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Published on: 09/03/2015


Harmonisation and coordination entails all actors –national and local government, donors, lending banks, NGOs and other water sector stakeholders – recognize and adhere to common principles and approaches when supporting rural water services. The rural water sector of Ghana, however, remains fragmented in its approaches and delivery interventions. The country's water policy, established in 2007, has not led to coherent strategies and guidelines.

Previous assessments had identified poor government leadership and ineffective operational documents as two barriers to coordination, but did not examine the underlying assumptions and attitudes that allow uncoordinated strategies to continue. This experiment identified the root problems and contributed to sector dialogue and decision-making processes in order to build a framework for harmonised approaches and better coordinated interventions.

This presentation summarises drivers and barriers to harmonisation of rural water service delivery in Ghana, prepared by Vida Duti and Emmanuel Gaze; presented at the Triple-S Annual Review and Planning Meeting (ARAP), Fort Portal Uganda, 6th-11th May 2013. 

Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) was used as a tool to analyse the congruence between policy documents and practice-related documents (e.g. calls for proposals, project reports) to engage stakeholders around current sector challenges and approaches and to measure change in the WASH sector. Read more about Qualitative Document Analysis.

Find out more

  • Selected publications are available below (scroll down):
  • Manuals: district operational manual, project implementation manual and national community water and sanitation strategy
  • Report on water sector scan in northern region of Ghana
  • Harmonisation and alignment literature review
  • Qualitative Document Analysis: Findings from Ghana WASH sector review

For more information contact IRC Ghana Country Director, Vida Duti.

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