Sustainability Planning and Monitoring

THE MPA IN ACTION4The MPA in ActionSteps to conduct the assessments includeestablishing the partnerships for theassessments, the selection and training offacilitators, the sampling procedure fordetermining which communities will be contactedfor participation, and the preparations for andimplementation of the fieldwork. Three importantelements of the fieldwork are the data gatheringand analysis, the self-scoring, and the actionplanning based on assessment results.4.1 Establishment of purposeand partnershipsAlthough MPA by its very nature is participatory, itcan be carried out with varying degrees ofemphasis, some more internal and some less soin projects. An external emphasis may be strongerwhen government planners or external supportagencies use MPA to gather policy lessons (seeSection 2, East Asia sanitation policy studiesAchieving Sustained Sanitation for the Poor). Theinternal emphasis is stronger when projects useMPA to build capacities of women and men incommunities or of project staff (see Section 2,experience of institutional capacity building forgender and social inclusion in large scale projectsin Indonesia). Partnerships established for specificAssessment with separate groups of poor andwealthier men in NepalMPA applications thus vary with the purpose. Whileuser communities and agencies delivering servicesto them are always involved as partners, specificMPA applications can require partnerships toextend to provincial or central governmentagencies, donor agencies, NGOs active in thesector, private sector agencies, academic andresearch organizations and mass organizations.Examples of purposes and relevant partners are:Comparative participatory evaluations ofdifferent projects in a country, a region, orglobally.They give planners, program managers, andfinancers insight into the most and least successfulapproaches, the factors which contribute most tothe results, and the strengths, weaknesses, and28