Sector Results and Learning:

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

This Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Sector Results and Learning page is a repository of evidence generated by all MCC-funded WASH interventions. To promote learning and inform future program design, this page captures monitoring data from key common indicators, showcases recent and relevant evaluations, includes all agency lessons from completed WASH evaluations to-date, and links to learning that has been aggregated across completed evaluations in the sector.

What Do We Invest In?

MCC has funded $1.3 billion in WASH interventions as of September 2024. These interventions fall into the following categories: water infrastructure; sanitation and/or wastewater infrastructure; hygiene and other training; and drainage infrastructure; and are often complemented by investments in policy and institutional reform.

  • Drainage Infrastructure

    These programs address excessive economic loss caused by flooding by building water drainage infrastructure.

  • Hygiene & Other Training

    These programs complement infrastructure investments and aim to improve hygiene and sanitary practices around water collection, storage, and use and the safe disposal of waste.

  • Sanitation and/or Wastewater Infrastructure

    These programs address inadequate access to sanitation by investing in sanitation and/or wastewater infrastructure and supporting water utility strengthening.

  • Water Infrastructure

    These programs address inadequacies in water supply, quality, or access by investing in water, sanitation, or wastewater infrastructure, and supporting utility strengthening.

What Have We Completed So Far?

MCC and its country partners develop and tailor Monitoring and Evaluation Plans for each program and country context. Within these country-specific plans, MCC uses common indicators to standardize measurement and reporting within certain sectors. See below for a subset of common indicators that summarize implementation achievements across all MCC WASH investments as of September 2024.

  • 73,116

    individuals trained in social and behavior change 

  • 32,831

    sanitation facilities constructed

  • 1,661

    kilometers of water pipelines constructed or replaced

  • 220

    millions of liters per day of water production capacity added

What Have We Achieved?

MCC commissions independent evaluations, conducted by third-party evaluators, for every project it funds. These evaluations hold MCC and country partners accountable for the achievement of intended results and also produce evidence and learning to inform future programming. They investigate the quality of project implementation, the achievement of the project objective and other targeted outcomes, and the cost-effectiveness of the project. The graphs below summarize the composition and status of MCC’s independent evaluations in the WASH sector as of November 2024. Read on to see highlights of published interim and final evaluations. Follow the evaluation links to see the status of all planned, ongoing, and completed evaluations in the sector and to access the reports, summaries, survey materials, and data sets.

Created with Highcharts 11.2.0Evaluations by Type6 (38%)​6 (38%)10 (63%)​10 (63%)PerformanceImpact
Created with Highcharts 11.2.0No. of EvaluationsEvaluations by Status1​11​11​115​15PlanningDesignFinalCompleted05101520
Created with Highcharts 11.2.0No. of ReportsInterim Reports - Expected and Actual Publication Date1​11​11​11​11​11​11​1PerformanceImpact2014201820192020202120220123
Created with Highcharts 11.2.0No. of ReportsFinal Reports - Expected and Actual Publication Date4​42​21​11​12​21​11​13​32​2PerformanceImpact201420172018201920202023202902468

Highlighted Evaluations

What Have We Learned from Our Results?

To link the evidence from the independent evaluations with MCC practice, project staff produce an MCC Learning document at the close of each interim and final evaluation to capture practical lessons for programming and evaluation. Use the filters below to find lessons relevant to your evidence needs.

    • Sierra Leone Threshold Program
    • Water Sector Reform

    Carefully consider the implementation and business model for kiosk activities to be successful.

    Carefully consider the implementation and business model for kiosk activities to be successful. The District Metering Area (DMA) and Kiosks demonstration included the construction of 10 kiosks with storage tanks. The endline evaluation concluded that overall,… read more

    • Sierra Leone Threshold Program
    • Water Sector Reform

    District metering areas establishment should be kept as simple as possible in developing country contexts while being cognizant of the local capacity to implement and sustain these areas.

