About Us

The Resource Centre Network (RCN) is an institutional partnership that seeks to promote Knowledge Management (KM) services within the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Ghana.

The process of establishing RCN originally started back in October, 2002 with a series of investigative studies that informed decisions on priority activities. The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) in association with TREND Group, WaterAid (Ghana) and Riva (IRC), organized an Advocacy workshop on May 12/13, 2004, in Accra on knowledge management. Subsequently, four key sector organizations namely, WaterAid Ghana; Water Research Institute; KNUST- Department of Civil Engineering and TREND Group joined hands to form the nucleus of the Resource Centre Network (RCN) to spearhead knowledge management in the water and sanitation sector in Ghana. The outcome of the Knowledge Management Advocacy Workshop was the establishment of a Task Force which brought together about a dozen key organisations in May 2004. The activities of the Task Force were led by the CWSA and the Group met regularly until December 2006. Overall, the Task Force made positive gains in terms of advocacy aimed at raising awareness of knowledge management (KM). Key outputs of the group also included a Concept Paper for development of KM in the sector.

However, the activities of the Task Force slowed down considerably in 2006 due to lack of funding. In 2008, the inception of new projects in the sector with a focus on knowledge generation and dissemination (UNICEF/WHO Water and Sanitation Monitoring Programme (WSMP), the Tripartite Partnership Project (TPP) led by TREND, the WASHCost and SWITCH Projects which are led by KNUST, and the West Africa Regional Programme of IRC, which supports RCN, etc.) provided a new impetus for the revival of the RCN. A Secretariat was set up and a new National Knowledge Management Coordinator was appointed in June 2008 to oversee the activities of the Network and Secretariat. A core group of knowledge-focused organizations was formed and revived and intensified knowledge management activities in the sector. The current Phase of the RCN is governed by a steering committee and is anchored in the Water Directorate of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing.