Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

3 8 / S E T T I N G T H E S C E N ESigning Progress: Indicators Mark the WayFigure 3.5: Overview of the history and development of sustainability indicatorsLCA: Life Cycle Analysis, GHG: Global Hydrological Gauging, IEEA: Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting.Source: Spreng and Wils, 2000.1960TechnicalindicatorsEquipment1970 Energyaccounting19801990SystemsSocialindicatorsStudiesTheory anddata gatheringMonitoring andreporting systemsRoutine statisticsin developedcountriesHealth indicatorsgloballycreative ideas may be abandoned. It is essential to understandwhether one piece of data is of significance beyond themeasured quantity and beyond their immediate first use and canbe used as an indicator. This approach is widely used in data-richsituations.2. The top-down approach draws from the Logical Framework(log frame) approach, which is a programme management toolthat serves purposes in both design and monitoring withinprogramme cycle management. A log frame follows a generalizedstructure where the goal of an intervention is structuredaccording to its purpose, outputs and specific activities. Ageneralized log frame approach would commence with definingan overarching goal (typically the attainment of an institutionalor organizational outcome in the real world). Recognizing thebreadth of such goals, many different interventions may berequired to attain the goal, each with a unique and clearlydefined purpose. Achieving this purpose requires interventions toaccomplish outputs, through a particular set of activities. Risksand assumptions – those externalities that could undermineoutputs securing the purpose or the goal – need to beinternalized during design and implementation.The Logical Framework approach, in contrast to some otherapproaches that employ indicators, is essentially a ‘top-down’approach. The starting point is the definition of a real-worldLCAEnergyefficiencyreportingEnvironmentalindicatorsSilent Spring:BiodiversityExamplesLimits toGrowth:Resourcesand pollutionEmissionImmission(Global) ModelsGHG, Globalenvironmentaldata reportingTechnicalEconomicEarly studiesMonetary valueof landscapeMonetary valueof silence andclean airValuation bymarket withpollution rightsUN handbookon IEEASustainabilityindicatorsNeighbourhoodindicatorsRio ConferenceBig rush tocome up withsomething?outcome to be attained – the goal – backed by an objectivelyverifiable indicator. Action is then designed around theinterventions needed to attain the goal. The distinction betweenpurpose, output and activity often varies, but is a valuable stepin distinguishing between different levels of intervention. Forexample, ‘reduce the number of lives lost to floods by 2010’ ismost appropriate as a purpose, backed by outputs such as‘regular cyclone warning received by national disastermanagement agencies by 2005’, an output for which anynumber of activities may be needed.Indicators, whether quantitative, qualitative or time-based,are in all cases set at all levels of the log frame from goal downto activity. Because of the diversity of starting points for action,purposes to be attained, and types of intervention, unanimity onuniversal indicators assumes much less importance at lowerlevels of the Logical Framework.Unanimity is vital, however, at the upper levels whereagreement is needed on a common goal and on how attainmentof that goal is to be measured. With goals in water having beenset at an international level, for example the MillenniumDevelopment Goals, the indicators of these goals have becomeaccepted as international development targets. These targetstherefore represent a unique set of high-profile indicators.Table 3.1 presents a draft version of the Logical Frameworkof the Global Water Partnership (GWP) Framework for Action