7.6 Role of frontline workers in facilitation

The communities are the ultimate users of WASH services and they are the ones who probably know more about their situation and understand their problems better than anyone else. The role of frontline workers is to provide adequate information to the community and facilitate the process for them to make informed decisions about their actions. You may find that, as an additional frontline worker, part of your role is to facilitate the process that leads to a solution that is acceptable by all.

Facilitation means helping groups of people to understand and agree on their objectives. It involves engaging communities in a process, as you learned in Study Session 6.

Initiating sustainable change to improve WASH services requires full understanding of the existing situation, the barriers to improvement and the available resources. The commitment for change must come from within the communities themselves. Change should not be imposed externally. Frontline workers, while working with communities, should avoid imposing a new regime, otherwise the desired changes will not happen or will not be sustained. Mobilising communities for positive action and sustainable change without imposing solutions on them requires specific skills in the processes of facilitation.