UN-HABITAT has launched a major training and capacity building programme in ten secondary towns around Lake Victoria aimed at supporting them in improving their capacity to deliver efficient water and sanitation services and providing more effective governance.
 | District Commissioner for Misenyi is welcomed by Mr. Robert Goodwin, the Chief of the Lake Victoria Section, UN-HABITAT |
Carried out under the Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative, the programme will address five priority themes: utility management, catchment management, pro-poor water governance, local economic development and gender mainstreaming. The programme is the outcome of an intensive process of stakeholder consultations and needs assessments and will complement and support the Initiative investments in physical infrastructure. It will build on a number of completed and ongoing training activities in areas such as urban planning and water utility operations.
Launching the programme, the District Commissioner for Misenyi, speaking on behalf of the Government of Tanzania, expressed his satisfaction that the Initiative “would now give greater attention to training and capacity building in important areas such as the management of water services, protecting the water catchments, delivering better solid waste management services and promoting more effective governance arrangements to address the needs of the poor. He further gave a commitment to ensuring that “the recommendations and suggestions from the training activities are fully put into practice to improve the systems and capabilities of our Local Authorities and water utilities.”
Speaking on behalf of UN-HABITAT, Mr. Robert Goodwin, the Chief of the Lake Victoria Section in the Water, Sanitation and Infrastructure Branch, called on the local organizations present to fully participate in the design and implementation of the capacity building activities to ensure that the programme addressed their priority needs. He noted that by involving international and regional experts as well as local organizations, the programme presented a real opportunity to blend best practices from around the world with the realities of local needs and expectations in the Lake Victoria towns.
The training and capacity building programme is being implemented through an agreement between UN-HABITAT and a consortium of four international partners, comprising the Netherlands Development Corporation (SNV), UNESCO-IHE, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Gender Water Alliance. A regional training Institute is also being engaged and the progamme will target water utilities, municipal councils, multi-stakeholder forums and community-based organizations.
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