The TrackFin initiative aims to develop a standardized methodology for tracking financing for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at the national level. Pilot projects in Brazil, Ghana, and Morocco found that comprehensive WASH financing data could be collected using this process. The methodology needs refinement based on lessons learned. Next steps include expanding the number of participating countries, providing training and support, and coordinating TrackFin with other global monitoring tools to better understand financing needs for achieving sector goals.
2. INTRODUCTION
• Initial objectives for the TrackFin initiative
• Overall findings from the pilot phase
• Short-term: immediate next steps
• Defining a joint vision for TrackFin
Medium-term
Long-term
• Necessary conditions for this vision to take shape
3. INITIAL VISION (WHO WORKING PAPER – 2012)
Objectives
• Define and test a globally accepted methodology to track WASH financing at
national level
• Develop a methodology to build WASH Accounts, building upon governments’
statistical systems so as to mainstream data collection
• Encourage countries to adopt this common framework to track financing to WASH
either at national level or for a given geographical area
Approach- the methodology is developed:
• Jointly by leading sector institutions and other entities in charge of financial
tracking (such as the WB, OECD UNSTAT ) – to develop a “common language”
• Iteratively so as to start with simple objectives and develop more complex
approaches (to answer more questions) as we go along
• In a modular manner so that it can be adapted to different contexts and be
applicable to local/regional/national levels
4. OVERALL FINDINGS FROM THE PILOT PHASE
• Very strong interest in tracking financing to the sector
TF process provides a framework to track/report in a comparable format
• Information on WASH sector financing is available but fragmented and
requires significant effort to compile it
TF process maps out actors/data sources to draw a comprehensive picture
• When data is unavailable, estimates can be formulated to form an
overall vision of sector financing
TF process provides suggestions to overcome data gaps and ways to
improve data collection in future phases
• Initial results demonstrate that the methodology is applicable but some
aspects will be further developed
5. DATA AVAILABILITY
• Very strong interest in tracking financing to the sector
TF process provides a framework to track/report in a comparable format
• Information on WASH sector financing is available but fragmented and
requires significant effort to compile it
TF process maps out actors/data sources to draw a comprehensive picture
• When data is unavailable, estimates can be formulated to form an
overall vision of sector financing
TF process provides suggestions to overcome data gaps and ways to
improve data collection in future phases
• Initial results demonstrate that the methodology is applicable but some
aspects will be further developed
6. MAIN RESULTS AT COUNTRY LEVEL
All 3 countries were able to gather comprehensive financing data, inform
key indicators and answer four basic questions :
• What is the total expenditure in the WASH sector ?
Brazil (2012) Morocco (2011) Ghana (2012)
Total expenditure to WASH
(Mio USD)
26,911 2,219 521
Total expenditure to WASH per capita
(USD per capita)
137 69 21
Total expenditure to WASH per capita
as a % of GDP
1.2% 2.2% 1.3%
Total expenditure to health as a % of GDP
(source: Global Health Expenditure Database)
9.3% 6.3% 5.2%
WASH sector lags behind other sectors
7. MAIN RESULTS
• How are the funds distributed by WASH services ?
Water receives largest share
Less for rural (water and sanitation)
8. • Who pays for WASH services ?
MAIN RESULTS
Service users are the
main contributors
9. MAIN RESULTS
All 3 countries were able to gather comprehensive financing data, inform
key indicators and answer four basic questions :
• What is the total expenditure in the WASH sector ?
• How are the funds distributed by WASH services & expenditure types?
• Who pays for WASH services ?
• What are the main channels of funding?
i.e. In Brazil, WASH sector expenditure channeled
60% corporate service providers
17% local Governments/authorities
8.1% Federal Government (2012 compared to 5.5% in 2010)
10. IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS
• At international level
• Update the TrackFin methodology and Guidance document based on the
recommendations and lessons learned of this first phase.
