / 72 / 24 / 24 sessions with children in all villages have been conducted with school students. The same was approved by SGAFP.
16. / Celebration of World Water Day / 01 / 01 / 00
17. / Celebration of World Toilet Day / 01 / 01 / 00
18. / Development of 02 Credit Hour Course on WASH / 01 / 01 / 00
19. / Theater show of 20-30 minutes long play / 24 / 24 / 00
20. / Radio Campaign 02 Messages 300 spots / 02 (300) / 02( 600) / 00( 300) / 02 PSM on aired for 600 times
21. / Submission of Sustainability Plan / 01 / 01 / 00
22. / End Line Survey Report / 01 / 01 / 00
23. / Project Closing Ceremony / 01 / 01 / 00
24. / External Audit / 01 / 01 / 00
25. / Installation of 02 Glass Plaques / 02 / 02 / 00
26. / Banners for Training Courses & Events / 10 / 23 / 13
27. / Standees for Training Courses & Events / 10 / 07 / 03
28. / Press Release / 02 / 02 / 00
29. / Journalists Site Tour / 01 / 01 / 00
30. / Meeting Minutes / 12 / 12 / 00
31. / Monitoring Visit / 06 / 06 / 00
32. / Monthly Progress Report / 12 / 12 / 00
33. / Program Review by NRSP / 01 / 01 / 00
34. / Salary Certificates / 05 / 05 / 00
35. / EDF/ EMMP / 12 / 12 / 00
36. / Close- out Plan / 01 / 01 / 00
37. / Submission of Grant Completion Report / 01 / 01 / 00
Beneficiaries
Activities / Target / Actual
Men / Women / Total / Men / Women / Total
Project Opening Ceremony / 40 / 10 / 50 / 68 / 19 / 87
Orientation Workshops of 24 VDOs/ LOs / 129 / 111 / 240 / 131 / 116 / 247
4 Day Residential Training / 148 / 112 / 260 / 142 / 127 / 269
Bi- Annual Assembly / 100 / 100 / 200 / 223 / 133 / 356
Wash Agents ( Course & Theatre) / 20 / 15 / 35 / 25 / 25 / 50
Theatre Plays / 1250 / 1150 / 2400 / 1293 / 1194 / 2487
Health & Hygiene Sessions / 1200 / 1200 / 2400 / 1573 / 1607 / 3180
World Water Day / 50 / 50 / 100 / 95 / 60 / 155
World Toilet Day / 90 / 10 / 100 / 124 / 15 / 139
Journalists Visits and media coverage / 10 / 00 / 10 / 7 / 00 / 7
Project Closing Ceremony / 40 / 10 / 50 / 60 / 22 / 82
Grand Total / 3067 / 2768 / 5835 / 3675 / 3296 / 7060

Note: The number of community members benefiting through radio campaign cannot be determined.

SGAFP Fund Position / Amount (PKR)
Funds Received / 16,397,900
Expenditure To Date / (16,826,394)
Remaining Balance / (428,494)
Grantee’s Cost Share Position / Amount (PKR)
Grantee Share / 640,000
Grantee Expenditure / (832,000)
Remaining Balance / (192,000)

Activities and Achievements

Describe to what extent the objectives of the agreement were accomplished:

  1. Overall Progress of the Project & Impacts:

Overall Progress:

The project has completed all its targets within time and at low cost budget without compromising the quality. The targets in the form of beneficiaries’ number have achieved more than the set targets, which is shown in the table. It is a successful project from implementation perspective at one hand and from impacts and sustainability perspective at the other, which has given tremendous results within a short duration of one year.

