National and global monitoring

At national level, it is common for different line ministries to monitor national access to drinking-water and sanitation. The National Statistics Office (NSO) usually has overall responsibility for all national data, although individual line ministries responsible for actual service provision often have their own monitoring mechanisms.

The role of national monitoring is to:

• Provide a central building block for policy, planning and implementation;
• Guide the efficient use of resources and the alignment of donors to informed national policies;
• Provide the information needed by the relevant sector institutions (ministries, utilities, regulator, councils...) to fulfill their responsibility to ensure sustainable access;
• Improve transparency and accountability to service users, taxpayers and to the public at large.

The role of global monitoring is to:

• Measure global trends and identify major challenges;
• Inform global processes for the allocation of aid flows;
• Support awareness-raising and advocacy;
• Help to identify countries without monitoring frameworks;
• Provide a framework to determine how national monitoring can be supported (e.g. through country-level best practices).

Global monitoring is based on national data. Consequently, the accuracy of country data and their availability and update at global level is essential, in particular for JMP monitoring.

The JMP works in coordination with other international initiatives that monitor the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector at the regional and global level. These initiatives include the UN Water Global Annual Assessment (GLAAS), and the MDG Country Status Overviews (CSOs) led by the African Ministerial Conference on Water and the Water and Sanitation Program. These different initiatives monitor inputs, sector processes and outputs in the sector. By contrast, the JMP monitors outcomes, in other words the number of people using improved water supply and sanitation facilities. Both the GLAAS and the CSOs utilise JMP country, regional and global estimates in their analysis.