The journey and challenges in measuring sustainable water in Oxfam’s impact evaluations with the HWISE Network

"It’s easy to see that water is an issue the world over. Either too much, too little or unsafe”

How can we effectively measure sustainable water? How can we understand the impact and effectiveness of our work in relation to water insecurity? 

For World Water Day 2020, The Real Geek Series discusses how research, measurement and evaluation are essential tools in improving the impact of our work in water insecure areas. Jola Miziniak, Strategic Lead for Sustainable Water, interviews Jaynie Vonk, Global Advisor for Impact Evaluations, along with Sera Young, Associate Professor of Anthropology & Global Health at Northwestern University, who led the development of the Household Water InSecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale.

The episode will explore how the HWISE scale came about and how it’s being used to track vulnerability to water insecurity. The team will consider how Oxfam’s impact evaluations and Sustainable Water and Sanitation index are incorporating HWISE to measure programme effectiveness. And, we'll share insights into what the emerging data tells us about water insecurity.  

Resources:

Visit the HWISE websiteRead the recent publication by Jaynie Vonk and Sera Young, Is household water insecurity a link between water governance and well-being? A multi-site analysis

Visit the HWISE Research Coordination NetworkAccess the HWISE User Manual

Visit Oxfam’s Effectiveness Reviews home page and read the papers

Find out more about how Oxfam’s Impact Evaluations relate to GDPR in our paper, blog and podcast, 

 And, you can also hear how resilience capacities are being measured by the impact evaluation team.Photo: Oxfam/Bekki FrostHygiene Promotion in Chawama