Scoping Advice for the Dutch IWRM Support Programme Rwanda

Needs assessment per sector: USAID has produced a capacity needs assessment and staffing planfor the water department. Assess whether the needs assessment is complete: are all relevantsector departments and agencies included? If not, provide additional information on IWRMcapacity needs within these departments or agencies.Central versus decentralised capacity needs: the needs assessment has been carried out beforethe Master Plan has defined the institutional arrangement for water management at catchmentlevel. Check consistency between needs assessment and the Master Plan; in case ofinconsistencies, define capacity development needs for proper implementation of thedecentralised water management tasks.Coordination mechanisms: for a management information system to be effective exchange ofinformation between relevant parties in water management is fundamentally important. Of equalimportance is exchange of information at catchment level. Catchment plans can only be made ifsector plans for each catchment are developed and assessed in a coordinated manner.The water law and Master Plan provide a possible coordination mechanism at central anddecentralised level through a water sector coordination committee and a catchment committee.Define:- the data exchange needs for an MIS to be effective;- the coordination needs for a catchment plan to become a document shared and owned by allrelevant stakeholders;- and to suggest alternative ways in which coordination and exchange mechanisms could beestablished within the boundaries set by the Water Law and Master Plan.Communication: In support of the coordination task as described above, explore ways ofimproving communication capacity at RWRD allowing for improved packaging and transfer ofinformation to relevant parties and for development and implementation of a communicationstrategy As yet, no capacity exists at the RWRD to do or coordinate this.Learning by doing: following the recommendation 1 in section 2.4 regarding learning, investigateways for more effective transfer of knowledge and skills, including:- traditional training and teaching;- coaching, learning by doing, ‘on-the-job’ learning;- exchange (cross-visits, buddy/mentoring systems, consultants working at WD or WD staff atconsultants’ offices, etc).IWRM implementation at catchment levelCatchment planning approach. Assess the advantages and disadvantages of two alternativeapproaches to IWRM implementation at catchment level:- Blanket approach in which a catchment planning process is started simultaneously by thedeployment of WD staff in key districts of each catchment. The approach is based on thenotion that each catchment is unique, requiring a unique plan, but that the methodology tocome to a catchment plan is similar; mutual learning and exchange among WD staff enhancesthe process, or;30