Accra 16 May 2018—The UN Resident Coordinator for Ghana Christine Evans-Klock, says the novel collaborative efforts of the four agencies that worked on the Joint UN programme on WASH in Disaster Prone Communities (DPC) project in selected areas of Ghana was something that must be encouraged.

According to her, with the UN moving more towards prirotising the Delivering as One platform, such a collaboration would be replicated in many places worldwide where the UN is running projects to help the people. Four UN agencies- UN-Habitat, Unicef, WHO and UNDP joined hands in delivering the project which has been hailed by many of the beneficiaries and partners as successful.

“It was quite an innovative project that managed to get the relative expertise from four different agencies and have them work together. It was also quite a complex project,” Ms. Evans-Klock said at an interview in her office in Accra.

The fact that the project was spread over three regions of Ghana gave the participating agencies the perfect opportunity to address complex issues, she said adding that a unique feature of the project was that it could be easily scaled up and sustainable.

According to the Resident Coordinator, the distinctive role played by each agency was quite helpful leaving no room for ‘sibling rivalry’. “They addressed the various components very effectively proving that a team works best when they need each other,” she said.

Ms. Evans-Klock was all praises for the donor, Global Affairs Canada, which played an active role in the project execution. “Global Affairs Canada took a very active role in the budgeting, checking on the timelines as well as ensuring that there was clarity throughout,” she said pointing the many missions the Canadians took to the project areas.

She also hailed the village chiefs for their wholehearted embracement of the project which was demonstrated by their willingness to involve women in the whole process. “The women had a very strong voice especially on water and sanitation under which they constantly pushed the local leaders to give them water,” she said.

An unintended outcome of the project which touched Ms. Evans-Kock’s heart was the fact that it helped keep adolescent girls in school. The project had a component under which, working with schools’ health clubs, adolescent girls were taught on personal hygiene and were provided with changing rooms when they were in their menses.

The Resident Coordinator disclosed that her role was to provide leadership to the team as well as keeping clear channels of communications with the partners. The recent change of government had brought with it a small hitch in that the line ministry had changed.