Now that you have completed this study session, you can assess how well you have achieved its Learning Outcomes by answering these questions.

In Sections 7.2 to 7.5, you learned about the roles of the different groups of WASH workers in urban settings. Which of the groups of frontline workers play the following roles?

Provide operation and maintenance to water supply and sanitation facilities and their systems.
Supply WASH products such as sanitary pads to communities.
Share their knowledge of the benefits of handwashing with their neighbours.

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District/local water experts provide operation and maintenance to water supply and sanitation facilities and their systems.
Private operators supply WASH products such as sanitary pads to communities.
Community health workers (CHWs) can share their knowledge of the benefits of handwashing with their neighbours.

How does the work of CHWs link with the role of private service providers?

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CHWs’ main responsibility is to promote safe hygiene and sanitation practices in communities. When successful, their effort changes the norms and behaviour of the community. The most important changes occur in the construction of improved latrines, in the practice (how and when) of handwashing, household water treatment, safe water handling at home, personal hygiene and solid waste collection.

Private service providers deliver important services and products to their customers or communities. These include improved slabs and vent pipes for latrines, soaps for handwashing and personal hygiene, sachets and chemicals for water treatment, menstrual pads for adolescent girls and women, and others.

The CHWs’ work creates the demand for the products by private providers and strengthens a favourable market condition. However, if private providers are not able to provide the products, the community will not be able to implement the safe hygiene and sanitation practices encouraged by CHWs. You can see that CHWs or private providers alone cannot achieve improved WASH conditions in urban communities, but it is the joint effort that makes a difference.

Suppose you have arranged a meeting with a community of a small town to discuss sanitation issues. Your role in the meeting is to facilitate discussion and encourage the participants to reach a consensus on feasible action points. List at least three important things you should do in the process of facilitating the community meeting.

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You may have answered with any three of the following:

Introduce yourself and put participants at ease.
Clearly explain the purpose of the meeting and check that everyone agrees with the agenda.
Set ground rules such as listening, respect for ideas, and not interrupting while others are speaking. This is very important when conflicting ideas or interests are expected.
Encourage participation from everyone present.
Keep to the agreed agenda and objectives of the meeting.
Build towards actions. In the discussion, ensure that ideas and suggestions do not only focus on problems and the past, but on practical solutions that can be put into action.
Develop a plan that involves a clear list of action items and identifies one responsible body or person to implement the action. If necessary, identify additional stakeholders who can give support. Agree on a reasonable time to complete the action. The facilitator must ensure that this is done with the participation of all, and is agreed by all.
Arrange a follow-up meeting. Before the end of the meeting, it is very important to agree on a follow-up mechanism and its timing. Usually a meeting can be arranged to review the progress on the actions. This can be arranged at the middle of the period where all actions are expected to be finished. A final meeting is also important to learn from challenges and multiply successes to address other WASH-related problems in the community.