Figure 1 Parameters for Sustainability

Annex 2: Sustainability Study: Key questions going forward Our hypothesis is that sustainability of water+ services is a product of four factors: governance, economic/finance, technical and environmental issues and that these factors can influence both at the local and at the district level. Note that there are also higher levels, e.g. national policy and global (e.g. climate change) but let’s ignore those for now and focus on the community and district level.

Figure 1 Parameters for sustainability

The sustainability and governance snapshot tool focuses governance at the local level - but to what extent is that enough on its own as a predictor of success and failure, or are the other factors (finance, technical and environmental) more important at the local level?’ Also: ‘To what extent is sustainability the product of these four forces at the local level… or at the district level?’

More detailed work is needed to find out:

1. As causal/prime factor in sustainability what do communities list (free ranking and then prioritizing by community). 2. When given the four categories (governance, finance, technical and environmental) which ones to they rank in what order as contributing to the functioning/non-functioning of their scheme (functioning for positives and non-functioning for those with a low score on governance tool) 3. Identify whether the outliers for the governance questions are also outliers in the other questions (finance, technical and environmental) (i.e. do all these factors work together? 4. Look at whether these factors at scheme level are also played out at district level, i.e. the relative impact of wider enabling environment on each of these factors (repeating process 1-3 in interviews of those looking at the district level) 5. If at the scheme level, any of these other factors turn out to be as or more important than governance, develop a simple tool/s (perhaps in the snap-shot format) to help us ensure that future programs address the key factors from the beginning. 6. If the study at the district level identifies particular turning points or critical concerns within one of the four factors, identify once again how future programs can take these into account.