Pacific Community Water Management Plus (PaCWaM+)

This International WaterCentre led research project explored how CSOs and governments can better enable rural community water management in the Pacific to improve SDG6 outcomes, using community water management plus practices.

Research focus: Progressing inclusive, resilient and sustainable SDG6 and WASH outcomes in the rural Pacific: approaches to enable effective community-based water management

Funded by:

 

Research Outputs

Research Findings

Pacific Community Water Management Plus – Final Research Brief

Research Brief – Strengthening Community Water Management through a follow-up DWSSP activity – Results of a pilot in Vanuatu

Research Brief – Localising Community Water Safety Planning in Pacific Island Countries

Policy Brief – Improving water management in rural communities – Key findings for Policy in Fiji 

Policy Brief – Improving water management in rural communities – Key findings for Policy in Solomon Islands

Research Brief – The Potential Role of Social Networks in improving Rural Community Water Management: Insights from Solomon Islands

Backstopping Rural Community Water Management – Lessons From Solomon Islands and Fiji – A Research and Practice Brief

Fiji Synthesis Report Phase 1 Research

Solomon Islands Synthesis Report Phase 1 Research

PacWaM Research Brief – Phase 1 Key Findings

Water Conservation and Water-Saving Sanitation in Fiji

Climate Responsive and Inclusive Water Security Planning in Rural Solomon Islands – Pilot Outcomes

Learning Brief on “The benefits of strong Gender and Social Inclusion in the management of village water systems in Melanesia”

Policy Brief on “Governance to support Integrated Water Management in the Solomon Islands”

Challenges and opportunities with social inclusion and community-based water management in Solomon Islands (proof, publication due in June 2022)

Video: Community-based Water Security Improvement Planning in Solomon Islands – project video

Community-Based Water Security Improvement Planning (Solomon Islands) – case study

Video: Strengthening Rural Community-Based Water Management in Pacific islands- WEDC Presentation

WASH & Learn presentation: Pacific Community Water Management Plus – Key Findings November 2020

 

 

PaCWaM+ Resources to support Community Water Management

Pacific Community Water Management Plus Compendium of Tools, and associated video

Pacific Community Water Management Plus – Community Water Diagnostic

Vanuatu Drinking Water Safety & Security Planning (DWSSP) Structured Follow-up Implementation Guide

Strong Water Committees – Strong WASH Communities – implementation guide for Fiji

Strong Water Committees – Strong WASH Communities – implementation guide for Solomon Islands

Video: Strong Water Committees – Strong WASH Communities (English subtitles)

Water is everyone’s business – Solomon Islands – implementation guide

Video: Water is everyone’s business (English subtitles)

Video: Women and Community Water Management (English subtitles)

Video: Youth and Community Water Management (English, subtitles)

Video: Meri na wota (Women and water) – Tik Tok version of the Women and Community Water Management

Poster: Water is Everyone’s Business (English)

Poster: Water is Everyone’s Business (Fijian)

Water is Everyone’s Business – Promoting water conservation in Fijian Communities

Water Committee Backstopping – implementation guide – Solomon Islands & Fiji

DWSSP+ – Supplementary activities to Drinking Water Safety and Security Planning – implementation guide Fiji

Community-based Water Security Improvement Planning – Implementation Guides: Vol1; Vol2; Vol3

CWSIP2 – Community-based Water Security Planning (CWSIP) Planning II: for climate change & future risks

*note: the video resources for Solomon islands here are with English subtitles, spoken in local pijin. If you would like to use these videos without English subtitles, or want a downloadable copy lease contact [email protected])

Key research questions

This research looked at how can CSOs and governments better enable rural community water management in the Pacific to improve SDG6 outcomes, using community water management plus practices?

Specifically, the project looked at:

(a) What can be learned from evaluating community water management across diverse community contexts, especially about which community governance, engagement, and support features are most aligned with inclusive, integrated and resilient SDG6, including WASH, outcome? then,

(b) What approaches and tools, that are sensitive and responsive to local context and improve inclusion, enable community management plus? That is what approaches and tools can CSOs/governments use, to strengthen the community engagement, support and governance features that are aligned with successful community water management in the Pacific?

Research description

Poor management of water sources and services is associated with inadequate WASH outcomes, negatively impacting on human health and well-being, and often affects women and girls disproportionately. Across the Pacific, community water management remains the necessary model for rural water services, due to the limited presence of government and private sector.

However, global and Pacific evidence indicates that current approaches to enabling community water management don’t lead to inclusive, integrated and resilient WASH outcomes, and that external support is necessary. Community Water Management Plus (Baumann, 2005), recognises that managing rural community water systems is a shared responsibility between communities, local authorities and central government.

Although Pacific governments appreciate that support is required, and invest in providing support for community water management, there is a lack of evidence about what support is effective, including in different community contexts.

In partnership with CSOs, government and communities in both Fiji and the Solomon Islands, through this research, the project team answered how CSOs and governments can better enable rural community water management in the Pacific to improve SDG6 outcomes, including the resilience, inclusiveness and sustainability of WASH outcomes.

This was answered by:

  1. first evaluating a variety of existing models of community water management, and
  2. secondly co-developing and piloting a toolkit of context-sensitive community engagement approaches to enable effective community water management.

The approach involved male and female local university and village ‘researchers’, strengthening local research capacity as well as promoting gender equity in academia and local WASH outcomes, and participation of women in local water governance.

Key outputs are showcased above and include a toolkit and guide to enable Community Water Management Plus. This toolkit is comprised of

  1. community-engagement and other approaches that enabling actors, including CSOs and government can use to support context-specific management of community water systems
  2. guidance that governments can include in their plans and guidelines relating to community water management, to increase the uptake of community water management plus approaches.

Expected benefits of the research

“Currently, governments and NGOs know communities need support to manage their own water supply systems but don’t have any evidence of what works and why.  The practical tools of this research, co-developed with academics and practitioners, will allow us improve practice by NGOs and government, and increase the likelihood of sustainable and reliable water services in communities.”

Tom Rankin, WASH Program Manager, Plan International Australia

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