Focus area - PMT

As more governments decentralise their powers and responsibilities, local government and district authorities play an increasingly important role in providing and guaranteeing water supply and sanitation services which can be used in a sustainable manner. This means that they will have to maintain a better overview of coverage, use and the sustainability of these services. They will need data to plan, support and monitor the impacts of interventions.

Experience shows that the use of participatory methods can empower local people to plan new services and make existing services more sustainable and equitable. However, participatory methods take more time and often generate qualitative information, which can be difficult to compare and analyse, especially for those working at district level.

The activities encompassed under the Participatory Management Tools (PMT) theme will centre on the development and use of PMT for planning and monitoring new and existing services, at both community and district level, and in combination with computer management tools. Attention will be given to the Methodology for Participatory Assessment (MPA), a new methodology that has been designed specifically for this purpose.

Based on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods, the MPA makes it possible for local groups to quantify their information on ordinal scales at different stages of the implementation process, such as problem identification, planning, construction and monitoring. These scales offer district-level staff a simple, yet comparable, gender- and poverty-sensitive database which can help them to identify amongst others, the impact of their interventions, the coverage and lack of it at both district and community level, as well to monitor the use and functionality of the systems over time. This information will give district officers a clear view of access, use and sustainability of the services which can help them to plan and prioritise projects, ensuring that funds and resources are directed to the areas that need them most.

A complementary approach, which focuses especially on participatory monitoring at both community and district level, is Action Monitoring for Effectiveness (aMe), This approach focuses on decentralising responsibility for monitoring to those with a vested interest in making improvements.

The work will include:

• promotion of PMT as effective tools for monitoring and planning
• documentation of the use of existing PMT
• development of frameworks to analyse data at district level
• development of criteria to ensure quality
• the expansion of the use of the MPA for other subject areas