Impact:

The impact of the project is beyond expectations. The endline assessment shows that:

  • The village of Punjab Chak is converted to Open Defecation Free ( ODF) village. It has 195 House Holds and all has constructed their latrines after getting 4 day residential training in which they learnt how to construct a low cost latrine. Other villages like Majnoo Khaskheli and others have also constructed the low cost latrines.
  • VDO and LO representatives has made their UC level Alliances. The Sarsabz Itehaad of Union Council Kadhan decided to take initiative to resolve the issue of water shortage at tail end. The small land owners and Alliance members on self-help basis collected PKR 450,000 contribution from all small growers of the area and used it for de silting. The 150 volunteers from RD 62 to RD 92 of Rajwah distributaries worked for De-silting and hired 09 Tractor machines for the purposes. On the other hand, they also raised their protest in main city against the big landlords who are stealing their water on heads of the canals. Due to such timely steps, they have received the water till tail end and ultimately their crops have produced good yield this year.
  • Almost all project villages were suffering from drainage issues. After trainings and social mobilization, some have cleaned their open drainage, some have constructed and others have repaired their drainage system. Now all 20 villages have the proper drainage system maintained by them.
  • 04 muhallahs have severe drainage issue which cannot be resolved without a proper drainage scheme. The project has facilitated the communities to develop the drainage scheme, which they have submitted to their town committee and giving the follow up to get the funds allocated in the town committee budget.
  • Safe drinking water is a major issue in such areas. People and specially poor women suffer a lot which fetch water from farflung areas and after doing that much labor still they are deprived of the safe drinking water. Thus the project has technically facilitated to develop one budget proposal of water supply scheme, which the VDO and alliance member have submitted to their respective Union Councils offices and got the approval letters from the Union Council Chairmen. Now they have approached to the district council along with Chairmen letters to get the scheme approved from district council.
  • Before and after situation of cleanliness at individual, household and village level is evident. The health and hygiene sessions impact is significant. The mobilized school children of task forces are working as Health and Hygiene Agents inside their schools, homes and villages.
  • The 02 credit hour course was a unique feature of the project, which was successfully delivered at Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam and studied by 51 students.
  • The drama club of the university was made functional under the project and 12 students got training of theatre as Wash Agents, which played the theatre in all 24 project villages. This has inspired the villagers on one hand and reduced the gap between academia and the real field issues on the other. Many students have written heir blogs on the issues they have seen at the field level and now they are intended to do their researches on those issues.
  1. Progress against each objective:

Objective No. 1:Mobilizing Community through the formation of Village Development Organizations (VDO’s) and Lane Organizations (LO’s)

  • Formation of VDOs/ LOs:Formation of 20 VDOs and 04 LOs. Each VDO and LO has the 10 members including two office bearers. In total, 129 male members and 111 are female members in VDO/ LOs. In all VDO/ LOs, atleast one female is in lead role of president or general secretary. Out of 129 male members, 13 are the councilors and whereas one female councilor are among the VDO/ LO members. The inclusion of the local male and female councilors in the VDO/ LO ensure the sustainability of the project.
  • Two Day Training of VDOs/ LOs: 24 two day orientation sessions of 240 members on Community Management, Effective Productive Linkages, Roles and Responsibilities of Elected Representatives, Record Keeping, Principles and Practices in Rural Development, Philosophy of Participatory Development have been successfully conducted.
  • The IEC material on the topics was developed and delivered by the project staff. The copy of the IEC material was distributed to each VDO/LO.
  • After two day training, VDOs/ LOs maintained their meeting registers and other record.
  • Formation of Two Water Alliances: Following orientation, VDO’s and LO’s were facilitated to form an alliance in each of the targeted Union Councils. 01 member from each VDO/LO was nominated to become a member of the Alliance. Subsequently, 02Alliances, The Kadhan Water Alliance comprising of 22members (15 males & 07 females) and Seerani Water Alliance comprising of 15members (10 males and 05 females) is formed.
  • The Alliance members are advocating for two budget proposals submitted to the district government Badin. They are Lobbying to secure budget allocation for WASH by regular coordination with relevant government departments.
  • The Alliance members are cooperating with the Civil Society and other stakeholders for information dissemination;
  • They are coordinating with Irrigation Department for water availability. Recently on self help basis, they have collected the funds of more than PKR. 450,000 for the cleaning of around 40 RDS, which has ensured the water availability till tail end in the project villages.
  • They are playing their effective role in preventing water related conflicts arising amongst community members.
  • They have registered complaints and applications to the relevant line departments on water shortage, cleaning of water courses, infrastructure and drainage.
  • They have conducted media stunts and protests in front of press clubs for water shortage.
  • To help build capacity of the two Alliances, IC has arranged a meeting of each Alliance with the Water User Association Akram Wah Canal – so as to benefit from experience gained and lessons learned.
  • Establish Alliance Offices: To provide Alliance members a venue for carrying out their activities, a small office for each Alliance has been established and equipped with desktop computer with UPS, printer, internet device,furniture, water set, cooler and dustbins.

