| Indicator ID | BS1 |
|---|---|
| Indicator full statement | % of persons who report basic wash service to be functional in institutions (health care facilities, learning spaces, detention facilities) or at community level (including formal and informal settlements). |
Purpose
| Importance | This indicator enables us to understand to what extent WASH facilities are functioning with sufficient quality from users’ perspective, in institutions (such as health center patients, school pupils or detainees) or target communities who consider the facilities' basic WASH services to be functional (in terms of quality, quantity, and access). It is complementary with the indicator % of institutions (HCF, learning spaces and detention centres) supported by Tdh and having improved their level of WASH services. Measuring this indicator permits to gather evidence about the positive outcome resulting from the services delivered on the ground: hygiene promotion, infrastructure rehabilitation, equipment, management of Wash facilities. |
|---|---|
| Related services | This indicator is the result of services provided by Tdh listed in the "wash_access_to_infrastructure" service cluster (See Tdh catalogue of services), in particular: Supply Access, promotion. |
Definition
WASH services levels (advance, basic, limited) calculation are based on indicators proposed by WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme to assess progress towards achieving the SDGs in schools, healthcare centres and communities. WASH service levels in detention centres have been defined by Terre des hommes based on international regulations and internationally recognised minimum standards.
The JMP (Joint Monitoring Programme) service ladder is a framework used by WHO and UNICEF to categorize levels of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. It helps to track and monitor progress towards universal access to safe WASH services. The service ladder defines different levels of service, ranging from no service to safely managed service. The different levels of service by theme (water, sanitation, hygiene, waste management, environmental cleaning, etc.) and by type of facility are defined in the FACET 2.0, FACET WinD and FACET COM guidelines (forthcoming).
Functional WASH services
"Functional" refers to WASH services that consistently meet the basic needs of the facility or community in terms of quality, quantity and access. This includes access to safe drinking water, properly maintained toilets or latrines, and hygiene provisions such as handwashing stations, all of which must be available and operational when needed. It implies that the infrastructure is reliable and usable over time, not just functional at the moment of assessment.
Supported population refers to WASH service users who are the direct beneficiaries of the service, such as patients (health centres) or students (schools, learning spaces) or detainees (detention centre) or community members.
Learning space (formal and informal)
It refers to environments where education occurs, both formal (e.g., schools) and informal (e.g., Temporary Learning Spaces - TLS, Child Friendly Spaces - CFS…), equipped with the necessary infrastructure, including WASH facilities, to support effective learning and well-being.
Formal Education
Education that is accredited by the national education system, following a set curriculum and leading to recognized qualifications.
Non-Formal Education
Education that is usually not accredited by the national education system, including Vocational Education Training (VET), Temporary Learning Spaces (TLS), Non-Formal Education (NFE) Centres, Digital Learning Centres (DLC), Child Friendly Spaces (CFS), catch-up programs, and language support classes.
How to collect & analyse the data
| What do we count? | We count users in target facilities (e.g., healthcare centers, learning spaces, detention centers) or at community level who among all those e surveyed report that the basic WASH services are functional. Functionality is assessed through the users' satisfaction regarding access to safe drinking water (availability and quality), sufficient toilet facilities for men and women, that are safe and well maintained, and hygiene provisions like handwashing stations. |
|---|---|
| How to calculate the indicator's value | To calculate, divide the number of users who answered "yes" or who scored between 3 and 5 on the value scales to all functionality-related questions by the total number of respondents, excluding those who answered "don't know." Multiply this by 100 to obtain a percentage. |
| Data sources | Facilities users surveyed |
| Data collection methods and tools |
|
| Example of survey questions | Select and contextualize the questions below that are relevant to your intervention.
|
| Disaggregation | Gender, age, disability, and intervention settings: community or institution (HCF, learning spaces, detention facilities) |
| Important considerations | Note: a person with disability is someone who experiences significant difficulty in at least one of six key functional domains: seeing, hearing, walking or climbing stairs, remembering or concentrating, self-care (such as dressing or washing), or communicating (understanding or being understood). |
Limitations and precautions
The indicator might not capture the entire quality or sustainability of WASH services, as it relies on user perception, which can vary based on individual expectations.
Functionality may be assessed at a specific point in time and not reflect long-term performance.
Surveys may exclude users who are unaware of service issues, leading to an incomplete picture.
Some questions might appear as intimate and intrusive, as people might not feel so comfortable to answer questions about toilets, and hygiene.
External factors like seasonality, infrastructure age, or management can affect functionality but might not be reflected in users' satisfaction.
Mitigation measures:
Make sure that you contextualize the survey, adding necessary questions to build an accurate picture.
If possible and manageable (depending on your sampling size) include open ended questions asking respondents to elaborate or explain, illustrate, so they can give their opinion in a more nuanced way, and what will enable you to interpret the responses to the close-ended questions. An alternative could be to organize complementary Focus Group Discussions or interviews for that purpose.
Make sure that women are interviewed by female enumerators.
What further analysis are we interested in?
The data collected for feeding into this indicator will enable to triangulate FACET assessment of the facilities and see, from the user perspective, what is well functioning and what is still to be improved.
Measuring user’s satisfaction, with a special look at different perspectives such as: gender, ability, social-economic status, origin or age groups will provide complementary information that will be useful for adjusting further WASH interventions.
The data collect for this indicator will indeed aim to identify any recurring issues, such as interruptions in service, or unmet demands, to assess both immediate performance and long-term sustainability of the service, issues related with socio-cultural dimensions.