Country ownership has led to an increase in rural access to clean water and sanitation services in many sub-Saharan African countries according to a report released this week by The World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) in partnership with the African Development Bank, UNICEF, and the WHO. “ Pathways to Progress: Transitioning to Country-Led Service Delivery Pathways to Meet Africa's Water Supply and Sanitation Targets,” reported that economic growth, debt relief, and increasing political stability have allowed for many countries to take charge of their water supply and sanitation sectors while developing sustainable service delivery pathways.

The report states that this success could not have been achieved without development partners’ funding; however the large impact of donor money was attributed to countries leading the implementation of services through their own systems:

“Country performance is not only the result of greater funding but also the nature of that funding. As aid modalities have shifted from donor-driven projects to country-led programmatic approaches to service delivery—along the lines of the Paris Principles for aid effectiveness—line ministries have increasingly used core government systems (public financial management systems and decentralized service delivery capacity) and capacity in the wider economy (markets, civil society, and private sector).”

Maimouna Mbengue is a grandmother in Senegal and like most grandmothers she passes on traditions and gives advice to her family. Unlike most grandmothers though, Mbengue is part of the Bajenu Gox Initiative, President Abdoulye Wade’s community based health worker program which trains women to be leaders in reproductive health. The name of the initiative is a reference to the deep tradition of solidarity between the young women and the old women that is known as bajenu gox.

Mbengue told NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton in an article appearing last week about her work, "We talk about the different health care priorities and problems our families face. And with the help of the health professionals in our community, we learn to adopt a more useful approach to tackle any problems."