Sustainability Planning and Monitoring

AcknowledgementsThe Participatory Learning and ActionInitiative (PLAI: 1998-2000) broughttogether a global core group* ofindividuals and agencies into a partnership, whichcontinues to work together for mainstreaminggender, and poverty concerns in water supply andsanitation.This resource guide on the Methodology forParticipatory Assessment (MPA) is a product of thatpartnership between the Water and SanitationProgram and the IRC International Water andSanitation Centre. The Initiative, funded by thegovernments of Canada, The Netherlands,Norway, Sweden and the Africa region of theUNDP, concluded in early 2000 with thedevelopment of the gender-poverty-mainstreamingmethodology, its validation through a global studyin 15 countries, and the production of trainingmaterials and country reports.Thereafter MPA has steadily gained popularity withsector stakeholders as country governments,external support agencies, national NGOs andtraining institutions in Asia, Africa and LatinAmerica have discovered its potential and investedin building capacities for its use. They have fundedthe development of MPA applications tailored totheir country contexts, languages and learningneeds, allowing the global WSP-IRC core team tofurther refine the methodology and integrate itwith institutional and policy reform efforts in agrowing number of countries. This resource guidedraws upon the learning gained in the post-PLAIperiod, by and with government and NGO partneragencies in Indonesia, Lao PDR, Cambodia,Vietnam, The Philippines, Peru, Bolivia, India,Nepal, Benin, Tanzania and Uganda. Externalfunding for these MPA applications came fromthe governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark,Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden, The Netherlandsand the United Kingdom.This book draws substantially upon its predecessor,the MPA Metguide published in 2000 and coauthoredby the present editors with Rekha Dayal.However, it is not merely a new edition of theMetguide. It is a synthesis of learning gainedthrough field applications by MPA practitionersacross the world, all of whom have contributed toits evolution to the current state as described inSection 1 of this book. Several of them have also* Global steering group of PLAI: Bruce Gross, Christine van Wijk, Rekha Dayal, Nilanjana Mukherjee, RoseLidonde, Noma Musabayane, Suzanne Reiff, Jennifer Francis, Shalini Sinha. A.J. James joined the group in 1999.vi