Listening to affected communities is the backbone of Oxfam’s rights based approach to WASH programming. Community members are acknowledged as primary change agents and community-led project design, implementation and monitoring is important wherever feasible. Working with volunteers and committees also allows us to work effectively with large populations and to continue activities when it is not safe or practical for staff to be present in the field. 

WASH staff should:

1. Work with human resources staff to identify relevant legal issues when engaging volunteers or committees.
2. Use a clear and transparent mechanism for selecting volunteers and committee members, which has been agreed with the entire community (i.e. not just leadership).
3. Promote the equal representation of women – not only in numbers, but also in terms of decision-making powers – amongst volunteers, and also representation of vulnerable groups and different ethnic groups.
4. Maintain a database of committee members, with details including training and incentives received.
5. Ensure clarity between Oxfam and the affected community in the roles and responsibilities of volunteers, including any incentives that might be offered. This should be done before the start of activities. It is good practice to agree a MoU or Action Plan with the affected community. This should not reflect a ‘shopping list’ of desires but be the result of an open conversation about what is feasible in what timeframe and the constraints faced by both the community and Oxfam.
6. Co-ordinate volunteer issues internally with other Oxfam programmes. Do not automatically assume that WASH volunteers should be used for other programmes and visa versa.
7. Co-ordinate the recruitment of volunteers and the formation of committees within the WASH Cluster, advocating for consistency of approach to recruitment and working practices with volunteers (including any incentives offered to volunteers).
8. Link volunteers and committees with government structures as appropriate, (see A13.3). If there are already government health workers engaged in health/hygiene education assess the feasibility of working to build this groups’ capacity instead of training more community hygiene volunteers.

In discussion with the affected community:

9. Make contingency plans for remote management of volunteers and other unexpected challenges (specific to the context).
10. Prepare and implement appropriate capacity building plans for volunteers.
11. Forward plan appropriate capacity building plans for volunteers and an exit strategy.