The best of two worlds? : methodology for participatory assessment of community water services

Keywords: domestic water supply, community management, gender, poverty, program planning, program evaluation, monitoring, water policy, participatory methods, sustainability, use

The Methodology for Participatory Assessment, or MPA, is a new, multi-level instrument to combine sustainability analysis of community-managed domestic water services with the analysis of gender and poverty perspectives. Communities, projects, and programs have used, or are using, the methodology to evaluate processes and results, monitor and improve existing services, and plan new projects. The MPA allows all stakeholders - from better off and poor women and men in communities to program managers and investors - to use one set of methods and data to compare progress and identify key community and agency factors for project success and further strengthening. The MPA quantifies PRA data at the program and country level and makes them comparable. The book describes the objectives, the history, and the social and scientific background of the development of the methodology. This is followed by a detailed description and analysis of the methodology itself, with case studies of its use and impacts. Validation took place in a global study implemented by the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program in cooperation with IRC. In this study, women and men in 88 rural communities in 15 countries used the MPA to evaluate their domestic water supplies. This book presents the study results, the implications for policies and program planning of domestic water supply projects, and the lessons for training in and use of the methodology.