This past June, the US Embassy in Uganda sponsored the largest WPDx training to date in partnership with Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment. In Uganda, nearly 2/3 of people living in rural areas lack access to even basic water services. This training aimed to improve the Ministry’s capacity to utilize, analyze, and make data-driven water management decisions that ensure safe drinking water for all Ugandans. The three-day event was lead by Nick Dickinson of WASHNote and the water and sanitation expert from the US Ambassador’s Water Expert Program. A few weeks ago, WPDx had the chance to interview Nick and ask him about the training, his feedback, and more details of this significant event.
Country-led monitoring toolkit
WASHNote supported the creation of the country-led monitoring toolbox that was a developed under a partnership of UNICEF WCARO, IRC and Akvo with support of DGIS. It provides a systematic approach to develop national WASH M&E plans based on a participatory assessment of 12 components of national WASH M&E systems.

For reference, the national M&E asssessment and the draft monitoring plan from Sierra Leone are available here:
- Sierra Leone – Five Year National WASH M-E Plan Draft
- Taking Stock of National WASH M-E in Sierra Leone with Annexes
You can find a link to the dropbox with the tools here and we’ll update the link with links to the resource pages of IRC in due course:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nosyhlumal6mah5/AADrCQGCglifOF-GDGTPiiUMa?dl=0
This presentation provides some initial findings from the assessments and M&E plans in 8 countries: