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Planning and Programming Perspective

Planning and Programming

Explore concrete tools that help you to better plan and execute sustainable water management and sanitation solutions.

There is no shortage of innovative solutions to optimise local water management and sanitation systems. The challenge often lies in the adequate and sustainable planning and execution. In this perspective, you’ll learn about existing programming and planning frameworks that support the selection, implementation and ensuring of long-term sustainability of sanitation, water and hygiene interventions together with the involved and affected people. These participatory frameworks go beyond simply informing the concerned stakeholders, but aim to actively include them in all steps of the planning and programming cycle, namely Exploration, Demand Creating, Decision Making, Implementation and Ensuring Sustainability. Concrete tools and methodologies for each of these steps are summarised in this perspective.

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Programming and Planning Frameworks

Here, you will find a selection of the most important programming and planning frameworks or approaches. Each of the frameworks or approaches has a…
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Exploring Tools

This section summarises the activities at the beginning of a process, including the preliminary assessment of current status, definition of…
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Demand Creation Tools

In order to ensure that the request for solutions comes from the people, not the implementing agencies, many approaches (e.g. CLTS) propagate the…
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Decision Making

This section deals with the activities carried out in a participatory decision-making process together with stakeholders. This includes activities…
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Implementation

In this section you’ll find tools relating to activities undertaken after a consensus on the implemented solution has been reached. It deals with…
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Ensuring Sustainability

In this section you’ll find tools relating to activities undertaken after a consensus on the implemented solution has been reached. It deals with…
6 Factsheets
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Advocacy - Influencing Leaders (DC)

"Advocacy is the action of delivering an argument to gain commitment from political and social leaders and to prepare a society for a particular…

EMPOWERS Approach

EMPOWERS is a regional programme mainly funded by the European Commission's MEDA (Mediterranean Regional Programme for Local Water Management) Water…

Sanitation 21 Framework

The framework proposed by the International Water Association (IWA) task force for the analysis and selection of appropriate sanitation systems is…

NETSSAF Approach

The tutorial for sustainable sanitation planning is a ready source of information for decision makers and individuals involved in setting up…

Open Planning of Sanitation Systems

The objective of the Open Planning of Sanitation Systems (OPSS) approach is to provide a practical guideline for the planning and implementation of…

Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST)

PHAST stands for “Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation”. The approach is a participatory learning methodology that seeks to empower…

GTZ Ecosan Approach

The guidelines and toolbox presented in the GTZ ecosan source book aim to address the needs and interests of initiators, planners, practitioners and…

Participatory Mapping

Principally, participatory mapping serves as a tool to provide a visual representation of information in a particular geographical context. It is…

Participatory Mapping for Decision Making

Participatory Mapping, a method used within Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is used in participatory research as well as in planning and…

Writing a Concept Note

A concept note is a summary of a proposal containing a brief description of the idea of the project and the objectives to be pursued. In some…

Public Private Partnerships (WS)

The public sector might not be able to cope with the challenges regarding sanitation and water management and therefore cooperates with the private…

Subsidies (WS)

A subsidy (also known as a subvention) is a form of financial assistance paid to an individual, a business or an economic sector in order to achieve…

Tradable Water Rights

Tradable water rights are one of several market-based instruments used in water management and pollution control. In economic theory, they are…

Water Charges

Water charges are a widely used economic instrument implied mainly by federal governments to better control water use and water pollution by imposing…

Programming & Planning Frameworks

HOW DO I PROCEED to optimise my local water management and sanitation system and make it more sustainable?

There is surely no shortage on innovative solutions (see Implementation Tools) to optimise local water management and sanitation systems. However, the tricky part is often the question on how do I plan and proceed in implementing those solutions?

Based on the classic project cycle, many organisations developed step-by-step participatory programming and planning frameworks or approaches to help you to find, select, implement and ensure the long-term sustainability of sanitation, water and hygiene interventions. What all frameworks and approaches have in common, is that they all follow the idea that all the involved and affected people and groups should be involved in the whole process. This, not only  by informing them, but by actively including the stakeholders in the planning, decision making, implementation and follow up process to ensure the long-term sustainability of projects and programmes.

Though there is no consensus on the number of “steps” or how they should be named, most approaches cover at least the five steps as in the graph above.

Existing Programming and Planning Frameworks

Here, you will find a selection of the most important programming and planning frameworks or approaches (an even more exhaustive collection can be found in a publication of the WSSCC).

Each of the frameworks or approaches has a different focus; be it

or a combination of the three. Some focus more on behavioural change, such as the PHAST approach, some more on demand creation as the CLTS and others like the CLUES guides people through an integrated multi-sector and multi-actor process for planning environmental sanitation services. Which one serves your purpose best depends on your local situation, your focus and your preferences. Use the one that suits you best!

Mix and Match your Participatory Planning & Process!

Many of the existing programming and planning frameworks or approaches use common participatory planning and implementation support tools that are also widely used in other development fields. The most well known of these „packages“ of participatory tools is „Participatory Rural Appraisal“ (PRA); another one is SARAR for example. These packages differ in how they have been developed (by whom and for what purpose) and, to some extent, in how they have been applied in the field. Nevertheless, the participatory tools that comprise the packages are similar and complementary, and can often be “mixed and matched” together for any one piece of your process.

In the following sections you will find common (participatory) planning and implementation support tools that may help you in the PROCESS of implementing sustainable sanitation and water management interventions in your area:

Exploring Tools

Summarises the activities at the beginning of a process, including

Demand Creation Tools

If there is no demand, many approaches (e.g. CLTS propagate the creation of demand in the first place, so that the request for solutions comes from the people, not the implementing agencies. Get to know how to

Decision Making Tools

Deals with the activities done in an actual participatory decision making process together with stakeholders such as

Implementation Support Tools

Summarises the activities undertaken after a consensus has been found on what kind of implementation tools should be implemented. It deals with issues such as:

Tools to Ensure Sustainability

Summarises the activities (which are unfortunately often forgotten) to ensure that programmes and projects will be sustainable in the long term, such as