Dear all,

I am writing to you as a member of the JMP post-2015 Water Working Group, one out of four expert groups working to develop and propose alternative goal, target(s) and indicator options for an improved post-2015 global WASH monitoring system.

Our group has now developed an e-survey on the hitherto developed draft goal, targets and indicators for drinking water (please note that goal, target(s) and indicator options relating to sanitation, hygiene and equity and non-discrimination are worked on by the other 3 working groups). Trough this survey we aim to gather inputs from as many sector experts/ stakeholders as possible in order to inform the discussions at our next face to face meeting in London in late June.

The debate is currently still at a point where your input can make a difference. Hence my request, please take 30 minutes to answer the e-survey (until 18 June 2012).

For more information on the survey, see below the official text of the working group or visit our website watermonitoring2015.org/ .

Thanks in advance!


Best regards,
Philipp


Background
At the first Consultation on post-2015 monitoring (Berlin, 3-5 May, 2011) it was agreed that working groups are needed to review technical proposals for alternative goal, target(s) and indicator options and propose a short-list of these options. In January 2012 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) announced the establishment of four expert working groups on drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and equity and non-discrimination. The outputs of these expert working groups will inform the various ongoing political processes led by the UN Secretary General and are expected to culminate in a post-MDG summit at the UN General Assembly in September 2013. The JMP post2015 Water Working Group is comprised of a core group and resource group of experts from national government ministries, statistical bureaux, technical agencies and development partner organisations from a range of countries. The Working Group was established in January 2012 and has held a series of teleconferences and one face-to-face meeting to assess the goal, targets and indicator options using a number of criteria for selection based on (ease) of uptake and use, technical quality and relevance and data collection effort and cost. The group has developed a website on which it shares all relevant documents including summaries of meetings: watermonitoring2015.org/

Broad stakeholder inputs and timing of the e-survey
As part of its commitment to an open and inclusive process the Water Working Group wishes to include the views of as many sector stakeholders as possible about the development of technical proposals for the post-2015 period. However there is only limited time available as Group proposals need to be finalised by October 2012 in order to inform the wider political process. We would therefore welcome your views by taking part in a short e-survey which has questions about the draft proposed goal, target and indicators, as well as other issues relating to the desirable elements of an enhanced system of global monitoring. In order to inform discussions at the next meeting of the Water Working Group we request that you respond to this short questionnaire by the 18th of June 2012 at which date we will close the survey. Depending on response rates and progress by the Working Group we may then run a second survey in September.

Sharing the results of the e-survey
After the first round of the e-survey the responses will be collated and analysed. The results of this process will then be posted on the Water Working Group website for further dissemination and comment.

This e-survey has been designed with 2 main parts as follows:

Part A: provides you with the opportunity to give your views on the draft proposed goal, targets and indicators currently being considered by the Working Group and asks you about the relevance of global data collection for national stakeholders and how this can be best aligned with, national and local sector data needs and collection processes;

Part B: asks your opinions on the existing capacity to monitor the data and how this may happen, at what level, and how often; and seeks to understand what incentives you think there are for national stakeholders to participate in data collection which supports a global monitoring system;

What to do next?
Please go to the Water Working Group website where you will find a description of the proposed draft goal, target and indicators and share your views by completing the e-survey.

Absolutely!!! New technologies create new possibilities and offer new hope in my mind at least

Hi all

See the post which outlines a current project "WASH SMS" to use cellphones to collect data. This avenue should be seriously considered as a data collection and monitoring methodology in the "indicators for post-2015".

What are your thoughts on the use of a mobile technology solution?

Kind regards
Trevor

My name is Ned Breslin and I am the CEO of Water For People. I have been working in the water and sanitation sector since 1987 and am part of a group of people who are being asked to comment on the post-2015 sanitation targets. I wrote a counter proposal that is attached for a number of reasons:

1. The indicators suggested by the core group are not in my opinion sound indicators. Some are nice to know but would not change programming based on results (like desludging companies - the fact that there are more desludging companies or less is interesting but less desludging companies might not mean sanitation is falling behind at all and so could misguide future programming); some are overtly political statements (separate budgets for sanitation), and so I felt they needed to be reconsidered. I offered a range of alternatives in the attached

2. I completely disagree with the underlying assumption that it will take 80-100 years to reach full sanitation coverage. I believe that it is critical to set a hard goal and drive towards that, and so I offer an alternative. I believe the goal of 80-100 years is a bad move for a range of reasons - its sends a particularly alarming statement to the world about how leaders in the field who drafted this think about sanitation challenges and I believe we need an alternative, aggressive goal; I think such a goal is driven by exhaustion with how hard it is to make sanitation work rather than building on success, looking for new innovations and by pushing for a better outcome sooner.

3. I believe that new technology is making conventional monitoring (of which the sanitation sector is not great at anyway) obsolete. Hopefully the sanitation sector can look to new technologies, new platforms and new approaches to field-based monitoring as a catalyst for better programming and not simply assume what we use today is what we will be using in even 10 years.

My thanks

Dear all,

I am part of the "reference group on Post-2015 Global Sanitation Monitoring" (on behalf of SuSanA and on behalf of the German ministry BMZ).

I want to share with you and invite your comments on a document and e-mail I recently received from Eddy Perez, the lead of this working group (he has encouraged us to share this widely). It is about possible indicators for a future kind of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after 2015. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. I could collate any input I receive and send it back to Eddy.

++++++++++++++++++
Colleagues:

Attached please find the minutes of the Post 2015 Sanitation working group meeting held in WDC during February 2012. It would be great to get your input on the following:
• review proposed draft global goal and targets - and provide comments for improving or adding as needed. Please include rationale if proposing something different.
• review long list of global indicators (table one) and propose any additional ones that you feel are missing and should be considered.
• suggestions for concrete data bases/ sources for any of the proposed long list of indicators - including if any global database (possibly maintained by WHO) contains information on sanitation facilities in health facilities.
• sharing of any existing evidenced based studies that could validate any of the proposed indicators -
• carry out new research to test the validity of the proposed targets and indicators including the validity of the assumption that lowest wealth quintile contains marginalized populations
• suggestions for defining the information to be collected on "full management of excreta" and a functioning sanitation service chain, and assess possible sources of data.
• opinion on whether Target 4 only relates to urban sanitation.
• what monitoring mechanisms (and combinations of monitoring mechanisms) are best suited to gathering and tracking the necessary data ( JMP? JMP plus?, something else?).




Please note that these minutes and your comments will be posted in a web platform being set up by WHO for the purposes of ensuring wide stakeholder input. Please also feel free to share these minutes ( and questions) widely among your colleagues and partners.

Regards,

Eddy


********************************************
Eduardo A. Perez
Water and Sanitation Program -WSP
Senior Sanitation Specialist
World Bank
1818 H Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20433
USA
website: www.wsp.org & www.worldbank.org/watsan