Meetings upon meetings in Ghana's WASH sector: a result of inadequate capacities

Meetings upon meetings in Ghana's WASH sector: a result of inadequate capacities

A Director and senior engineer at the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Ms Charlotte Engman has attributed most endless meetings in the sector to inadequate capacities needed for some specific works to be done. She deemed this a serious threat to the general work output of the sector if a critical attention is not given to it. She said, there are a lot of officers in the various parts of the sector who may not possess the needed capacities/qualification in the performance of their duties.

Ms. Engman made these comments at the 27th edition of the  National Level Learning Alliance platform with the theme Assessing Human resource Gaps in the WASH sector in Ghana. The discussions were lead by the Department of Civil Engineering of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on 28th June 2012 in Accra. The main objective of the meeting was to access capacity gaps from institutional structures, service delivery, among others. The chairman for the day and also acting executive secretary at the Water Resources Commission (WRC),Mr. Benjamin Ampomah said even though capacity building has been clearly outlined in so many organization and project strategies, the reality lives much to be desired hence ,the HR gaps in the sector. He was however happy that the initial step has been taken by KNUST in the assessment, hoping the outcome will go a long way in helping bridge the identified gaps. Mr. Anpomah advised participants to actively contribute into this research in all means possible to help deal with this all crucial situation affecting the sector.

The multi stakeholder platform hosted by the Resource Centre Network (RCN)Ghana brought together stakeholders and key sector actors from governmental agencies like the CWSA, EHSD,GWCL/GUWCL, private partners, media, NGOs and among others

by Ida Coleman

RCN Ghana