Have we failed or succeed in WINS?

If we talk about the emphasis of the concept, better documentation, highlighting the importance of WINS to play a big role in the society by given to children (future adult and citizen) all necessary skills and good habits for the life… I will say you have not failed, but if I take a look on the situation of analysis in a country like Cameroon (already develop by Brigitte), I will say it’s a failure because no one has the real lead on WINS and the coordination between all the government ministries in charge (basic education, water, health) remain a big challenge. This lack of leadership coupled to the lack of funding is a big handicap to develop strategies at policy level.

How can we say that we have succeeded if we have only 1 school/3 at national level with toilettes? And 2 schools out of 5 with potable water? The handwashing facilities are not included in the EMIS and when you have handwahing stations, the availability of soap is a big issue. If the basic infrastructures do not exist in school, how can we insure that children will develop expected skills so that they will be used as agent for change of behaviours for their peers, parents and all the community? And are we able to demonstrate these behaviour changes? The monitoring and evaluation of our interventions is still very weak.

The interaction between all the stakeholders needed to be reinforced: inside organisations between WASH and Education Programme and between all the stakeholders at different level.

So we are on the way, but we need to advocate strongly at high level in order to have a strong leadership and commitment of the government for WINS.