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What is a partner shop ?
It can be any shop which is clearly identified by the communities, frequented, which is well located in a trading center and for which his owner is ready to support the communities by facilitating access to hand pump spare parts.
Generally it can be hardware shops, groceries, even tailors…
They agree to collaborate with Inter Aide, BASEDA, TIMMS, and since 2012 with RUWASO who are linking them with main suppliers of Afridev and Malda pumps located in main cities like Lilongwe and Blantyre, and they are reselling (with some profit – around 20% for the fast wearing parts) to any water point users, thus facilitating access even for remote villages.
M. Guande, shop owner, in front of the shelf that displays the spare parts to the customers
Shops owners are selected also according to their capacities to manage and develop such business. Selection is made with the advises of District Councils and Water Departments.
Then, they are trained to have the basic knowledge of the use of spare parts, bust most of all to well manage this activity so that water point users are well oriented and can always find the parts they are looking for.
Sign boards used to identify spare parts resellers
In 2016, there are 150 spare parts retailers in Malawi who have been trained by Inter Aide – BASEDA – TIMMS, see details on the map.
The complete list of partners shops (and AMs) for 2016 is available here: BROCHURE List of all AM SHOPS
The PHAST approach
To translate
General Overview
List all related tools for the identification, training, follow-up of Area Mechanics.
Listing of tools and documents related to Area Mechanics
Selection / recruitment
- Interviews guidelines
- Agreement / contracts
- Agreement for bicycles
Trainings
- Initial AM Afridev training – spare part definition
- Malda training
- Bicycle training
- Refresher Afridev training
- Security systems
- Fishing method
- Water points guidelines
- Explanation on the preventive contracts
Operation
| Visibility | |
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Monitoring & Evaluation
| Quantitative | Qualitative |
Complete catalog:
www.interaide.org/watsan/malawi/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/AM-network-catalog.pdf
The administrative bodies and traditionnal authorities
Local government structure
1 District Councils
The Council is supposed to be headed by the Chairperson selected from amongst its 10 councilors each representing a ward in the district. The District Commissioner is the head of Council Secretariat, which is composed of Professional Heads of Government Sectors in the district.
The council must have the following service committees: Finance Committee; Development Committee; Education Committee; Works Committee, Appointment and Disciplinary Committee Health and Environment Committee which is the custodian committee on water and sanitation issues. It may establish other committees when need arises.
2 District Executive Committee – DEC
This is a technical body that provides advice to the Council and its service committees. It is composed of all Heads of Departments and NGO/Development partners in the district. The District Executive has a membership of 50, chaired by the District Commissioner while the Director of Planning and Development is its secretary. The DEC has a subcommittee of District Coordinating Team (DCT) on water, sanitation and hygiene. Membership of the committee consists of both the sector heads and non-state actors involved in water, sanitation and hygiene. The committee is chaired by the Director of Planning and Development with secretariat for sanitation in Health Sector. The main role of the DCT is coordination of water, sanitation and hygiene activities in the district.
3 Area Development Committees – ADCs
The Area Development Committee (ADC) is a representative body of all Village Development Committees under a Traditional Authority. Its membership could range from 25 to 60 under the patronage of the Chief. It mobilizes community resources and implements development interventions within it’s the area.
Membership includes Group Village Headpersons, Representative of Women Groups, and representative of Youth Groups, the District Councilors of the area, and Business and Religious Leaders. The district follows a decentralized approach in implementing all projects in the district, water and sanitation inclusive. It is the role of the ADC to prioritize the demand driven WASH projects from all village development committee’s in a traditional authority.
The ADC also assists in the identification an overall project that cuts across the ADC i.e. piped water systems and mobilization of resources during the course of implementation of a project.
4 Area Executive Committees – AECs
An Area Executive Committee is composed of Extension workers of Government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) operating in the Traditional Area. At the area level Government extension workers in the WASH sector are the Health surveillance assistance and water monitoring assistant. This committee is the technical arm at the area level responsible for advising the ADCs on all aspects of development.
5 Village Development Committees – VDCs
This is a representative body from a group of villages responsible for identifying needs and facilitating planning and development in local communities. It is at this level that the communities raise their needs and demand projects like boreholes or taps. The VDC is chaired by an elected chair which the group village head is patron. Members of the VDC include members of the following committees and groups:
- Water Point Committee
- Project Implementation Committee
- Village Health Committee
- School Management Committee
- Functional Literacy Committee
- Women &Youth Groups
- Village Natural Resources Management Committee
- Water point committees
The WaSH institutions
At national level, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water development is responsible for water supply and sanitation services[1], and is itself divided into different Departments:
The Water Supply and Sanitation Department oversees formulation of sector policies, sets technical standards and procedures for the provision of services; plans, designs the construction of water supply schemes; and trains communities in proper management of water supply schemes.[2]
[1] The Ministry of Health is responsible quite separately for sanitation, as well as for hygiene education. Integration of work in these areas is therefore a major challenge.
