WASH monitoring and data use in Afar & Somali : scoping report on processes, systems and capacities

This scoping report provides a brief summary of the existing WASH monitoring landscape in Afar and Somali regions of Ethiopia. Based upon a rapid assessment that involved a short scoping visit to each region, the report discusses the capacities, processes and systems for WASH monitoring and use of data in the two regions. Recommendations are made to support further activities within the context of the Lowland WASH project and the One WASH National Program.

There are relatively better established monitoring processes in the health, education and finance sectors, with both Afar and Somali regions making use of the highly standardized national systems deployed in these sectors. However, there are gaps. The Health Management Information System (HMIS) system only reports on a small number of WASH indicators with other data being collected through Hygiene and Environmental Health (HEH) Program monitoring systems that are not as strong. The quality of data within the Education Management Information System (EMIS) is hampered by the limited WASH knowledge or training of the education experts that complete the annual surveys. IBEX only captures government expenditure through channel one financing, and not bilateral or Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) expenditure in WASH.

The water sector is actively seeking to improve its monitoring systems under the national leadership of the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity (MoWIE), with a major ongoing initiative being the roll out of the WASH M&E MIS system. This includes the provision of hardware as well as training. As well as providing a basis for more regular monitoring on water supply indicators, this database
provides the potential to consolidate data from other WASH sectors. This could facilitate the production of regional and national OWNP reports across WASH. The roll-out is underway in both Afar and Somali regions.

The Consolidated WASH Account (CWA) funding provides for additional capacity, and is driving the production of integrated WASH reports and plans at regional level in both Somali and Afar. There is no integrated reporting or planning for the wider OWNP i.e. for non-CWA woredas. In Somali a regional WASH coordination office was set up in June 2016, and recruitment is underway in Afar,
which will further enhance regional capacity. Each office has a coordinator and an M&E specialist. This provides the potential to raise awareness about a wider OWNP, and provides critical additional M&E capacity.

Water sector reporting is limited to activity-based reporting. There is no ongoing reporting against water supply service delivery indicators, as there is in health, education and finance (albeit with gaps). This is a major gap. The last time that structured data was systematically collected against a range of indicators was the National WaSH Inventory (NWI) undertaken in 2010 in Afar and 2014 in
Somali. Coverage calculations are based on the addition of newly constructed schemes.

The NWI Safe Water Supply Inventory for rural and small towns (Form 1) involved eight parameters including the name of the scheme, type of water supply, coordinates, estimated total number of house holds using a scheme and number within 1.5 km, total yield, functionality and reasons for non-functionality. The health institutions WASH facilities inventory (Form 2) included eight parameters
also: the type and functionality of water supply facilities, type of latrines and whether separate facilities exist for men and women. The schools WASH Facilities Inventory (Form 3) had nine parameters, similar to form 2 with the addition of student numbers. This NWI data is available at regional level but may not be available at the woreda level, which was the case in Mile in Afar.

New schemes that are constructed involve filing of a project completion report. This typically includes data on: location, date started, date completed, type of scheme, depth of well, static water level, pump position, number of water points, cattle trough, water temperature, water quality status (chemical analysis), pump type, pump capacity, distribution network, number of beneficiaries, yield,
type of generator and capacity. In Mile, Afar, such completion reports were available for only three
of the schemes (there are a total of 28 schemes).