Sustainability Planning and Monitoring

PARTICIPATORY TOOLS USED IN THE MPAnecessary to create an informal, relaxed climateconducive to sharing and learning together.It is very important for the facilitating agency toemphasize that the purpose of the meeting is notto compare or evaluate the projects from whichMPA results are being discussed, but to identifywhat policy elements and institutional factorsinfluenced by the policy elements could have ledto the community level outcomes observed.Presentation of results of the assessment atcommunity and institutional levelsSummarized scores, qualitative findings andgraphic presentations from both community andinstitutional assessments are presented byfacilitators, or invited project implementers.Facilitators use the presentations, usually displayedat the meeting venue, to raise questions and invitediscussions, using a creatively crafted process. Theyhelp relate findings from communities andinstitutions to existing policies and facilitate adebate on what policies need to change and how,to better support gender- and poverty-sensitivedemand-responsive approaches, for the ultimategoals of sustainability and equity.Scoring of relevant policiesstakeholders from implementing agencies anduser communities and if the country’s culturaland political climate allows candid interactionsacross all levels of stakeholders. In practice ithas been possible to include institutional andpolicy levels but not the communityrepresentatives in policy dialogues to date.Community level assessments have howeverbeen presented in policy dialogues as the basisfor policy discussions, with powerful impact.UsesThe policy dialogue process is proving to be apowerful tool for influencing mind-sets since it isable to show how policies translate to action onthe ground. It is a process that is already beingused at various sub-national levels wheredecentralization has devolved power andresponsibilities to province and regional levels.Getting all levels of stakeholders to interact, learnfrom each other and improve the end result is nota new idea. The MPA only adds some concreteand interesting ways to make the idea actionable.To maximize the potential advantages of the policydialogue, it is necessary to use it as a part of theprocess linking communities, institutions andpolicies, and institutionalize it as a periodiclearning exercise for the national sector.Open discussion and participatory exercises suchas pocket voting, card sorting and visualizedscaling are then used, to get the participants toassess the indicators under Policy support. 30 It isimportant to facilitate discussions on each visualoutput before a score can be agreed upon.It can be very productive and eye-opening forall if the policy dialogue can includeThis policy assessment rounds off the activities ofdata collection, sharing and analysis and beginsprocesses for planning and implementingimprovements.The entry of the data into the database and theanalysis and reporting of the overall quantitativeand qualitative findings which comprise the secondlevel of action are described earlier in Chapter 4.30 Presence and nature of national sector policy for water supply and sanitation; Presence of sector strategiesto set in motion community participation, demand-responsive approaches, gender and social equity.91