Symposium background paper and keynote papers available online!
The background paper for the 'Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium' 9 to 11 April 2013 – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is now available online as well as the six key note papers.
Background paper for Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
The background paper for the Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium starts by providing the scope and topics of the symposium. This is followed by a review of definitions and key concepts related to monitoring of WASH services, thereby focusing on the why, what, who, how and what it costs questions related to the vision. The paper ends by highlighting a number of points for discussion, which we feel are the key opportunities and challenges in reaching the vision, and may help structure the discussion.
Keynote topic 1: Monitoring the finance needed for sustainable service delivery
The purpose of this Keynote Paper is to introduce Topic 1 of the Symposium on Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery: “Monitoring the finance needed for sustainable service delivery”. The paper sets the context for the discussions under Topic 1 and summarises some of the key issues, which will be discussed in the four sessions dedicated to the topic:
- What has been the progress during the past years three years on monitoring finance for WASH?
- What are some of the latest methodologies to monitor finance for water, sanitation and hygiene?
- How is finance related to global and national level monitoring
Keynote topic 2: Country-led and country-wide monitoring of rural and small towns water supplies
This keynote reflects on experiences of country-led Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) of rural and small town water supplies. It goes beyond the term “country-led” to “country-wide”, thus considering the M&E needs of a country’s full range of stakeholders. The keynote presents a monitoring cycle with six stages from initiation and planning, to reflecting on the results and taking action. The M&E landscape is inherently messy, characteristically with multiple, overlapping systems in use. M&E is not only a technical, but also a political process and it can take ten years or more for country-led and country-wide M&E systems to mature. More efforts are needed to document and reflect on and share country-led, country-wide M&E experiences. A better understanding may help efforts to stimulate demand and improve support.
Keynote topic 3: Project monitoring
This paper considers the benefits and downsides of project monitoring and its relationship with country-led systems and aims to explore how complementarities between them can be brought to bear in strengthening long-term capacity to monitor. We define what is meant by the term ‘project monitoring’ and discuss why this subject is important for delivering sustainable WASH services at scale. We examine the main themes and challenges, including the issue of accountability that sits at the heart of this debate. We refer to a number of examples where synergies have been attempted, resulting in a ‘win-win’ approach that can contribute to strengthening national capacity and improve data availability, knowledge, planning, and management. Finally, we look at some emerging lessons and success factors and propose some areas for further discussion during the symposium itself.
Keynote topic 4: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for monitoring sustainable service delivery
This keynote paper situates ICT WASH innovations in the wider context of ICT and development. It explores the current trends and challenges related to monitoring the WASH-related MDGs, and then focuses on the specific role of ICTs in WASH monitoring. It presents current developments in ICT innovations within WASH monitoring and discusses major challenges identified in a recent e-discussion on Water Point Mapping.
Keynote topic 5: Monitoring for sanitation and hygiene: an overview of experiences, issues, and challenges
This keynote paper will highlight four main trends in monitoring for sanitation and hygiene:
- A shift from monitoring (infrastructure) outputs to (behavioural / quality) outcomes.
- A diversification of monitoring aspects and actors, both as subjects and implementers of the monitoring.
- A growing focus on monitoring sustainability and equity of outcomes and services.
- A move towards systematisation and harmonisation, linking local level monitoring to national level systems.
These trends will become apparent through discussions of what gets monitored, including the sanitation and hygiene service chain, behavioural outcomes and impact, and the enabling environment; and of the process and specifics of monitoring certain aspects of sanitation and hygiene, including markets and technology, total sanitation, hygiene, and equity.
Keynote topic 6: Building coherence in global-regional-national monitoring
The objective of Theme 6 is to increase the coherence between different levels of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) monitoring. Specifically it seeks to:
- Clarify the purposes and improve communications, coordination and understanding of monitoring at different levels to build a more coherent global WASH monitoring framework, especially looking forward to post-2015.
- Promote coordination and widespread application of generic, high-quality, country analytic assessments for the WASH sector.
- Provide a platform for a key neglected issue in WASH monitoring - human resource (HR) capacity – and examine ways in which HR can be better incorporated into a comprehensive WASH monitoring framework.
