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More than just counting toilets: The complexities of monitoring for sustainability in sanitation
01.10.2012
Most attention for monitoring sanitation growth worldwide has been focused on household-level infrastructure improvements aimed towards targets within the Millennium Development Goals. With the realization that achieving the target by 2015 is highly unlikely, sanitation monitoring strategies have been the subject of much debate and discussion of late. This brief will summarize existing trends in sanitation monitoring as well as pose questions for discussion, with the overall objective of moving towards monitoring, learning, and evaluation strategies that paint a more holistic picture of the health of a sanitation ‘system’. This system is one which incorporates numerous stakeholders and perspectives, and one which should have the proper incentives, motivations, and capacities in place to be self-sustaining, equitable, and able to expand without the ongoing need for outside aid.