Objective No. 2: Strengthening Capacities of VDOs, LOs and Officials from relevant line departments

  • 4 Day Residential Training: In the interest of both building capacities as well as developing linkages between the local community and relevant government line departments, IC has organized 13 batches of 04-day residential training exercise involving both members of VDOs/LOs as well as officials from concerned government departments.
  • In total, 121 community males and 126 community females (Total247)members participated in the training.
  • In total, 22 government officials participated in the training.
  • The professional training firm SEDA was engaged to impart the training on Leadership and Management, Participatory Planning and Transparent Budget Making, Water Resource Management, Sanitation and Hygiene and Effective Advocacy Measures.
  • 24 Village / Town Development Plans are developed at the end of the training.
  • In the last batch of the training, the local government officials and UC chairmen and secretaries developed UC vision and strategy.
  • Development of Two Budget Proposals:The two Alliances have analyzed the annual district budget on WASH, and gave affordable and feasible solutions for addressing the area’s WASH related problems. With the technical assistance provided by the government line departments and the IC Resource Persons, two budget proposals one on water supply scheme and one on drainage for cluster of villages are developed. Alliance members have submitted the budget proposals to the UC Chairmen to get their consent letters. Afterwards, the proposals are submitted to the relevant town Chairman and the District Council Chairman for the budget allocation of the designed schemes.
  • Bi-Annual Assembly:Indus Consortium held 02 Biannual Citizen Assemblies, one in each UC. Arranged in a central village in each UC and attended by more than 250 members including but not limited to members of the Alliance, local notables, and relevant government officials, this 02-hour long open-air assembly aimed at both highlighting the WASH related problems faced by the local community as well as advocating for the Village/Town Development Plans and the recommendations given by the Alliance in the budget document. At the end of the citizens’ assembly, alliance members represented the budget proposals to the town chairman and District Council member.

Objective No. 3: Creating awareness about water and sanitation status through health sessions, youth involvement, and radio campaign.

