Making plans and securing budgets to execute those plans- to deliver WASH services
Planning involves preparing a sequence of steps to achieve a specific goal. Effective planning means clearly identifying roles, responsibilities and resources for different activities. Government planing typically happens withing both longer (more strategic) and shorter (more operational) time-frames. Planning for WASH services is also typically embedded in broader national planning cycles. Planning for individual projects should ideally take place within the framework provided by local or national strategic plans.
Plans that are not accompanied by realistic budgets are merely wish-lists - unlikely to be achieved. Realistic and strategic budgeting is key to effective planning: making clear who is expected to pay for what elements of a WASH service's life-cycle costs. At its simplest, money for service delivery can come from three sources: transfers (money from external agencies such as donors or NGOs); taxes (money from government - local or national); or, tariffs (user payments for services). Good plans clearly identity which of these sources will pay for which element of service delivery over time: clearly identifying who pays for both investment and recurrent costs.
Links to other building blocks: Effective planning and especially budgeting is reliant on clarity of definitions of what service delivery models are permitted (policy and legislation), on good quality data on which to base decisions (monitoring), and above all on availability of the right sort of finance (finance).