    District metering areas establishment should be kept as simple as possible in developing country contexts while being cognizant of the local capacity to implement and sustain these areas. District metering areas (DMAs) are a tool to divide the water supply… read more

    • Sierra Leone Threshold Program
    • Water Sector Reform

    Encourage local stakeholder leadership and buy-in to increase sustainability of policy and institutional efforts.

    Encourage local stakeholder leadership and buy-in to increase sustainability of policy and institutional efforts. The Water Sector Reform Project established a sector steering committee as part of its efforts to improve sector coordination and planning. At… read more

    • Sierra Leone Threshold Program
    • Water Sector Reform

    Focus evaluations on systems level results when there is strong evidence to suggest that household level results will not be realized.

    Focus evaluations on systems level results when there is strong evidence to suggest that household level results will not be realized. This evaluation was scoped at the outset to include an interim and an endline evaluation both with a household survey for the… read more

    • Sierra Leone Threshold Program
    • Water Sector Reform

    Threshold programs should consider the likelihood for success when incorporating infrastructure investments that are inextricably linked to larger constraints not addressed in the program.

    Threshold programs should consider the likelihood for success when incorporating infrastructure investments that are inextricably linked to larger constraints not addressed in the program. Threshold programs are much smaller in scope and funding than MCC’s… read more

    • Zambia Compact
    • Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage

    Carefully consider the implications of different acquisition approaches for project evaluations.

    Carefully consider the implications of different acquisition approaches for project evaluations. The original evaluator selected to implement an impact evaluation of the Lusaka Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage (LWSSD) project was engaged via an… read more

    • Zambia Compact
    • Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage

    In future water projects, MCC should ensure an adequate understanding of water quality and its determinants.

    In future water projects, MCC should ensure an adequate understanding of water quality and its determinants. MCC designed the Lusaka Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage project under the assumption that water quality in the existing network met… read more

    • Zambia Compact
    • Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage

    Limit the number of evaluation questions to provide focus to the evaluation.

    Limit the number of evaluation questions to provide focus to the evaluation. The final evaluation design included a total of 14 evaluation questions, each with multiple pieces. Moreover, some evaluation questions were high-level while others centered around a… read more

    • Zambia Compact
    • Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage

    MCC should adopt a “reform first” approach in working with utilities.

    MCC should adopt a “reform first” approach in working with utilities. As is the case for many MCC projects, the Lusaka Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage Project's major infrastructure investments took priority over policy and institutional reform (… read more

    • Zambia Compact
    • Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage

    Validate critical assumptions underlying cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) and project logics during compact development.

    Validate critical assumptions underlying cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) and project logics during compact development. Many critical assumptions underlying the CBA and project logic ultimately did not hold, many of which could have been improved with more onsite… read more

    • Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

    Allow flexibility where possible in contracting method for infrastructure works.

    Allow flexibility where possible in contracting method for infrastructure works. The interim evaluation observed that for this compact, “design and build” was a more effective approach than “design-bid-build” for contracting the infrastructure works. The first… read more

    • Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

    Building on existing reform efforts and coordinating efforts with other donors can improve impact and sustainability of policy and institutional reform.

    Building on existing reform efforts and coordinating efforts with other donors can improve impact and sustainability of policy and institutional reform. It is challenging to fully implement complex sector reform activities from beginning to end within the five-… read more

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How Have We Aggregated Learning Across the Sector?

MCC has developed a Principles into Practice paper using evidence from completed independent evaluations in the WASH sector – Principles into Practice: Lessons from Evaluations of MCC Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Programs. The Principles into Practice series offers a frank look at what it takes to make the principles MCC considers essential for development operational in the projects in which MCC invests. The learning captured in this paper informs MCC’s ongoing efforts to refine and strengthen its own model and development practice in the WASH sector. MCC hopes this paper will also allow others to benefit from, and build upon, MCC’s lessons.