Report & disseminate information on WASH needs, response and gaps
Set up coordination reporting requirement and calendar
From the initial stages of the emergency, the WASH coordination platform have a key role in relaying and reporting information on needs and response. Reporting can have many specific objectives:
| Objective | Details | Tools |
|---|---|---|
Operational gap analyses | At subnational level, there is the need for the WASH partners to be quickly informed about needs and response gaps to orientate their operation | Subnational meetings, Detailed gap analysis maps |
| Inform strategic decision | At national level, there is the need for HC/HCT, the National WASH coordination platform and the donor to get consolidated information on response input and quality, to understand the reason for bottleneck and be able to address them | WASH Cluster dashboard and bulletin |
| Report on strategic indicators | At national level, there is the need to report on HRP strategic indicators, to feed OCHA and UNICEF M&E system | Periodic monitoring reports |
| Advocacy | At global level, there is a need for the Global WASH Cluster and WASH partners' HQ staff to understand the nature of the quality issues faced by the partners and the possible underlying causes (lack of capacity, specific technical or contextual challenges, lack of funding…) in order to provide adequate support and advocate as necessary | Advocacy reports, global WASH cluster meeting |
| Accountability | To enhance accountability and participation, affected population must be informed of the current and expected level of WASH services | Community communication media (posters, TV, radio, group community meeting) |
Much of the reporting can be anticipated, and a calendar of reporting requirements can be developed in consultation with OCHA and UNICEF (as CLA) and included in the WASH coordination / IM Workplan in the early stages of the response. The robustness of the analysis plan, indicator definitions and calculations, and means of data collection, compilation, and cleaning – covered in the preceding Chapters – comes into play: provided these are in place, it will be easy to update and semi-automatise our reporting tools and products. That will minimise the time spent on basic reporting, and allow the IMO to focus on other more strategic tasks.
Who is doing it?
Reporting is a responsibility shared by all coordination team members, although WCC will be more involved in the reports’ design and finalization, while IMO will work more on content and visualization.
Produce WASH sector dashboard and bulletin
The coordination tool kit includes a WASH Dashboard Manual to help create static and dynamic dashboards, a WASH Bulletin Briefing Sheet and templates, basic gap analysis templates and information on the reporting requirements of OCHA, including the IM Product Catalogue.
WASH sector dashboard
A dashboard is typically used to illustrate some key information about the response to an emergency, for instance it can show the progress of a Cluster against targets for a particular intervention. Dashboards are produced on a cyclical basis by the coordinating agency during a response but is it also useful for the WASH Cluster to produce operational dashboards in tandem with the cycle of 4W submissions by partners (per week or month) and share this with partners and the wider community.
The production of a cyclical dashboard is useful for many reasons:
- It helps to illustrate the importance of defined targets to partners;
- It encourages WASH partners to supply 4W information;
- It acts as an advocacy tool; and
- It helps to identify both gaps and over-provision of interventions in the Cluster.
WASH sector dashboard
A bulletin/newsletter will contain more text than the dashboard and this is where the Cluster can unpack issues that are arising both thematically and geographically. A bulletin is a good advocacy tool where ‘news’ from partners can be added. A bulletin would normally be produced less frequently than a dashboard, and would typically:
- Highlight the urgent needs but also the achievements.
- Add news items from partners so that they can use the bulletin as an advocacy tool.
- Add pictures, maps and graphs to tell the response story.
Reporting to UNICEF and OCHA sitreps
The Cluster response tracking systems will feed into overarching response tracking systems maintained by OCHA and UNICEF, and which will vary slightly from context to context. It is critical to clarify information requirements, format, and frequency, and to factor this into the Cluster’s system design.
Reference and support materials are maintained both by OCHA and the CLA, and can be accessed via the links below:
- OCHA Humanitarian Monitoring resources can be found here: https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/programme-cycle/space/page/monitoring-overview
- UNICEF Humanitarian Performance Monitoring Toolkit contains useful examples and approaches, notably to quality monitoring, and can be found here: http://www.unicefinemergencies.com/downloads/eresource/HPM.html
Where possible UNICEF Humanitarian Performance Monitoring indicators should be aligned with the WASH SOF or HRP indicators, this can allow the use of the Cluster W-tool for activity reporting, and thus minimise reporting obligations for partners.
Disseminate response updates to relevant audience
Monitoring and gap analysis reports must not only be communicated to OCHA and UNICEF, but also reach all relevant humanitarian actors. Due to the large amount of information circulated in modern emergencies response, dissemination channel and format must be carefully chosen so it reaches its target without overloading partners with information.
Websites
See WASH Operational website section in Information Management chapter.
Social Media
Many organisations are using social media as part of their overall dissemination strategy. Social media such as twitter can be very useful in emergency situations.
SMS
In some emergency situations where connection is limited, SMS may be the best way to share data, both in sending and receiving information. There are many service providers specifically targeting humanitarian situations. Consult on best practice with colleagues, many responders have experience in using SMS in countries prone to disasters. Beware of hidden costs.
URL Shorteners
It is often necessary to share links to various websites or document repository. The links may be long and not easy to managed. Use a URL shortener to create a shorter link to completed web addressed. for instance, in first phase emergency, you display a short URL on a white board during a cluster meeting that partners can copy on their notebook and use back in the office to download documents.