The Country Processes Task Team (CPPT) and the Global Monitoring Harmonisation Task Team are the two current SWA task teams.
The Country Processes Task Team (CPPT)
The development of a toolkit or resource pack to support countries and development partners to put the Building Blocks and Behaviours adopted by SWA into practice was identified as a priority in the CPTT work plan. Demand for this idea was reinforced at the Ministerial Meeting in Addis Ababa in March 2016, and approved by Steering Committee decision in June 2016.
Whilst many tools already exist, and individual partners are continuing to develop useful resources, they are not always easy to find or navigate. Existing tools are also often tailored to a particular organisation’s staff and objectives, and use is driven more by development partner preference and funding than government demand. Improving this practice is a key pillar of the Collaborative Behaviours promoted by SWA.
Objectives
- To provide a “one stop shop” through which sector practitioners, policy and decision-makers can select tools to support the implementation of WASH Building Blocks and Collaborative Behaviours appropriate to the specific context and purpose for which they are needed.
- To provide for a platform facilitating easy access to experiences gained and lessons learned by different actors and in different countries who have used the tools.
- To support countries to take leadership of the tools they use (and move away from tool use that is driven by donor preference and funding)
- To prevent further fragmentation and duplication of tools
- To identify gaps where tools don’t exist and work together to fill them
Activities
The work will cover the tools and methods needed both to develop key sector building blocks, and to support countries and development partners in putting the Collaborative Behaviours into practice. Activity will focus on:
1. Development of a web portal to provide a ‘one stop shop’ for tools. The site will bring together existing resources and the experiences of their use, and help users navigate these, selecting tools appropriate to their purpose.
2. Catalysing a changes in behaviour within development partner organisations, and across other SWA partners, to ensure more collaborative approaches towards tool ownership and use.
Next Steps
Over the next few months CPTT members will be working to identify tools and gather feedback from partners on the most appropriate content and structure of the portal.
As well as using the portal as a helpful gateway to sector tools and resources, it is hoped that all SWA partners will actively contribute to the development and evolution of the portal, whether it be by sharing tools, or by sharing experiences in applying and using different tools.
For more information please contact Muyatwa.Sitali@sanitationandwaterforall.org or ClareBattle@WaterAid.org
The Global Monitoring Harmonisation Task Team (GMHTT)
The GMHTT was established by the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Partnership to improve harmonisation and alignment in the global WASH monitoring landscape and support best practice within existing national, regional and global monitoring processes. The GMHTT is currently focusing on two main objective areas: (1) Harmonisation of global monitoring initiatives, institutional analyses and Joint Sector Reviews, seeking ways to anchor international monitoring more firmly in country-led processes; and (2) Standardisation – development of a shared set of standards and norms for a small number of relevant parameters, based on current national practices, to help establish comparability and support aggregation.
On harmonisation, the GMHTT has prepared a discussion paper, titled ‘Institutional Analyses – An examination of 12 years of external support,’ which will be presented at the UNC Water and Health Conference in October. The paper examines the issue of institutional analyses led by development partners and the context in which they have been used, as well as their relationship with government-initiated and government-led sector performance reviews. In the spirit of the collaborative behaviours, the paper offers a series of corresponding recommendations that seek to address the actions of external support agencies implementing institutional analyses and country governments in which institutional analyses are applied.
On standardisation, the GMHTT is leading discussions on a proposed global standard for monitoring functionality of water points.The standard is being discussed in response to alarming rates of non-functionality reported within the sector.However, the GMHTT has identified wide variation in the definitions used to categorize water points as non-functional and further limitations in assessing the likelihood of water point repair deriving from the ‘point-in-time’ nature of functionality reporting. Accordingly, the proposed standard is intended for use on a voluntary basis, by all constituencies of the SWA partnership, particularly host country governments, to harmonize the sector’s approach to monitoring, analysing and responding to communal water point functionality problems. The GMHTT is currently refining a draft version of the standard, and plans to disseminate the draft at the UNC Water and Health Conference in October 2016 to solicit input and feedback from partners.