The Management Information System (MIS) committee of the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) has successfully implemented the first year of the national MIS for rural water supply, sanitation and hygiene (RWSSH) in 2018. The MIS is very important for the rural WASH sector to effectively collect, monitor, and evaluate activities undertaken in the sector; to monitor rural WASH performance/NAP; and to share information to relevant stakeholders and the public. In the first phase of the MIS, data was collected by provincial MIS committees on six key indicators from the National Action Plan (NAP) for RWSSH 2014-2018. MIS Phase 1 included development of standard data entry templates, coordination structures, data validation and review processes, data analysis, mapping and reflection with MIS participants and users.
As well as providing valuable information to inform the review of the NAP, the MIS Phase 1 built MRD’s internal capacity to collect and manage RWSSH data. In future phases of the MIS, MRD will build on the successes of MIS Phase 1 to include additional NAP indicators and continue to improve upon challenges and participant feedback such as providing a clearer orientation, clearer definitions of each indicator and guidance for data entry.
Additionally, programmatic gaps in RWSSH sector which the MIS identified include i) limited internal record keeping for previous CLTS and ODF data, ii) limited monitoring of villages sustaining ODF status, iii) difficulty in distinguishing commune budget for RWS and sanitation and hygiene from the social services budget and and iv) attracting sanitation suppliers to remote areas.
*** Click the link here to watch a video on “Accuracy and Effectiveness of Management Information System for Research Towards Strategic Plan and Sustainable Development”.