This blog by Andy Robinson was first published on www.snv.org
It is part of a series of posts leading up to Stockholm World Water Week 2018.
This blog by Andy Robinson was first published on www.snv.org
It is part of a series of posts leading up to Stockholm World Water Week 2018.
Box 1: Impact of verification: both internal and external
Firstly, it has encouraged SNV to strengthen its monitoring and reporting systems. Household surveys are the main instrument used by SNV to evidence sanitation and hygiene outcomes. Third party verification confirmed that some survey enumerators did not do their work properly – perhaps by taking short cuts to save time, or failing to follow protocols correctly – and that some processes could be improved. The mobile-to-web survey approach used by SNV greatly facilitated the verification process, with GPS and time data available for household interviews, and toilet photographs where appropriate. The rich survey data facilitated a cost-efficient and largely remote verification process, with only a small sample of villages and households visited in person to check for systemic errors.
Many of the survey problems were identified at the start of the programme, and SNV worked to strengthen and professionalise its monitoring and reporting processes so that later surveys ran smoothly and efficiently. This brings us to the second impact of the verified PbR – the development of the verification process was transparent, with all checks discussed and agreed with SNV before use. In order to avoid any surprises during verification, SNV began to run similar checks on the surveys before verification. As a result, SNV spotted several monitoring issues early, and was able to take prompt action to remedy these problems.
Suggestions for further reading: Visit ePact’s blog series, Learning about Payment by Results in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASS) A blog by the team verifying and evaluating DFID’s Results Programme [1] “Beyond a burden: what value does verification offer”, and [2] “The payback and pains of Payment by Results (part 1)”.