• Communicate around TrackFin through international fora and linkages with other
initiatives
GLAAS process and High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All
WSUP/IRC/Tremolet initiative on the role of public finance for WASH
World Water Forum 2015
11. MAIN POINTS TO CLARIFY IN METHODOLOGY
• Modify methodology based on lessons from country testing
• Clarify the scope of the exercise + explicitly include hygiene
• Refine the classifications: no major changes envisaged
• Clarify the use of “financing sources” (i.e. “financing types”) and “financing
units” – and recommend zooming in on the financing of specific financing units
that are channelling funding
• Clarify the approaches to “tracking financing”
• Cash-flow approach: track financial flows: coming vs. / outgoings
• Economic approach: sector revenue requirement vs. non-repayable
financing
• Balance sheet approach: focus on the “asset side” – where possible
• Other improvements
• Give advice on running the process (e.g. High-level Committee to drive
the process and secure buy-in at the highest level)
• Introduce “real-life” examples from the experience gained in WASH
sector in Brazil, Ghana and Morocco
• Organising surveys on specific areas (e.g. hh spending for self-supply)
• Make it “more user-friendly”: improve the structure, delete unnecessary material
12. AT COUNTRY LEVEL IN PILOT COUNTRIES
• Prepare Policy Briefs to communicate to decision-makers on how the data can
enable better policy-making
• Use the results for advocacy and improving transparency in the sector
• Identify areas where the approach needs to be strengthened / detailed to
produce more policy-relevant information
• Promote more regional disaggregation and focus on equity
• Support the development of country-level of information systems and surveys
• Organising surveys on specific areas (e.g. hh spending for self-supply) or feed into the design of
existing surveys led by Statistical Offices
• For future exercises:
• Identify ways to “institutionalise” the approach at country level, as this is more cost effective in the long-term
(based on “health sector” experience)
• Engage with sector stakeholders as data providers but also as “data users”
• Make the link with progress on access to water and sanitation
13. AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL: DEFINING A JOINT VISION
More detail in 3
pilot countries
Horizontal expansion: reaching more countries
Vertical expansion: detailing the approach
20 countries before GLAAS 2016
14. MEDIUM TERM STEPS
• Organize a new phase of TrackFin with the initial pilot countries,
taking into account all national recommendations
• Extend the TrackFin initiative to as many countries as possible (in
the context of GLAAS), based on a revised Guidance document.
• Encourage / support other institutions that want to produce
WASH-Accounts in other countries (e.g. WSP / World Bank)
• Provide training and capacity building to roll out the methodology
• Identify “key indicators” that we can ask all countries to report on
• Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce
national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis
15. • TrackFin is a data collection and analysis tool for the sector: it
needs to be developed in coordination with other global
monitoring tools
• Respond to sector’s current priorities:
Understand how much is spent and how much is needed for meeting
SDGs (as a baseline for estimating investment requirements)
Evaluate whether funding is best used to reduce inequalities
Compare spending to service levels’ “markers” to understand the cost-effectiveness
of these investments
LONGER TERM
16. IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS
• Institutional hosting arrangements
• WHO could remain a driver for the initiative (due to the link with GLAAS and the
potential to learn and build upon health accounts development) but there would be
great advantages in developing a partnership approach to implementation
• A platform could be developed to share documents and results
• Financing requirements and funding sources
• Different visions have different funding implications
• Encourage countries to fund the exercise themselves where they can
• Identify international funders that may be interested in supporting next phases
Editor's Notes
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
Main findings:
In all three pilot countries, national institutions have a very strong interest in tracking financing to the sector. For example, Ghana committed to reinforce monitoring of finance to the sector at the 2014 SWA High Level Meeting. TrackFin provided a framework for tracking finance and reporting the figures in a comparable format.
Information on WASH sector financing exists but is scattered, given that the sector is fragmented and involves many actors. Significant effort is needed to compile it, particularly the first time around. TrackFin starts by mapping out WASH sector financing actors and sources of data, so as to draw a comprehensive picture of who is financing the sector and through which channels.