  • Health & Hygiene Sessions: Three sessions – one for male, one for female and one for school children – were arranged in each village/town area. Held at a central location on a premises provided by the community free of charge, the said session aimed at creating awareness among the participants about the health and hygiene status in their respective area, and the measures that need to be taken at the individual, household and community level for improving the same.
  • Each hour-long session was attended by more than 50 people, preferably household heads, and was conducted by the field coordinators with the help of printed pictorial cards. A 01-page Information Leaflet in Sindhi was also given to all participants.
  • Around 3180 people (1213 men and 1239 women and 728 school children) benefitted from these 72 sessions.
  • A task force of school students in each project village school is also formed, which is a value addition of the project.
  • Celebration of World Water Day:A World Water Day celebration in March 2017 was organized in Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam. The walk and the seminar in the event highlighted the theme “Waste Water, Climate change, population growth and economic development demand for sustainable solutions to make the world future-proof”. Waste water is perceived as a valuable resource in the circular economy and its safe management is an efficient investment in the health of humans and ecosystemswas highlighted by the seminar speakers.
  • In total, 95 males and 60 females including students, faculty members, journalists and civil society organizations participated in the event.
  • Mainstream English and Sindhi media covered the event.
  • Celebration of World Toilet Day:A seminar and a walk on World Toilet Day in November 2016 was organized in Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam. World Toilet Day was about taking action to reach the 2.4 billion people living without a toilet. The theme of World Toilet Day 2016 was ‘toilets and jobs’, focusing on how sanitation, or the lack of it, can impact people’s livelihoods.
  • In total, 124 males and 15 females including students, faculty members, journalists and civil society organizations participated in the event.
  • Mainstream English and Sindhi media covered the event.
  • 02 Credit Hour Course:Indus Consortium has signed a formal MoU with Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam. Both the parties developed a 01 semester 02-Credit Hour Course on Water and Sanitation issues of Sindh with a particular focus on District Badin and introducing it in relevant department of Land & Water Management.
  • In total 51 students have studied that course for one semester and have appreciated the contents.The Successful students are titled as Wash Agents.
  • The University has made the commitment to adopt this course.
  • An appreciation ceremony for the Wash Agents was organized at Sindh Agriculture Unviersity, Tandojam chaired by the honorable Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Mujeeb-u-ddin Sehrai Memon. In the ceremony, the Wash agents of the course got the certificates, whereas the wash agents of theatre show received the honorarium of PKR. 24,000 and the appreciation shields.
  • Theatre Shows:Indus Consortium has revived the University’s Drama Club for carrying out a 20-30minute long play on WASH “Doday Jo Des” for targeted 100-member audience in each of the project village/town, to sensitize the audience through art and culture approach about the water and sanitation problems plaguing their area, and bringing forward the measures that need to be taken at the individual, household and community level for addressing the same.
  • In 24 villages, 24 theatres shows played by the 12 member team of the drama club of the university.
  • These 12 students of Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam initially trained for two days by the team of Indus Consortium on effective delivery techniques of theatre and the requirements of the interactive plays.
  • The dramatic theatre script was developed with the support of local writers which have depicted the theme through the local historical character of Sindh’s Emperor Dodo Soomro, whose tomb is in Badin.
  • Radio Campaign: Two Public Service Messages(PSM) have been developed and aired on two FM radios i.e., Laar FM 94 and FM 105 Badin. 600 spots of 40-45 second long PSMs in Sindhi are on aired on the two FMs in prime time of 7:00 pm having maximum listenership to sensitize the citizens on WASH.

Issues, Recommendations and Lessons:

Major Issues Faced During the Project

Issues/problems faced / Steps taken to resolve the issues
.Community have expectations that this project would give some infrastructure benefits; / They were mobilized that these activities are soft; all would be mobilized to demand it from government and linkages would be developed for schemes for Water and Sanitation issues.
lack of awareness/ illiteracy women of the coastal belt have very low literacy 12% to 13%; their inclusion at all level in the field activities is issue; it will also be a issue raising up the major issues of Water and Sanitation at All levels; / Project team took it as challenge and trains them at all stages of the project activities.
It was challenging to get prompt response from government Departments; / Regular follow ups by the project team made them realize the seriousness of the project. In addition, the alliance members took lead to visit and coordinate with them, which proved as a successful strategy.
To develop the Art cards for H& H Session was challenging because no readymade material was available. To design new material is time and budget consuming. / Higher management of IC has taken efforts to get it designed and printed.
During 4 day residential training, the community was engaged in harvesting season of rice. Thus it was a challenge to ensure their attendance in 4 day residential training. / The schedule of the training was reshuffled and includes those villages first where the harvesting was delayed or over.
Secondly through intense mobilization with the community members and advising them the alternatives of the issues to ensure their participation.
Ensuring women participation in 4 day residential training was a big challenge because there was no precedent before those women from villages have stayed for the training. / The project team social mobilization played a vital role specially the female social mobilizer who visited the houses of those females whose family male members raised concerns. She talked with them and ensured the participation of women.

Lessons Learned & Recommendations