"Assessing Coordination Mechanisms in Madagascar’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Sector: Structural Gaps and Pathways for Improvement"

WASH management

The water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector in Madagascar faces major weaknesses in inter-institutional coordination. Fragmented competencies, lack of shared mechanisms, and weak articulation between national, regional, and local actors compromise the effectiveness and sustainability of interventions. This study aims to assess current coordination mechanisms among sector actors, identify systemic limitations, and provide an analytical foundation for the future optimization of the coordination framework.The adopted approach is qualitative and exploratory. It combines document analysis, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, field observations, and participatory workshops. The analytical framework draws on Mintzberg’s coordination mechanisms, the sectoral value chain, Actor-Network Theory (ANT), and organizational sociology.The evaluation highlights a poorly formalized coordination system, highly dependent on technical and financial partners. Governance remains centralized, with limited involvement of local governments. Existing platforms lack regularity and dedicated funding. Monitoring and steering tools are fragmented, resulting in ineffective vertical coordination and marginal inter-sectoral integration.However, certain local initiatives demonstrate potential for improvement, provided that stronger formalization and greater ownership by local actors are achieved.This study highlights significant structural gaps in the sector’s coordination framework in Madagascar. It emphasizes the opportunity to design and test new tools and coordination frameworks better suited to the national context. These findings pave the way for further research, particularly in the systemic modeling of the coordination framework.

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