Members of Agenda for Change and collaborators at the Nepal Global South WASH Financing and Sustainability Conference 2026.
PART 2 of 2
Reflections from Kathmandu — Global South WASH Financing & Sustainability Conference and Agenda for Change Engagements, April 2026
In Part 1, we explored what the Global South WASH Financing & Sustainability Conference revealed about accountability and financing reform. Part 2 turns from the conference room to the collaboration room — and to what happens when commitments start to take shape in practice.
The real work, as anyone in this sector knows, starts once the room clears. Spending the week after the conference with Agenda for Change country collaborators in Nepal was a reminder of exactly that. The days of April 6–7 offered something the conference could not: a window into what sustained, government-aligned collaboration actually looks like when it matures into systems influence.
1. What Good Country Collaboration Looks Like: Focus on Nepal
If the conference described the challenge, Nepal’s Agenda for Change collaboration demonstrated what the response can look like in practice.
Since 2021, Nepal’s collaboration has grown from four INGOs into a diverse alliance of eight members — now including national organisations such as FEDWASAN and WashKhabar — signalling a deliberate move toward localisation and institutional embedding. But the most striking development is the depth of government ownership. Nepal’s Ministry of Water Supply actively seeks out the collaboration members as trusted partners for strategic sector work, co-developing tools, endorsing training manuals for official use, and requesting support for regulatory reform. The collaboration has moved from advocacy to co-governance, serving as an interdmediary from sector actors to government
Nepal has also demonstrated the power of evidence used strategically. Rather than producing data for reporting purposes alone, findings from its WASH systems capacity assessment across eight municipalities were directly translated into national Joint Sector Review recommendations and local government reforms. Evidence becomes transformative only when linked to decision-making, Nepal has made that connection.
Its five-year A4C roadmap, built around systems strengthening, climate resilience, inclusion, financing reform, and institutional coordination,replaces fragmented interventions with shared long-term direction. And its sector-wide public goods (a WASH Systems Strengthening Framework, government-endorsed training manuals, local government guidance tools) are institutional assets that will outlast individual projects.
Nepal’s next frontier is influencing major financing institutions, the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, UN agencies, positioning their collaboration as a bridge between government priorities, financing institutions, and implementation systems. That is a significant leap from coordination platform to financing systems intermediary.
The lessons for other collaborations are clear: build trust before pushing reform, anchor work in government systems, rotate leadership to sustain shared ownership, use evidence strategically, and invest in products that strengthen institutions rather than just deliver activities.
2. Where Commitments Meet Practice
If the conference described the challenge and Nepal’s five-year roadmap pointed to the direction, the week of April 6–7 showed what it looks like when collaboration actually begins to land — in rooms, in relationships, and in honest conversations.
Representatives from A4C country collaborations in Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda, and India convened alongside the Nepal chapter for peer exchange and bilateral meetings. The discussions were not abstract. Uganda shared reflections on the role of civil society organisations in sustaining reform. Ethiopia spoke to the practical work of building effective government partnerships. Malawi brought insights on the influence of collective action at scale. Each offered a different vantage point on the same challenge: how do you keep a network coherent and momentum alive through institutional complexity?
Meetings with senior officials from the Nepal Ministry of Water Supply and the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management reinforced one of the conference’s central messages: the value of an organised, intentional collective that supports and strengthens government leadership rather than operating in parallel to it. Nepal’s collaboration has earned that trust through consistency and contribution — not through advocacy alone.
Nepal’s upcoming plans make this concrete: expanding the WASH System Training Manual through the government’s national training centre, scaling the WASH System Strengthening Guidance Document at local government level, conducting Training of Trainers for development partners, and supporting the Sector Efficiency Improvement Unit on Joint Sector Review commitments. These are not aspirational — they are scheduled, owned, and embedded in national systems.
What the week also revealed is how non-linear systems change really is. Nepal has navigated significant political transitions in a short period, with changing institutional mandates and shifting contexts that risk disrupting hard-won continuity. This is precisely where an intermediary platform like Agenda for Change plays a distinctive role — sustaining coherence, alignment, and momentum through instability that individual organisations cannot absorb alone.
Our time in Nepal itself left a strong impression. Its quiet spirituality and warmth were present in every interaction — in thoughtful conversations, in calm amid complexity. It is a fitting place for this kind of work. Lasting change requires patience, intention, and genuine human connection. Kathmandu offered all three.
The Overarching Takeaway: Shifting the Centre of Gravity
Across all the discussions in Kathmandu — whether on accountability, financing reform, or country collaboration — the same architecture of change appeared:
- Stronger public financial management and institutions
- Improved regulation and accountability
- Empowered local systems and actors
- Better coordination and partnerships
These are not separate from the financing agenda. They are what makes financing effective.
Convening in the Global South also matters in its own right. Bringing stakeholders together within countries and regions shifts the centre of gravity toward national and local leadership, grounded dialogue, and context-driven solutions. Sustainable change is most effective when it is locally led, nationally owned, and collectively supported.
Collective action is essential, no single actor can strengthen systems alone. Through platforms like Agenda for Change, the value of uniting governments, development partners, civil society, and the private sector behind government-led systems is clear. The shift from fragmented interventions to coordinated, system-wide approaches is possible. But it requires sustained collaboration beyond conferences, and intentional investment not only in financing, but in the institutions and partnerships that enable it to deliver.
The opportunity from Kathmandu is real, but only if we sustain the momentum. Declarations are a starting point. The long, drawn-out work of keeping a foot on the pedal is where the difference is made.
This post synthesises reflections shared by members of Agenda for Change following their participation in the Global South WASH Financing & Sustainability Conference (April 1–3, 2026) and A4C country engagements in Kathmandu (April 6, 2026), including: Bethlehem Mengistu (1, 2), Moses Asiimwe (1, 2), Michael Negash (1), Kate Harawa, and WASH Khabar (1).