1. Why different methods generate different
numbers: case study from Ethiopia
John Butterworth, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

3. Key points
• Provider (scheme inventory) and user (household survey) data
are, obviously, fundamentally different
• Ministry of Water and Energy collect one, Central Statistical Agency the
other, but the National WASH Inventory is an exception
• Neither method good or bad, but both have strengths and weaknesses
• Neither are well related to the published targets
• Parallel monitoring processes at global, national, and local levels likely
to persist: may even be more complex post-2015
• Investment in multi-stakeholder reconciliation processes vital

4. New data
points
available
2013

5. Focus on JMP estimates
• Data, data, data:
– the most recent data hasn’t always been available and trend
lines are sensitive
– accuracy and representativeness of underlying household
survey data
• Definition of ‘improved water facilities’
• Errors
• Transparency in methodology and calculations

6. Focus on MoWE estimates pre-2010
• Estimates based on design capacity: outputs rather than outcomes
• Occasional inventories, new schemes added
• Simple, reliable, low cost: provides useful data for frontline service
delivery
• Multiplication factors the Achilles heel: under- and over-estimates
• Overestimates generated by inclusion of non-functional
schemes, clustering

7. Post-2010 and the National WASH Inventory
• Standard nationwide survey
• Uniquely collected provider and user data
• Beyond water points and households: institutions included
• Estimate made of users within quantity/distance norms and total
users
• Data approved, to be validated, made available and put to use

8. Where are we? Somewhere in the 40s
• JMP (2011) – 39%
• DHS(2011) – 42%
• MoWE NWI household survey – 45%
• MoWE NWI scheme inventory – 49%
• Bearing in mind water quality issues and risks of slippage, the rural
water supply challenge is bigger than previously acknowledged

9. Top priorities: what is most important?
• Transparency: methods, access to data
• Put data to use
• Update and maintain the NWI
• Strengthen links with Central Statistical Agency
• Promote monitoring as a research topic
• Investing in communications and multi-stakeholder reconciliation
processes

10. Key points
• Provider (scheme inventory) and user (household survey) data
are, obviously, fundamentally different
• Ministry of Water and Energy collect one, Central Statistical Agency the
other, but the National WASH Inventory is an exception
• Neither method good or bad, but both have strengths and weaknesses
• Neither are well related to the published targets
• Parallel monitoring processes at global, national, and local levels likely
to persist: may even be more complex post-2015
• Investment in multi-stakeholder reconciliation processes vital