Good progress has been made in piloting the Sustainability Monitoring Framework. Up to five workshops were organized in Uganda and Ghana, the countries selected for the pilot, to co-develop and test the framework with WASH alliance country programme partners. Participants in both countries were very enthusiastic and the workshops turned out to have an additional effective capacity development component. Participants appreciated the discussion around the Sustainability Monitoring Framework as it triggered common understanding of the various aspects of sustainability. Others added that while they had been talking about sustainability for many years these workshops helped to translate it to what it concretely means for their work and their beneficiaries.

Substantial work was carried out on the contextualizing the questionnaire, reviewing the methodology and planning the fieldwork.

Field testing
Besides the introduction workshops, field exercises were conducted to test the framework and especially the set of questions that are to feed the so-called Sustainability Index. In Ghana the field test has already taken place while in Uganda one of the four partners has been able to conduct the field test. The remaining three tests are expected to take place within the coming months.

Presenting the framework at international events
In April the DWA presented the Sustainability Monitoring Framework at the international conference on “Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The presentation was well received and triggered interest in the tool. For better understanding of the various ‘Sustainability Measuring Tools’ that are developed or under development, UNC and Aqua Consult are mapping out a the available tools, their objectives and methodologies.

What is next?
Based on the outcomes of the pilots in Ghana and Uganda at the end of this year the DWA will decide how to proceed with the Sustainability Monitoring Framework. The outcome of the mapping by UNC and Aqua Consult will be taken into consideration. On the agenda of this reflection will also be the application of FLOW in the framework.

Annemieke Beekmans is working as senior consultant for RAIN Foundation.
For more information please contact Annemieke via beekmans@aidenvironment.org