The NIRDPR in partnership with UNICEF, WaterAid and other development partners had conducted a 3-day National WASH Conclave “WASH Forward: Advancing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Panchayats” during February 23-25, 2022. Over 3000 participants including representatives from the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, officials from the state and district governments, professionals and practitioners working in WASH sector, and Gram Panchayat representatives participated in this conclave. The deliberations of each session fed into a Conclave’s ‘Call to Action’, that was released for advancing WASH in Panchayats. The Call to Action is annexed.

The Call to Action raises potential issues that need to be tackled and worked on at various levels (Local Government or Gram Panchayat Level, District and Sub-district, State and National), for achieving desired outcomes on WASH, especially under multiple existing government programmes, that give primary role to the Gram Panchayats – thus ensuring public participation; with the ultimate goal being to ensure high levels of WASH service delivery to the population. This Call to Action being broad in nature, needed a process of further deliberations that would convert the larger objectives to implementable actions with defined roles and responsibilities.

To do this an Action Planning Workshop was organized during August 02-03, 2022, at UNICEF India Country Office, New Delhi, to unpack the Call to Action and develop an Action Plan/ Roadmap through a multi-partner consultative process involving various stakeholders. The list of participants annexed.

Objectives of the Workshop
The objectives of this action planning workshop were to:
1. Unpack the Call-to-Action recommendations and identify implementable recommendations that need further focus at various levels.
2. Prepare an Action Plan for submission to central and state governments, and to a range of stakeholders at various levels, with suggested actions and interventions to achieve WASH outcomes for rural communities.
3. Devise ways to strengthen the capacities of local self-governments (PRIs), in enable the provision of high quality, affordable and sustainable WASH systems and services to the population in rural areas.

Bibliographic information

(2022). Action Planning Workshop to realise the Call to Action UNICEF

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