Note from the field A case study on improving governance and accountability in primary schools in Kenya

WASH infrastructure at schools in Kenya has not kept pace with increasing student enrolment since the government introduced free primary education in 2002. Nyanza is one of the regions with low coverage in schools, with a deficit of more than 80 per cent of required water and sanitation facilities. While many agencies, including governments, have come up with school-based intervention programmes that alleviate the situation in the short term, sustainability has been a challenge as has monitoring, which is often centralized with little delegated authority at the local level. This paper looks at an innovative approach to delivering WASH services to schools, SWASH+, which piloted a model of devolved monitoring that also addresses sustainability issues.