Data systems remain crucial to effective decision-making, policymaking, planning and financing, quality service delivery and reporting, and monitoring and evaluation in water and sanitation (WSH). Data utilization for city-wide inclusive sanitation (CWIS) is widely recognized and increasingly accepted for sanitation service provision in many developing countries, especially at the national government level. However, strengthened sanitation service provision requires a robust data system to support utilities and local authorities in performing its core CWIS functions – i.e., responsibility, accountability, resource planning, and sanitation service management.

In many sub-Saharan countries, the limited coordination between sanitation data collected for national-level monitoring and reporting and its utilization at sub-national levels (at utility and municipality/local authority levels) has hampered effective utility performance. As a result, public sanitation stakeholders are grappling with the challenge of managing and reviewing sanitation service delivery due to the inadequacy or lack of robust public data systems. Public data system gaps have also limited the capacity of many utilities and municipalities, including regulators, to identify opportunities, attract investments, and deliver sustainable sanitation services.

Strengthening public data systems would require an integrative and collaborative knowledge-sharing approach between WSH stakeholders to improve understanding of and the value of using robust data systems to drive effective city-wide inclusive sanitation services. By adopting a cross-sectoral learning approach, sanitation service providers can identify data system gaps and weaknesses within their existing sanitation data systems.  Sanitation service providers who do not have data system tools can learn from others with similar sanitation data systems and structures.

Dev-Afrique Development Advisor’s “Public Service Data Systems: Landscaping, Learning, and Technical Assistance” project, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is particularly timely, considering the massive public data system gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project aims to promote shared learning and best practices and enhance the use of sanitation data systems for performance management and service delivery within utilities and municipalities across Sub-Saharan Africa. As part of this project, Dev-Afrique scoped sanitation data system tools used for decision-making, service delivery, and performance management among municipalities and utilities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Consequently, Dev-Afrique is hosting a webinar series to spotlight the identified sanitation data system tools used in the WSH ecosystem for decision-making and performance management in both mature and developing countries. The webinar series aims to promote shared learning and best practices to enhance the use of sanitation data systems for utility performance management and sanitation service delivery.

The webinar series will feature representatives from utilities, regulators, and municipal authorities who will share innovative approaches and best practices for sanitation data system tool usage for sanitation service provision, decision making and performance management. The table below highlights sanitation data system tools, which the webinar series will spotlight.