Kathmandu: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland has said that its WASH project in Nepal has met with success. The Ministry said so in its recently unveiled final report on ex-post evaluation of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN) 2008-2019 and Final Evaluation of Rural Village Water Resources Management Project (RVWRMP) 2006-2022.
According to the report, the primary focus of the project was on WASH, livelihoods and accompanying capacity development, but also included gender and social inclusion (GESI) and climate change.
The evaluation found that the relevance of the two projects was good as they responded to the needs of beneficiaries and were relevant to the policies of the government of Finland, Government of Nepal and the European Union.
The RWSSP-WN was very effective as it generally achieved its targets in terms of outputs and outcomes, with 360,000 people gaining access to water, says the report. It also contributed to ensuring that over four million people are now living in Open Defecation Free (ODF) communities. The project trained over half a million people, and municipalities have had support to increase their capacity. The project also developed and implemented a GESI strategy, women reduced the time spent fetching water, and the role of disadvantaged groups improved.
According to the report, the RVWRMP was also very effective as it mostly achieved more than its targets, including the provision of water to over 600,000 people, contributing to over two million people now living in ODF communities, and over 750,000 people improving their livelihoods. The capacity of municipalities has been developed.
The report says that some benefits of the RWSSP-WN will continue, although the institutional setup is less strong. The RWSSP-WN is assessed to have good sustainability. “For the RVWRMP, it is very likely that people will continue to have access to water and sanitation and that beneficiaries will continue to benefit from livelihood opportunities,” says the report.
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