Review of Plan’s Water and Sanitation Program

This report by the Water, Engineer, and Development Centre of the University of Loughborough reviews Plan’s water and sanitation programs.

Despite being limited in scope: it was a desk study completed in four weeks based on a small selection of our program policy documents (both general documents as those more specific on water and sanitation), 12 evaluation reports on water and sanitation programs mostly conducted between 2002-2004, and interviews with a selection of staff, the report does highlight some areas requiring attention and provides recommendations for improving our program effectiveness and impact.

The consultants recommend that if Plan is to maintain its commitment to water and sanitation programs, we should further develop our program policies to increase specialised technical support in the different components of the program, review our technical staff reporting lines, improve our institutional learning, and above all choose between increasing financial resources for the program or focusing on fewer activities.

Plan welcomes the report whilst acknowledging its limited scope. Plan remains committed to our water and sanitation programs. As a responsible humanitarian organisation Plan also accepts that there are some areas for improvement. Our recent transformation that began in July 2005 has already started to address many of these areas, but there remains still more to do.

Hence, in response to the report, and in addition to the steps already taken, Plan has started a number of activities to further broaden our understanding of the state of our water and sanitation programming and improve our effectiveness, including:

• Review and discuss the findings with our regional technical advisors
• Review more recent water and sanitation program evaluation reports
• Gather latrine costs in 34 countries
• Gather more detailed information on current water and sanitation programs in 9 countries

Our commitment to water and sanitation remains resolute. It is, and will remain, one of our core programmes alongside basic health and basic education. We take all criticism and advice as opportunities to learn, grow, and provide an even greater impact on the lives of children. Plan has already devised an action plan to tackle the issues raised in the report and improve the impact of our water and sanitation programs and will strive to provide better opportunities and choice for millions of children.

Read the report (PDF, 104kb)

Read Plan's response (PDF, 153kb)

Read Plan's action plan (PDF, 141kb)