Capacity building

Without adequate capacity, sanitation programmes cannot be successful and sustainable in the long term. The need for capacity building in sanitation was a key theme emerging from several country preparation meetings prior to AfricaSan 3 and cut across sessions throughout the conference. And yet often times it is not clear what 'capacity building' exactly means and how to do it well. This chapter first defines what capacity building is, and assesses the need for sanitation capacity in Africa. Previous and current actions on capacity building are explored using examples, followed by a discussion on where future efforts might focus to bridge the capacity gap and ensure that capacity building becomes a central part of sanitation planning and implementation.