Project monitoring: a vicious cycle of donor accountability or a necessary stepping stone to better national WASH sector monitoring? Keynote paper f...

The capacity to monitor water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at different levels – and to use the outputs of such monitoring to improve performance – is an essential building block in the delivery of permanent and sustainable services. Over the last decade, there has been a major shift in perspective in the WASH sector in line with broader efforts to reform the effectiveness of development aid and promote greater country ownership. The Paris Declaration and subsequent agreements have set out clear principles pointing towards the need for greater alignment with government priorities and country systems, including monitoring frameworks. Support for common programming frameworks, including sector- wide approaches (SWAps) is increasing, with the explicit acceptance of joint monitoring and reporting frameworks and there are a growing number of examples of common nation-wide monitoring systems. The global monitoring architecture spearheaded by the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) calls for a process of alignment around more common standards and indicators. And yet the reality in many developing countries is that country-led WASH monitoring systems remain weak or fragmented, are often under-funded, and are de-linked from core public sector systems. [authors abstract]