Sustainability Tool Reduces WASH System Failure

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Sustainability Tool Reduces WASH System Failure

USAID Has Created aSustainability Index Tool to Help Ensure that the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services They Support are Sustained

USAID has a dual interest in ensuring that the WASH services we support are reliably available to the people who depend on them and that the development investments supported by U.S. citizens are efficient and effective. It has become increasingly clear to the development community and stakeholders that WASH services frequently fail whether through a lack of parts, a lack of finance or a lack of capacity. These service failures leave people vulnerable to health risks and/or necessitate reinvestment.

The SIT provides a methodology for assessing activities or investments against five factors critical to ensuring the sustainability of service: institutional, management, financial, technical and environmental. The SIT can be applied in urban and rural contexts at any levels of service delivery and can be used to assess water, sanitation or hygiene activities. The SIT delivers a score that can be used to identify likely areas of sustainability risk and helps stakeholders to pinpoint areas of concern for existing activities or future programming.

The SIT is only a tool. It is only part of USAID's response to the challenge of building sustainable services. Our commitment to sustainability is based on the understanding that the real value of our work lies with building the host country capacity necessary to provide service to citizens in perpetuity.

In 2011, President Obama signed a Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, the first of its kind by a U.S. administration. The Directive made clear that sustainable development is a long-term proposition, and progress depends on the choices of political leaders and the quality of institutions in developing countries. Where leaders govern responsibly, set in place good policies, and make investments conducive to development, sustainable outcomes can be achieved. Where those conditions are absent, it is difficult to engineer sustained progress, no matter how good USAID's intentions or the extent of engagement.

Source: SanitationAndWaterForAll

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