Sanitation Status in Ghana and the role of CSOs in the policy processes – Baseline Report

The sanitation sector in Ghana has many different actors and stakeholders. They include government agencies, private sector providers, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, non-gov-ernmental organizations and CSOs, development partners, bilateral and multilateral organizations. The activities carried out by these actors are not all reported. Where these are reported, it is not always done using the right indicators or passed through the appropriate channels. Agencies operating outside the mainstream government agencies are reported to be the most culpable. This omission does undermine the sanitation policy making process as it is denied rich information necessary to ensure effective policy.

The compilation of this report followed a review of key sector documents and conducted key informant interviews, consultative meetings with major sector actors, and a validation workshop. The central role of local government authorities as agencies entrusted with the primary responsibility for sanitation has been examined, The presents outcomes of a systematic review of landmark sanitation policies, systems for an-alyzing sanitation data including Basic Sanitation Information System (BaSIS) and the policy formulation platforms such as “NALLAP” and the Mole series, process and active roles CSOs continue to play in Ghana. The importance of various schemes and organizational development tools designed to improve the plan-ning and effective delivery of sanitation services and their limitations such as “FOAT”, “DPA” and “DLT” have been discussed.