Measuring Transformative WASH: A New Paradigm for Designing, Monitoring, and Evaluating Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Interventions

Many water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions have traditionally implemented monitoring and evaluation plans that use a narrow set of WASH indicators that reflect a 20th-century prioritization of microbiological water quality as the most important proxy for WASH intervention success. Even when water is microbiologically safe, there are often substantial structural, behavioral, and institutional barriers to access. Measures of WASH intervention success should incorporate these impacts to reinforce the value of WASH projects more completely. This policy brief summarizes factors that perpetuate the status quo in WASH program assessment and outlines a new paradigm for designing, monitoring, and evaluating WASH interventions.