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Using ICT to support water sector monitoring
1. USING ICT TO SUPPORT WATER
SECTOR MONITORING : HOW
UNDERLYING DRIVERS SHAPE
INCENTIVES AND OUTCOMES
D. Schaub-Jones [South Africa]
L. Szczuczak [South Africa]
E. Ramsay [Vietnam]
2. SUMMARY
1. The use of new ICT tools to support water services
provision is expanding rapidly
2. Paper looks at some of the drivers underpinning
this trend
3. Suggests how these drivers need to be understood
during the design of any ICT-based monitoring
system.
3. SUMMARY
4. Too often the focus appears to be on the tools &
not sufficiently on what the data gets used for
5. Not on how the provision of data can actually
change the dynamics on the ground
‘Reality check’ to the implementation and
adoption of ICT – making sure that the
positive contributions are not lost through
poor design or over-ambitious approaches.
4. CONTEXT
wave of urbanisation
not only the large mega-cities that are the poles of
this growth
also the small- and medium- towns that are
absorbing expansion
telecoms revolution
rapid technology advance and societal uptake
mid-2013 more Africans had mobile phone
subscriptions than had access to improved water
sources
5. QUESTION …
Can technologies such as
mobile phones and online
databases, allied with better
monitoring, significantly boost
the performance of water
providers?
6. DIFFERENT RATIONALES
Water services providers
help streamline their operations
bring management ‘closer to the
field’
more quickly identify and
respond to service delivery
challenges.
Donor agencies
‘payment by results’ etc
new ways of monitoring and
verifying impacts
National governments and regulators
planning
track water services providers
reduce time btw service delivery
challenges & responses
improve quantity & quality of the
data collected
Civil society
Boost transparency
Increase accountability of service
providers
7. HOW DO ICT & MONITORING RELATE?
Traditional
Linear / closed flows of
information
Rely on their data from field staff
Specific reporting periods (daily,
weekly / monthly)
Legacy IT systems (no ‘cloud’) or
manual processes
Trickle up to senior management
( with delays)
‘Prepared briefs’ for regulator /
policymaker / donor
New
Explosion in the data
that can be collected
New avenues – smartphones,
basic phones, automatic gauges,
smart meters
Near-real time data
Higher quantity & quality
of data possible
Collect info from range of actors
8. SEESAW
SURVEY, 2012
INNOVATIONS
IN ICT USAGE
IN THE WASH
SECTOR
Main drivers
(Wat & San stakeholders to adopt ICT)
1. ICT improves access to information
(which can improve decision-making);
2. ICT can bring immediate &
long-term financial benefits; and
ICT also allows confidence-building between stakeholders,
which contributes to greater responsiveness, mutual
accountability and trust.
Sattler, 2012
9. Table 1. Main drivers for wanting better monitoring of water
services
(SeeSaw survey, 2012)
Internal External
Financia
l
Improve financial position:
Attract investment
Control costs
Improve revenue
Demonstrate performance:
Payment-by-results
Output-based-aid
Part of loan package
Efficiency
Improve internal efficiencies:
Internally championed benchmarking
Have field staff provide new
or ‘real-time’ data
ICT as an ‘HR tool’
External ‘efficiency’ impetus:
Formal regulation requires ICT
Push from customers
to adopt innovations
Externally imposed benchmarking
NB WATER SERVICE
PROVIDERS (NOT NGOS,
REGULATORS, ETC)
10. CAUTION:
A. Main drivers for better monitoring
quite different
B. Important implications designing
‘monitoring systems’
C. Way ICT tools will be used / abused
/ ignored depends a lot on
motivations underlying
monitoring
11. CASE STUDY: CWS IN GHANA
CWS (Community Water Solutions)
Social enterprise
Ghanaian women
Small businesses
Treat and sell water to local
12. HOW DOES IT WORK?
Entrepreneurs use basic phones
To report to CWS field staff
Specific operational challenges
13. DRIVERS = INTERNAL
Quicker reporting system
More participatory reporting system
Better oversight
Improved efficiency
14. BENEFITS FOR CWS
Logistical & Financial
Space out their in-person visits to remote
locations
Field staff respond faster to specific issues
that would otherwise lead to downtime of
services
17. CASE STUDY: CRA IN MOZAMBIQUE
CRA (Conselho de Regulação do
Abastecimento de Água)
National regulatory body for the water
sector
Design and pilot a monitoring system for
small water schemes
18. DRIVER = EXTERNAL
Enforcement (stick and carrot)
Important thus to
Have ‘sympathetic’ design
Remove barriers to sending information
Cross-reference
19. KEY RISKS
Water Service Providers do not appreciate
initiative
or
Do not find useful for own purposes
= > token efforts to provide
reliable and complete data
20. “rubbish in, rubbish out”
Decisions risk being made on basis of :
unreliable
out-of-date & / or
incomplete data
‘sub-optimal’ or
nonsensical results
22. USER-CENTRIC DESIGN
Understand motivations of key stakeholders to adopt
monitoring tools
Design tools so they deliver value for them
If no internal motivation for adoption, then other measures
needed
Listen to what users want and need and will find useful
Avoid broad assumptions about what ‘you think’ will be useful
Provide tangible benefits to those being asked to spend time
using the system
23. RECOGNISE CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Buy-in at different levels of info flow
Leadership commitment
Quick and visible benefits (“quick wins”)
To sensible extent :
Build on what is there
Use existing assets
Leverage good practice
Fit system to users and not vice versa
24. UNDERSTAND INCENTIVES
Why will those who need to submit data
do so?
What are incentives to provide reliable
and timely data?
No ICT tool automatically solves all existing challenges
ICT helps identify and structure challenges BUT action
needed to resolve them What incentives will turn
information into action?
25. START WITH TRULY IMPORTANT & THEN GROW
Always temptation to ask for as much as possible = usually
unrealistic
Posing great burden on those providing information will
undermine motivation
(people faced with unreasonable or unmanageable
requests may fail to provide even simple information)
Easier to start with a simple set of data and add on later
Scaling up easier than scaling back
An iterative approach to design and development
Short and frank feedback loops from real users
26. BUILD A SYSTEM YOU CAN SUSTAIN OVER LONG-TERM
All systems have running costs
ICT systems must evolve with the times (requires inputs
of time and money)
People pay for what they perceive has value :
Is the ICT tool/service valuable or seen as valuable?
Not an ‘essential need’, only a ‘nice-to-have’ => sustainability
of the tool/service will be in question
Direct monetary cost not the only consideration
Effort in inputting data & processing data & acting upon
information => If costs are non-negligible, can the system
be sustained?
27. CONCLUSIONS
1. Use of ICT tools alone
cannot solve issues
2. Accompanying activities
are required
3. Raise awareness about and
to prioritise monitoring
4. Forge good
communications between
diverse role players
5.Put in place well-
designed feedback
loops
6.Commitment and
capacity to turn data
collection and
interpretation into
actions
28. WHEN SUPPORTED ICT TOOLS:
Highlight bottlenecks in delivery
Offer great scope for efficiency improvements
Can deliver better co-ordination
Can improve finance
Enable significant improvements in water services
Provide means to cross-check information and
engage customers, citizens and other groups
Enable early or strategic intervention in areas facing
challenges