1.4 Accountability and Quality Approach ''AQA''
Building a monitoring system integrating quality as a primary consideration
High-quality WASH responses are critical to saving lives, preventing harm and supporting life with dignity. These responses must both provide water and sanitation services in sufficient quantity and quality to guarantee equal access to all beneficiaries, and be people-centred. At the moment, the humanitarian community invests significant resources in providing assistance. However, the studies repeatedly demonstrate an insufficient level of quality, reflecting user dissatisfaction, a tendency which is hard to reverse because of the limitation of current monitoring and evaluation approaches: whilst they collect a lot of data, they focus on tracking activities rather than understanding what is working for whom. Reporting requirements are often prioritized, using vanity metrics that evidence our strengths but fail to address weaknesses. This leads to opportunities for improvement being missed and programs that are falling short in terms of quality. The AQA is a new monitoring system, integrating quality and accountability as primary considerations to address the above.
The AQA initiative is about equipping the WASH sector with monitoring tools and approaches that allow it to focus on what is important and to permit continuous adaptability. These processes are designed to be incorporated in the Humanitarian Program Cycle and used collectively at the national cluster coordination level, which plays an important role in enabling a collective and mutually accountable approach to humanitarian assistance.
Additionally, quality is a broad term that covers many different aspects of performance. The AQA initiative uses three criteria to characterize a quality humanitarian response: Achieving objectives – Avoiding doing harm – Satisfying the community. This requires some changes in practice in the area of monitoring. First of all, the AQA approach aims to move from vanity metrics –the number of latrines built- to integrating actionable metrics -% of people using latrines- which can be used to understand whether activities are working and users are satisfied and eventually leads to specific improvements. These metrics are not an invention of the AQA initiative, they are at the core of existing key resources such as the Sphere Standards, but the initiative aims to support their systematic use. However, for the study of these indicators to be effective, we need to collectively set clear standards for quality and hold ourselves accountable.
The AQA initiative is about equipping the WASH sector with monitoring tools and approaches that allow it to focus on what is important and to permit continuous adaptability. These processes are designed to be incorporated in the Humanitarian Program Cycle and used collectively at the national cluster coordination level, which plays an important role in enabling a collective and mutually accountable approach to humanitarian assistance.
Additionally, quality is a broad term that covers many different aspects of performance. The AQA initiative uses three criteria to characterize a quality humanitarian response: Achieving objectives – Avoiding doing harm – Satisfying the community. This requires some changes in practice in the area of monitoring. First of all, the AQA approach aims to move from vanity metrics –the number of latrines built- to integrating actionable metrics -% of people using latrines- which can be used to understand whether activities are working and users are satisfied and eventually leads to specific improvements. These metrics are not an invention of the AQA initiative, they are at the core of existing key resources such as the Sphere Standards, but the initiative aims to support their systematic use. However, for the study of these indicators to be effective, we need to collectively set clear standards for quality and hold ourselves accountable.
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Indeed, we must engage with those we seek to help and measure ourselves against their expectations to adapt programs accordingly. For this purpose, two tools have been developed: (i) a guidance note: describing the step-by-step process to be followed by coordination platforms to collectively implement the AQA approach; and (ii) a modular analytical framework: a flexible tool that provides examples of WASH standards, indicators and monitoring approaches. It is composed of three base modules (Public Health Risk, WASH Service Provision and People-Centred Programming) and optional modules, to be selected and adapted based on the priorities agreed by partners.
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LED BY:
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PARTICIPANTS:
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Action Against Hunger, US Agency for International Development , International Medical Corps, Norwegian Refugee Committee, REACH, Tufts University, UN High Commissionner for Refugees, UN's International Children Emergency Fund, World Vision and International humanitarian Infrastructure Platform
CONTRIBUTORS: Global WASH Clust, International Committee of the Red Cross, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine |
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