Verifying It! PWX AnalytiX Tracks Long-term Project Operation

Verifying It! sheds light on the actual operating status of water and sanitation projects. PWX AnalytiX introduces a new feature - recording the number of visits and project status, highlighted in the project report.

July 6, 2012

Peer Water Exchange (PWX) has always provided for projects to be tracked easily years after implementation. Implementer staff can easily report on project visits, both formal and in passing. Even third parties can report on any project they visit. Now, PWX AnalytiX counts the number of visits and computes the time difference between the last visit and the date of completion for each and every project on PWX. Finally, the water sector has a tool to help verify project operation and track impact.

Currently, the majority of water and sanitation projects around the world fall off the radar after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Efforts to track the actual sustainability of projects and gauge their impact have been funded and launched recently.

Since 2005, the mission of PWX has been to increase transparency in the WASH sector and show how projects are faring and what their impact is on the ground, years after the implementation is deemed complete. To achieve its vision, PWX created two fundamental shifts in the water sector.

By using peer review in creating the first participatory decision-making system to decide how funding gets allocated, members are made to feel more secure about reporting failures. Always eager to share learning, grassroots implementers have been hesitant to report failures due to the threat of losing funding. Peers are more inclined to support people who admit mistakes and failures.

Secondly, the PWX platform makes it easy for implementer staff to report on projects. In India, SMS is also a channel to quickly report on project activities. Other members and volunteers can also report on visits. After seven years of creating a new flexible and powerful reporting system, PWX introduces an addition to its suite of business intelligence products: Project Verification.

Dr. Meera Hira-Smith, Founder and Executive Director of Project Well says, “We use PWX AnalytiX to track our projects and impact. Project Verification is a great new tool that lets us track how many times projects have been visited and the status of the project over time." The image shows how one of her projects has been visited regularly, including one by a visitor. The project report page now highlights the verification summary while providing easy access to the reports from each visit (or lack thereof).

Even the PWX map now reveals verification status. The bubble that pops up when a project drop is clicked shows the verification data. The image below shows a part of the area covered by Project Well who is brave enough to show projects that have not worked (red drop) and some that are partially working (half-red half-blue drop).



Kristen Kosinski, Executive Director of The Samburu Project, who also uses PWX to manage all her water projects, says "PWX AnalytiX helps me make assignments to staff about which projects to visit. I encourage them to just stop by a existing project and report on it as they travel to new projects sites to do their regular work."

As members use PWX to manage their projects and our mindset shifts to celebrate failures and support rehabilitation, Rajesh Shah hopes to see a dramatic improvement in tracking sustainability of projects, "While helping the funder assess their investment, PWX's real goal is to help the implementer track their projects and figure out where to put resources to measure and improve project sustainability. When implementers get the information they need, then we can make adjustments to make the huge global impact we wish to create."



PWX AnalytiX is made possible by the generous support of the Cisco Foundation to Blue Planet Network.