WASH SDG Uganda (including COVID-19 prevention) SUMMARY: The WASH SDG Project in Uganda is part of the Netherlands WASH SDG Consortium Programme which is implemented by WASH Alliance International (WAI), SNV and Plan International in Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal. Plan International Uganda implements the WASH SDG programme in nine sub counties in the districts of Kamuli, Buyende and Nebbi in Uganda. 
Water and sanitation coverage in Uganda has not reached the national and global MDG
targets. The programme will increase access to sanitation for 176,567 people and hygiene for 57,117 people. The programme will also improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene in at least 9 schools in the selected Districts. The programme does not only focus on improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene but also on improving the position of women, girls and other socially excluded groups. Water and sanitation coverage in Uganda has not reached the national and global MDG targets. In the target areas access to basic water is 30,2%. Access to basic sanitation facilities is even lower at 24% and 92% of the target population does not have access to any handwashing facilities. Uganda is ranked 64 out of the 144 countries in the global gender index. Gender gaps and inequalities (employment and control of resources), discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation continue to remain despite increased levels of girls and women empowerment. The nature of the rural society in the selected districts continues to overload girls and women with WASH activities at household level including water collection and household and latrine management. In comparison to boys and men, women spend long hours per day on household activities. The gender household division of labour is biased against women which leaves them with limited time to meaningfully participate in WASH decision-making spaces at community level. 
Boys and men continue to dominate and take leadership roles in WASH management committees and are highly influential in decision making on WASH issues, leaving women with little or no influence. Women are often traditional members on the committees with no control and power. Additionally, women habitually lack self-esteem to speak up because culturally it is perceived they should be submissive and not challenge male views. The WASH SDG programme-level Theory of Change (ToC) was developed and validated in early 2017. As established in the proposal approved by DGIS, the WASH SDG programme is built on the assumption that sustainable and equitable use of WASH by all can be achieved in a locality through:
•	Improved behaviour change interventions that lead to increased demand for improved WASH facilities and practices
•	Improved WASH service provision that leads to increased availability and affordability of WASH products and services
•	Strengthened WASH governance and institutional framework that leads to governments enabling efficient and effective delivery of inclusive and sustainable WASH services. 
In order for WASH to be sustainable and equitable, the programme also assumes that two additional approaches should be endorsed and integrated transversally:
•	gender transformative and socially inclusive WASH 
•	climate resilient WASH services. Activities of Plan International Uganda will contribute to, and enhance the national WASH strategy of the Government of Uganda. Based on discussions with the national level government and previous working experience in Uganda, Plan International Uganda will work in Kamuli, Buyende and Nebbi. These districts are all lacking behind in terms of access to WASH, but also in terms of poverty. Based on national data and baseline data collected in the intervention areas, it became apparent that the number of people that lack access to water, sanitation and hygiene services in Uganda is still very high. There is still a lot to be done in order to achieve the country SDG targets. This is the case for all three sub-sectors, but sanitation and hygiene are lagging behind even more than water and are receiving less government budget and priority. For this reason, the WASH SDG Consortium has chosen for an integrated WASH approach, but with a strong emphasis on sanitation and hygiene.
The project is aligned and builds onto the achievements of the ongoing “A deadly serious matter: Menstrual Hygiene Management in Uganda” Under this project Plan reaches out to  over 150,000 adolescent girls and young women with an  opportunity to take a full part in education and work, without menstruation being a limiting factor.  It build Knowledge about personal hygiene and menstrual cycles among girls, boys, parents, teachers and communities, accompanied by a change in behaviour with regard to personal hygiene during menstruation, partly due to the availability of affordable sanitary protection. The programme will increase access to sanitation for 193,000 people and hygiene for 90,200 people in the selected villages in Kamuli, Buyende and Nebbi. And the programme will improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene in at least 9 schools in the selected Districts.
The selected villages were chosen because access to WASH is limited and a high percentage of the households living in these villages have a low income status. Pathway 1: The vision of the sub-programme for this pathway is that by the end of the programme, at least 150 communities in the target areas reach the ODF status and have moved up the sanitation and hygiene ladder. Women, girls and other socially excluded groups are empowered, resulting in an increased level of participation of women/girls and other excluded groups in WASH activities in the community, shared WASH workload and decision making in the household and an increased level of leadership positions in communities around WASH. Fathers and mothers have also improved their knowledge and practices about baby WASH. In order to make progress towards this, Plan will enhance the capacity of the responsible government structures on gender and social inclusive community demand-driven approaches
which aims to eliminate open defecation. Capacity will be built on how to improve knowledge attitudes and practices (KAP) for handwashing, MHM and baby WASH. In addition, Plan will support the government in the implementation of behaviour change activities and help them
to enhance their monitoring capacity to ensure monitoring and follow up. Other CSOs will be trained so they can support other districts with other donor funding, to enhance their capacity on inclusive behaviour change interventions which include baby WASH messages. Finally, Plan will use the champion of change approach and the GWMT to improve and monitor levels of participation of women and socially excluded groups throughout the programme. For further information on these can be found in the inception report (July 2018). Through these tools, men and boys will also be targeted to ensure women and girls are given the space within WASH activities and decision making and the (baby) WASH workload is shared more equally.