When data is not available, estimates can be formulated to overcome data gaps so as to form an initial overall vision of sector financing and identify ways to improve data collection in future phases. For example, household expenditure on self-provided water supply and on-site sanitation is usually not recorded anywhere. Preliminary estimates were formulated based on national household survey data.
Initial results from pilot studies demonstrate that the methodology was applicable and will not require major modifications but some aspects will be further developed (especially methods to estimate households’ expenditure on self-supply, to estimate repayable finance, and classify costs).
Main findings:
In all three pilot countries, national institutions have a very strong interest in tracking financing to the sector. For example, Ghana committed to reinforce monitoring of finance to the sector at the 2014 SWA High Level Meeting. TrackFin provided a framework for tracking finance and reporting the figures in a comparable format.
Information on WASH sector financing exists but is scattered, given that the sector is fragmented and involves many actors. Significant effort is needed to compile it, particularly the first time around. TrackFin starts by mapping out WASH sector financing actors and sources of data, so as to draw a comprehensive picture of who is financing the sector and through which channels.
When data is not available, estimates can be formulated to overcome data gaps so as to form an initial overall vision of sector financing and identify ways to improve data collection in future phases. For example, household expenditure on self-provided water supply and on-site sanitation is usually not recorded anywhere. Preliminary estimates were formulated based on national household survey data.
Initial results from pilot studies demonstrate that the methodology was applicable and will not require major modifications but some aspects will be further developed (especially methods to estimate households’ expenditure on self-supply, to estimate repayable finance, and classify costs).
Initial results in Brazil, Ghana and Morocco
All 3 countries were able to gather comprehensive data on WASH financing, although data availability varied from country to country but also between subsectors.
The process allowed to inform key indicators and answer four basic questions with just a few examples:
What is the total expenditure in the WASH sector ? (Table)
The results present how much is spent in the sector, total and per capita, as proportion of the GDP and compare it to other sectors. (main message) It is clear, as presented in the GLAAS report, that WASH lags behind other sectors.
How are the funds distributed to the different WASH services and expenditure types? (Graph)
The results presents how funding are distributed between sub-sectors and types of expenditures.
(main message) As in the GLAAS reports, it shows that water receives the largest share of funding compared to sanitation but also that rural areas, for both water and sanitation receive less support compared to urban.
Who pays for WASH services ? (Graph)
The results presents the different financial sources for the sector.
(main message) Service users (households, governments institutions, industries) are the main contributors of funding to the sector, particularly through tariffs.
Which entities are the main channels of funding for WASH and what is their share of total spending?
Just as an example, in Brazil, 60% of WASH sector expenditure are channeled via corporate service providers, whilst local Governments/authorities manage 17% of expenditure. The share of the Federal government has been growing, from 5.5% in 2010 to 8.1% in 2012, and is likely to grow further with the implementation of a new Federal programme, the PLANSAB, to boost investment in the sector.
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
Suggested new steps:
Organize a new phase of TrackFin for the initial pilot countries, taking into account all national recommendations.
All three countries seems to be committed to implement a new phase. The institutionalization of the process should enable these countries to progressively address all challenges and to create a sustainable process towards producing WASH accounts on a regular basis, as it is being done in the health sector.
Extend the TrackFin initiative to new countries, based on lessons learned from the three initial countries, which will be captured in a revised Guidance document. Some countries and national institutions have already expressed an interest in participating in the TrackFin initiative and for preparing WASH accounts.
Develop a data collection tool to support countries to produce national WASH-Accounts on a regular basis. A software, similar to the one used for the production of Heath Accounts, could greatly facilitate the preparation of WASH-Accounts by standardizing data treatment and reducing the costs of replicating the exercise from one year to the next.
Communicate, through Policy Briefs, to decision-makers on how the data enables better policy-making and the importance on strengthening gradually the production of WASH-Accounts
