By Alex Bonhomme, M&E Manager – HANWASH and Tristam Johnson, M&E Subcommittee Chair – HANWASH

In Haiti’s evolving Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector, sustainable solutions don’t come from infrastructure alone—they stem from strong local governance, data-driven decision making, sensitive support for change in traditional behaviors, and a culture that embraces learning. At HANWASH, we believe that the key to long-term impact lies in how we provide support to the local communities based on their needs, measure progress, and improve our interventions.

Reimagining what we measure

Too often, WASH interventions are measured using short-term, binary indicators that reduce complex realities into a yes-or-no status. Have we built the number of wells specified in the project document? Have we constructed the number of latrines planned? Have hygiene education sessions been conducted? While helpful for quick snapshots, such indicators fall short in capturing long-term sustainability, especially in community-managed water points where sustainability depends on community ownership and willingness to pay for service, responsible management and long-term planning. That’s why HANWASH is shifting from binary, short-term indicators of financial viability of the community-managed water points to those offering a review of subjective & objective impacts over the long-term. This new approach captures the complexity and richness of what WASH sustainability really looks like on the ground.

The Role of Community Leadership

Water infrastructures managed by local communities are central to the HANWASH model, but they’re only as strong as the leadership behind them. Without committed, trained, and accountable local leadership, willing to accept and apply responsibility, no water system, no matter how well designed, can be truly sustainable.
That’s why responsible community management is at the heart of the new indicator HANWASH is developing to measure the financial viability of the community-managed water points. To assess the financial viability of a community-managed water point, we’re creating a multi-dimensional indicator which will capture the following:

• The responsible management of the water points
• Evidence of long-term financial planning
• The affordability of the drinking water service and the regular and consistent payment by the users
• Sufficiency of revenues to cover all costs
• Risk management and resilience

By embedding these elements into our new indicator, we will be able to better measure the long-term sustainability of the interventions made by HANWASH on community-managed water points.

Continuous learning at the core of HANWASH’s culture

At HANWASH, continuous learning drives continuous improvement. Our transition to this new long-term financial viability indicator wasn’t accidental. It was the result of a deliberate process of listening, monitoring, and reflecting. Through field experience and engagement with communities and partners, we realized the limits of the original binary indicator for financial viability of the community-managed water points. This shift will allow us to track more accurately the long-term performance of the community-managed water points in our intervention communes.

Why It Matters

As we commit ourselves to increased access to safe, affordable and sustainable WASH services in Haiti, we must hold ourselves to higher standards of measurement, management, and accountability. It’s not enough to build infrastructures, we must also ensure they are sustainable.
By adopting a more comprehensive and forward-looking approach to indicators, and by fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement, HANWASH is working to ensure that every dollar invested, every partnership forged, and every community served leads to meaningful and lasting change.