[2] Water Boards: are in charge of urban water supply.
At district level, The Water Department headed by the District Water Officer is the entity giving the direction and strategies for development of water access. It is evaluating where the needs and the priorities are, deciding of new infrastructures.
WMAs (Water Monitoring Assistants) are in charge to train and monitor Water Point Committees. Inter Aide, BASEDA and TIMMS are collaborating with them for the supervision of the activities of Area Mechanics (the idea is to progressively organize a transfer of competencies).
BMOs (Borehole Maintenance Overseer) – a position which does not exist in all districts – are in charge of managing construction of boreholes and major rehabilitation. They are also supervising and giving support to campaigns leaded by other operators (NGOs…). They can advise Area Mechanics for the repairs.
Area Mechanic Selection
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The Area Development Committee – ADC and traditional authorities are asked to do a pre-selection of persons who could be potential AMs with recommendations from District Water Officer. This pre-selection have to take into considerations where the needs are, i.e. where the persons would have to be located to tackle a catchment with an important but manageable density of hand pumps (more than 100 hand pumps is difficult), considering also the radius of activity and topography-accessibility.
The example of this Map of Dowa district illustrates the brainstorming done for the distribution of AMs (red stickers) and shops (green labels)
Oral interviews are conducted jointly with DWO, the ADC chairman, and Health Surveillance Assistant HAS (15 to 20 min. per candidate).
Criteria of selection include technical knowledge, but also abilities to communicate with water points’ users, dedication for development and helping the community, capable of reading, writing, counting, willingness to develop such business…Some written tests are also conducted.
Links :
BASEDA guidelines interview AM interview form
A Malawian solution for access to spare parts
RUral WAter SOlutions is a Malawian social entrepreneurship company founded in 2013 aiming at providing a reliable supply chain for Afridev and Malda hand pumps spare parts. Operating in 5 districts (Dowa, Kasungu, Mchinji, Ntchisi and Salima), RUWASO rely on 60 partner shop owners in the trading centers of rural areas.
Mr. Pacharo Chiumia and Alufeyo Njeresa, associates and directors of RUWASO
See more details on the complete description document below: company profile working document
Before 2013, the supply of the spare parts retailers was provided by Inter Aide who was buying in bulk to main suppliers in Lilongwe or Blantyre. With the creation of RUWASO, a local solution has been set up, which should be more sustainable.
RUWASO is relying on the public transport to distribute the items and link its central depots with suppliers and retailers.
The supply of these 5 districts is completely autonomous and RUWASO is able to make some profit and to pay its staff, the rent of the depot and all materials required.
The hand pump maintenance approach
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Malawi is in Africa and has an estimated population of 13.2 million of which 80% live in rural areas and generally practice subsistence, rain-fed agriculture.
The main improved rural water supplies in Malawi are boreholes installed with handpumps, shallow wells fitted with handpumps and piped gravity fed schemes (GFS). Coverage of improved water supplies in rural Malawi is estimated to be 71% (UNICEF, 2006b. However, it is estimated that 31% of the improved rural water points are not functioning, thus effective coverage is reduced to 55%.To improve this functioning ratio, some Operation and Maintenance (O&M) have been undertaken in Malawi since 1999. Operation and Maintenance applied on water supplies (hand pumps, etc.) means:
- Operation means the safe, reliable and economic use of a facility over its Life Span. The Life Span of a system is the number of years that the facilities are expected to operate.
- Maintenance describes the set of measures and activities aimed at keeping, or restoring optimal and reliable functionality of equipment.
The map above shows where these projects are now present (Click on it to enlarge it).
Districts where O&M projects are active are Lilongwe, Dedza, Salima, Dowa, Mchinji, Nchisi, Zomba, Mulanje and Chiradzulu. Deployment is ongoing in Kasungu and Phalombe.
AMs’ Trainings
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Area Mechanics training are done through a participatory approach with 80% dedicated to practical and real field situations. The initial training deals with 2 VLOM pumps as designated by the Malawi Government namely, Afridev and MALDA hand pumps.
Demand generated refresher trainings are organized to update AM skills in pump repairs. We organize quarterly review meetings to offer AMs an opportunity to share technical challenges and field experiences providing additional ways in improving AMs’ skills.
Links :