International monitoring of drinking water and sanitation has been jointly carried out by WHO and UNICEF through their Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). With the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era in 2015, the JMP has proposed a post-2015 framework for integrated monitoring of water and sanitation targets included in the Sustainable Development Goal no. 6. This article discusses how each element of the proposed sanitation target and corresponding indicators can be understood from a human rights perspective. Building on the MDGs, and although some of the weaknesses and gaps persist, the discussion suggests that the post-2015 proposal is a step forward towards a monitoring framework where human rights elements related to sanitation are effectively promoted. In addition, to support the interpretation and implementation of the normative content of human rights obligations related to sanitation, the study proposes a reduced set of easy-to-assess indicators to measure the normative criteria of this right, which are then grouped in a multidimensional framework to describe increasing levels of sanitation service. To do this, the study combines literature review and specific local experience from three case studies. It is shown that the proposed monitoring tools, namely the indicators and the multidimensional indicator framework, provide guidance on monitoring the human right to sanitation. In doing so, they might ultimately help sector stakeholders in the realization of this right.

Measuring access to water in a post-2015 era involves taking into account the human rights framework. Therefore, its content should be considered to conceptualize the level of service through adequate indicators and to follow-up inequities reduction at global, national and local level. This research develops and tests a methodology to measure intra-community disparities based on human right to water normative criteria through a stratified sampling, splitting households served by community based organizations and those selfprovided. This approach implies considering much reduced populations, thus special care needs to be taken with sample sizes and uncertainty of estimators. The proposed methodology is practical to locate and accurately characterize minority sectors within rural communities and allows moving beyond centraltendency estimators. It implies higher costs for field data collection than traditional approaches, but nevertheless, the over-investment can be assumed economically feasible and extremely relevant from a human rights perspective taking into account the imperative need to have adequate tools for equity-oriented policy making at local level. The research point out how results might be used to shape decision-making processes.

Today, a vast proportion of people still lack a simple pit latrine and a source of safe drinking water. To help end this appalling state of affairs, there is a pressing need to provide policymakers with evidences in which base effective planning, targeting and prioritization. Two major challenges often hinder this process: i) lack of reliable data to identify which areas are most in need; and ii) inadequate instruments for decision-making support.In tackling previous shortcomings, this paper proposes a monitoring framework to compile, analyse, interpret and disseminate water, sanitation and hygiene information. In an era of decentralization, where decision-making moves to local governments, we apply such framework at the local level. The ultimate goal is to develop appropriate tools for decentralized planning support. To this end, the study first implements a methodology for primary data collection, which combines the household and the waterpoint as information sources. In doing so, we provide a complete picture of the context in which domestic WASH services are delivered. Second, the collected data are analysed to underline the emerging development challenges. The use of simple planning indicators serves as the basis to i) reveal which areas require policy attention, and to ii) identify the neediest. Third, a classification process is proposed to prioritize among various populations. Three different case studies from East and Southern African countries are presented. Results indicate that accurate and comprehensive data, if adequately exploited through simple instruments, may be the basis of effective targeting and prioritization, which are central to sector planning. The application of the proposed framework in the real world, however, is to a certain extent elusive; and we point out to conclude two specific challenges that remain unaddressed, namely the upgrade of existing decisionmaking processes to enhance transparency and inclusiveness, and the development of data updating mechanisms.

The provision of water supply, sanitation and hygiene services has emerged as a top priority in the development agenda in Latin American and the Caribbean. In light of the investments envisaged to reach the targets set by the sustainable development goals, information systems will play a key role in improving decision-making. In this context, this article introduces a country-led and global IS, which has been increasingly implemented in numerous countries across Latin America and the Caribbean as a policy instrument to support national and local decision-making: the Rural Water and Sanitation Information System (SIASAR). SIASAR includes a comprehensive framework for data collection, analysis and dissemination that simultaneously fulfils different stakeholder needs. This article analyses these three key monitoring issues from the viewpoint of stakeholder involvement. Our results indicate that SIASAR represents a suitable monitoring framework to analyse sustainable services and the level of service delivered. Additionally, we highlighted some of the advantages of adopting a continued participatory approach in system development, including: (i) the stimulation of experience exchange and knowledge sharing between recipient countries; (ii) the promotion of learning-by-doing; and (iii) an increase of regional understanding, collaboration and comparisons.