Evaluation PCAEA Lausanne – Nouakchott (Projet Communautaire d’Accès à l’Eau et à l’Assainissement)

In 2009, Lausanne established a partnership with the city of Nouakchott to support the extension of its piped water network in a new district not taken into account in the water utility’s master plan. Since, the partnership has gone through 3 phases with the current one ending late 2018. The corresponding learning-oriented evaluation was set up as a process conducted by specialists of the local NGO Tenmiya supported by experts of Skat Consulting Ltd.

Country:

Riyad Municipality, Nouakchott Region, Mauritania

Project Period:

September 2018 – April 2019

Services Provided:

Knowledge Sharing, Networking, Training &  Capacity Building

  • Evaluation / Mentoring

Name of Partner

Tenmiya (Centre des Innovations pour le Dévelopement)

Name of Staff involved and functions performed:

Lead Evaluator Roger Schmid

Knowledge Management Specialist Bertha Camacho

Name of Client(s)

Service de l’eau, Ville de Lausanne

Description of the Project:

In 2008, the city council of Lausanne voted a law establishing a solidarity water fund to improve water & sanitation in developing countries: for each m3 of drinking water sold to the citizens, the equivalent of one cent is taken off and fuels the fund. Subsequently, Lausanne established a partnership with the city of Nouakchott (Mauritania) to support the extension of the piped water network in a resettlement area not included in the master plan of the national water utility. Since, 18 communes in the Romandie have joined the partnership under the label “solidarit’eau”. In addition to the fund, Lausanne provides capacity and institution building support to its partner: this public-public partnership is exemplary in Switzerland and has so far not yet been replicated.

The partnership has been working in 3 phases, with the current one started in Oct. 2015 and ending in Nov. 2018.

At the end of each of the previous phases, the partners have mandated external evaluations carried out by local consultants. However, the results obtained were rather poor and Lausanne had to provide substantial support to the evaluators. Hence, the present evaluation was set up as a process conducted by specialists of the local NGO Tenmiya – PACEA service provider for community mobilisation and sensitization – backed and extended by an external consultancy. Accordingly, the learning-oriented evaluation as led by Skat managed successfully to:

  • Develop concrete answers on specific questions to improve future implementation (e.g. regarding water consumption patterns, mobilisation for household connections, impact of sensitisation, monitoring mechanism, sustainability of infrastructures and pertinence income generating activities);
  • Strengthen the capacities of the NGO Tenmiya (with regards to evaluation methodology, analysis and interpretation) and the local actors (regarding the appropriation and transfer of the learning;
  • Provide an external view on the partnership Lausanne-Nouakchott in particular on organizational aspects, effectiveness, satisfaction and communication.
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