Pathway 2: The vision of the sub-programme for this pathway is that by the end of the programme the target communities and schools have access to affordable and sustainable menstrual hygienic products, liquid soap and climate resilient latrine options. 
In order to make progress towards this vision, Plan will support the development of locally made liquid soap and climate resilient latrine options together with community groups (like village health workers) and local entrepreneurs. Plan will train teachers and school pupils (girls and boys) on how to make reusable sanitary pads. Members of village saving and loan associations (VSLA) and already established small-scale entrepreneurs, especially women, will also receive marketing and financial business skill training to stimulate the beginning of selling reusable sanitary pads, liquid soap and climate resilient latrine options. To increase access to credit for WASH businesses, Plan will promote and/or strengthen the VSLAs in 60 rural communities and link those to the established financial institutions. In order to improve sanitation and water service provision at schools, Plan, together with the school management, will construct latrines for boys and girls. These latrines will include a toilet for people with disabilities and MHM facilities. Water points will also be rehabilitated or constructed at 22 schools. All facilities will only be constructed after the school management has developed a financially sustainable operation and maintenance plan.

Pathway 3: The vision of the sub-programme for this pathway is that by the end of the programme, the national CLTS manual is revised and is gender and social inclusive and standardised school latrine designs in the national school WASH guidelines include an MHM component. At the district level gender transformation and social inclusion is mainstreamed in all WASH programmes and sufficient budget is allocated to implement these programmes. The capacity of the district health and community workers has been enhanced and they are now implementing gender transformative and inclusive CLTS. Women and girls and other socially excluded groups will amplify their voices/demand for their WASH rights including active participation in community WASH leadership and decision making. As a consequence at least 50% of the WASH governance committees are represented by women and socially excluded groups and whose voices are heard. District local government also has a harmonised understanding of and effectively reports on the SDG 6 indicators, target 6.1 and 6.2. 
In order to make progress towards this, Plan, as the chair of the national CLTS taskforce, will work with the Ministry of Health to revise the national CLTS manual to be gender and socially inclusive and to ensure that standardised school latrine designs include MHM facilities. Plan will strengthen the WASH planning and coordination at district and national level and work with the technical support unit of the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) to facilitate district local governments to review and to add resources to the district based WASH investment plans. Similarly, Plan shall invest time/budget to rev Financial sustainability: In a bid to build a sense of ownership, communities will be required to contribute a cash contribution (€ 51) of per water source in line with the critical minimum requirements under the WASH sector. An appropriate tariff (between € 0.74 per household per year) will be negotiated and agreed upon to ensure effective operation and maintenance of water sources 
Institutional sustainability: School and community level structures to support community based maintenance systems will be developed, trained and mentored over the project phase to enhance their autonomous functioning beyond the life of the project. 
On the other hand, the project’s actors will transfer the installed materials to the officials who are in charge of the water resources through official transfer ceremonies. 

Ecological sustainability: The project will utilise a technology for water extraction in selected schools that does not impact on the environment in the selected schools. The selected areas have a large amount of water, so the withdrawal is not a problem for the environment and the future water supply. In addition, excess water will be used for irrigation of fruit trees in school that have a positive contribution to environment. Improvements in sanitation and hygiene practices will also have a positive impact on the environment as it will reduce contamination of the groundwater.

Technical sustainability: The chosen technology (drilling of deep boreholes), is a relative simple technique. The technical level required for its repair and maintenance is simple, although the lack of capabilities makes it necessary to provide training for the local technicians. As part of advocacy efforts, Plan will engage with the district local governments of Nebbi, Kamuli and Buyende to establish a functional faecal sludge management system and encourage schools to mobilize resources for emptying, transporting and disposing off the wastes. 

Social sustainability: The 22 water management committees will manage the operation and maintenance of boreholes hand pumps. Their members are democratically selected by their communities, also considering the female and child representation (at least one boy and one girl and 50% women representation). This will grant that the diversity of opinion will be considered in all the decisions that the committees will take. The school Health Clubs established in schools will promote the participation of the youngest people and enhancing their social inclusion in the local policies.