WASH monitoring background paper Ethiopia

This paper examines recent rural water supply monitoring experiences in Ethiopia from the perspectives of global, national, and local actors with their different data requirements. It reviews the advantages and disadvantages of the key monitoring efforts including the World Health Organization (WHO)/United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), official sector reporting until 2010 using data collected through regional inventories and updates, and since 2010 the National WASH Inventory (NWI). A review of the past two decades unpacks these approaches to examine how the different methods have generated different numbers for use, access or coverage of rural water supplies. The investment made in the NWI is critically reviewed and lessons highlighted for future updating and use of water and sanitation data. Although the NWI has been a huge leap forwards, the paper concludes that the future is still likely to be about parallel monitoring processes at global, national, and local levels rather than one all-encompassing monitoring system. Post-2015, the trend may be for monitoring to become more complex with additional indicators addressed. In this context, the paper highlights the importance of continually ensuring a good understanding of different monitoring approaches and their findings through clear analysis, good communications and multi-stakeholder reconciliation processes that make appropriate linkages. The paper aims to make a small contribution to that effort.