Encourage local stakeholder leadership and buy-in to increase sustainability of policy and institutional efforts. The Water Sector Reform Project established a sector steering committee as part of its efforts to improve sector coordination and planning. At interim, the evaluation found that the scheduling and meetings were largely driven by the Sierra Leone Threshold Program’s accountable entity, the Millennium Challenge Coordinating Unit. There was also broad concern across sector stakeholders on whether the steering committee would continue without that support. At the time of the endline evaluation, most of the efforts to improve sector coordination such as the Sector Steering Committee were no longer active. Programs should aim to identify and engage local leadership and should consider how to build local stakeholder capacity during program implementation to contribute to sustainability once the accountable entity is no longer in place.
Lesson Learned