Rural Households Infrastructure Grant Presentation to the Standing Committee on Appropriations Cllr Chris Neethling, MTS WG Chairperson Mr Mthobeli Kolisa, Executive Director: MIS 17 August 2012

CONTEXT (ROLE DEFINITION) LG 156. Powers and functions of municipalities. (1) A municipality has executive authority in respect of, and has the right to administer- (a) the local government matters listed in Part B of Schedule 4 and Part B of the Constitution Water and sanitation services limited to potable water supply systems and domestic waste-water and sewage disposal Policy Development Set norms and standards Support to local government etc. National

Supporting LG SALGA will be the first to admit that there are challenges in some municipalities in respect of delivery We did not meet the original target of providing sanitation services because of: Financial Resources constraints Institutional capacity constraints But also because the target was poorly conceptualised (did not recognise that in some areas sanitation will have to be linked with provision of houses and/ or formalisation of informal settlements; hence its revision to align with housing targets

Supporting LG A decentralised form of government provides an opportunity to enhance and deepen our democracy - sphere of government closest to communities be responsible for built environment services that impact directly on communities and households The ultimate objective of supporting local government should remain that of building and strengthening a decentralised form of government – society should not loose faith in a decentralised system of government and in the role of sub-national spheres of government. Dialectical relationship between capacity and responsibility; both work to condition and define the other - absence of responsibility diminishes the force to build capacity and vice versa Support provided by National and Provincial Governments to LG should not take away responsibility for service delivery from the municipalities

COMPARISON MIG AND RHIP (spot the difference) ITEMS MIG RHIP Strategic Goal Subside the capital costs of providing basic services to poor households – priority must be given to meeting basic infrastructure needs to the poor through the provision of appropriate municipal bulk, connector and internal infrastructure for key services To eliminate backlogs in water and sanitation in rural households Grant purpose To provide capital finance for basic municipal infrastructure backlogs for poor households, micro enterprises and social institutions servicing the poor communities To provide capital funding for the for the eradication of rural water and sanitation backlogs and is targeted at existing households where bulk –dependent services are not viable Outputs Number of additional poor households receiving basic water and sanitation services Number of work created opportunities created using EPWP guidelines Number of rural households provided with access to on site sanitation and non bulk dependent water facilities Number of jobs created in accordance to EPWP guidelines

RHIP CONCEPTUALISATION No clear problem statement that informed the conceptualization of the grant No clear policy imperatives underpinning the creation of RHIP as a Schedule 7 grant as opposed to e.g. schedule 6 Not necessarily because of capacity because NG uses service providers Not building local capacity but reallocating responsibility from local to national

MUNICIPAL EXPERIENCES WITH RHIP Common cause that the RHIP expenditure performance was poor Despite some good cases, the were some qualitative performance issues as well: No effective mechanisms to monitor the implementation of the project implementation agreements Ready made solution (appointment of Project Implementation Agency) in some instances such do not have sanitation experiences In some cases PIA appoints contractor outside of a municipal spaces including buying of material (leading to community unhappiness and public protests Health and hygiene not given enough attention – more attention is given to the top structure numbers Ground Water Protocol seems not be observed No alignment between MIG and RHIP – use of local capacity and processes

Recommendations RHIP be integrated into MIG - the grants purpose and intention are the same Each municipality assisted to set achievable rural water and sanitation targets and be held accountable Finalize the Sanitation Policy – it will help with the following Role clarification in the sanitation value chain Funding mechanism(s) and approaches Long term sustainability of the sanitation value chain

Thank you