Human resources capacity in Ghana's water, sanitation and hygiene sector: analysis of capacity gaps and policy implications

Adequate human resources (HR) capacity in the water and sanitation sector plays a pivotal role in improving and sustaining access to potable water and improved sanitation. This study highlights the HR capacity and gaps in Ghana's water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector. It is based on data collected from five public sector organisations, six non-governmental organisations (NGOs), 14 private sector institutions and 12 training institutions. The results indicate that the proportion of technical HR was high (75%) in water service delivery, while technical personnel in the sanitation sub-sector was low (2%), leading to low sanitation coverage and ineffective sanitation service delivery. The female proportion ranged from 16 to 44% (average of 22%). There was a shortage of technical personnel in the public WASH sector due to unattractive working conditions, attrition and lack of qualified graduates to fill vacant positions. Average annual graduates' supply from non-technical programmes to the WASH sector is five times more than that from technical programmes. There was a lack of commitment to implement policies on developing adequate HR capacity in the WASH sector due to weak institutional arrangement. There is the need to develop policies on HR career progression and capacity building programmes as well as gender-sensitive recruitment policies for the WASH sector.