Regional Capacity Development Network for Water and Sanitation Services

Municipal water supply and sanitation service providers in the Western Balkans face major challenges in providing sustainable services. Besides a deficient state of the infstructure, consistent challenges exist with regard to the capacity of professional staff operating and managing these systems in an efficient and effective manner. The opportunities and offer for municipalities and water utilities to improve the capacities of their staff through formal trainings and access to best international practices are in the Western Balkans very limited.

The overall objective of this regional Project is to foster the long-term improvement of the water supply and sanitation services in the Western Balkans and thereby also improving the living conditions of the population as well as the environment.

The proposed Project with an initial duration of four years contributes to this overall objective with the establishment of a Regional Capacity Development Network (RCDN) in order to address the needs with regard to development of a professional and skilled water and sanitation sector work force in the Western Balkans. The RCDN is a joint initiative of the 16 associations of municipalities and water utilities, the Network of Associations of Local Authorities in South-East Europe (NALAS) and the International Association for Water Supply Companies in the Danube River Catchment Areas (IAWD). The establishment of the RCDN will be technically assisted by GIZ, which has over the past 2 years led and supported the development of the initiative.

The Associations of water utilities and municipalities in the Western Balkans, in cooperation with NALAS and IAWD, are enabled to deliver quality capacity development products to water utilities and municipalities in the frame of the RCDN in a financially sustainable manner-

Management and technical staff of water utilities and public officials of municipalities have access to and make use of RCDN?s high-quality, demand-oriented and formal capacity development products-

National Authorities, International Financial Institutions and donors promote the use as well as contribute to the improvement of the RCDN capacity development offer.

Risultati principali attesi:  

Capacitated associations of water utilities and municipalities in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) equiped with the necessary tools and processes in order to set up and operate their national capacity development delivery systems in an efficient and effective manner-

Local pool of certified trainers providing fee based trainings to water utilities and municipalities-

Established standards for the development and delivery of capacity development products-

Comprehensive offer of formal capacity development products (developed regionally, adopted to local needs)-

Training delivery monitoring and evaluation processes-

Partnerships with donors, IFIs and national authorities that promote the use of the national capacity development systems.

Fase 1 01.05.2017 - 31.12.2020   (Completed)