Community members in Bandé identified the supply of clean drinking water as the rural Nigerien commune’s most urgent need and formed a committee to improve public service delivery. However, the local government lacks the capacity to provide basic public services. Counterpart’s USAID-funded Resilient Governance in Niger activity, also called Jagoranci, works with Bandé’s communal leadership to develop a strategy for improving access to clean drinking water. 

The Jagoranci project develops the capacity of local authorities to provide basic services by supporting its partner communes to devise and implement visible service improvement plans. The plans aim to improve public service delivery based on the priorities of each commune. This support strengthens local institutions’ core governance capacities (planning, budgeting, management, implementation, and monitoring) through targeting key services for improvement. 

Community members in the commune of Bandé in rural Niger are working to improve access to clean drinking water through enhancing local governance.

Jagoranci piloted the visible service improvement process in Bandé by facilitating the creation of a community committee to lead the initiative. This committee, made up of local elected officials, representatives of municipal and communal technical services, and civil society members, identified two priority public service issues and developed a strategy to improve them. 

After extensive deliberation and analysis, the committee determined that sanitation and drinking water supply services are the most pressing issues Bandé faces. The committee then evaluated the status of public water supply services and finalized a strategy for improving the drinking water supply in the town of Bandé, the most populated part of Bandé commune. This strategy will provide a framework through which local government can supply increased levels of clean water in Bandé under the leadership of the communal authorities. 

Jagoranci will continue supporting the development of visible improvement service plans in other partner communes after the success of its work in Bandé. The project plans to expand its service improvement process to Kollo commune in the coming months.