UN-Water GLAAS TrackFin Initiative : tracking financing to sanitation, hygiene and drinking-water at national level : guidance document

This guidance document sets out a methodology to help mainly middle-and lower-income countries produce water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) accounts. Its purpose is to track all expenditure in the WASH sector by all economic entities, including governments and public institutions, public and private organizations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), foundations, international and national donors, investors, and households.

The methodology enables countries to answer four key questions:

1. What is the total expenditure in the WASH sector?
2. How are funds distributed to the different WASH services and expenditure types?
3. Who pays for WASH services and how much do they pay?
4. Which entities are the main funding channels for the WASH sector?

The guidance document takes the reader through the four steps the proposed methodology:

1. Get started
2. Collect data
3. Analyse data and report findings
4. Prepare for the next WASH accounts

To complement the four-step methodology, the document includes a series of 7 methodological notes, providing greater detail and alternative methodologies for specific areas. These include notes on:

• WASH services classification systems
• Classification of WASH uses, actors and financing types
• Estimating financial flows on a cash flow basis and alternative methodologies
• Estimating financial flows with the Financing Type Approach
• Estimating the costs of providing services using the Cost-based Approach
• Estimating fixed asset stocks
• WASH accounts tables and indicators