Having the data: monitoring service delivery

Triple-S Ghana has been working with three districts, on a pilot basis, in preparing functionality maps for the districts. These maps give baseline information on what is happening and help in the assessment of what is working and what is not working. With the help of the FLOW technology all three districts have their baselines defined.

At national level, the reports have generated a lot of interest, as they provide a clear picture on what is working and what not, and can inform planning and investment decisions. CWSA is having discussions with the World Bank to support similar exercises in other districts, as they want to establish baseline data on water levels in the other districts they are working in.

At district level, in Akatsi district in the Volta region, the report was received by the stakeholders with the comment that they were aware that systems were not working, but that they never did have a coherent picture of the situation. The report generated a lot of discussions on issues about the water and sanitation committees performance; about facilities that had been broken down for a long time and had not been fixed, and issues about downtime.

Having the baseline data really helps in preparing the case.

• At community level, they now have a good sense of what the issues are, so that money that is being collected can be used effectively
• At district level they are now able to make a good assessment of the extent of the problems, and start budgeting and allocating resources on the basis of that. The maps indicating all the problem areas are very helpful in making the case.
• The district assembly can with the data make a case towards the donors that support them and start to renegotiate the way that support is being provided, looking into the percentage of facilities to be fixed instead of focusing on building new ones.

At all levels, these functionality maps are providing the evidence in order to make the case to make resources available to support the fixing of systems, before looking into new ones.