to provide feedback and inform improvements to our overall process and delivery
model. EWB-USA provides planning tools, best practice guidance, and resources to
aid in planning. We measure more than the project functionality. Our framework
assesses quality-of-life changes from the perspectives of both successful projects and
failures.
The EWB-USA PMEL framework was recently updated to align our standard
project indicators with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) defined in the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (United Nations
2015). The project indicators are assigned by project category. This shift allows us to
report uniformly on the level of impact we are having across the organization and
also provides reliable evidence for the contribution our efforts make toward both our
mission and the global goals expressed in the SDGs.
EWB-USA strives to learn from past mistakes, big and small, to constantly
improve our efficiency and effectiveness in delivering community-driven projects.
Each project team is asked to contribute to this effort by writing helpful lessons
learned, both technical and nontechnical, for future teams to utilize. In addition, it
provides insight to improve our project process and identify gaps.
4.2 Methodology
EWB-USA tracks projects on three high-level metrics, each with specific indicators.
These performance and quality indicators look broadly at the project design and
determine if the project is meeting the relevant local and global standards, as well as
best practices for quality.
1. Functionality. These indicators will document that the project functions as
designed.
2. Maintenance. These indicators will document that the project is being maintained
in a way to foster a sustainable improvement into the future.
3. Community Capacity. These indicators will document that the community can
sustain the project into the future without outside assistance and that the community members have the knowledge, financial capacity, and interest to keep the
system operational. As of this writing, there are a total of 37 active latrine
projects, from which this research is drawn.
Table 2.1. summarizes the five sanitation project categories that EWB-USA
delivers and the number of active (not closed) projects in each category.
Baseline data are documented during the initial assessment. Monitoring on all
indicators is done on every trip into the community throughout the entire project
process. A final evaluation trip is conducted at least 1 year after implementation has
been completed. These data are reported within a database platform and are used to
provide transparency to our work, share lessons learned through our membership
and staff, and provide regular reporting on our organizational impact and overall
contributions to the SDGs.
50
J. Knight et al.
model. EWB-USA provides planning tools, best practice guidance, and resources to
aid in planning. We measure more than the project functionality. Our framework
assesses quality-of-life changes from the perspectives of both successful projects and
failures.
The EWB-USA PMEL framework was recently updated to align our standard
project indicators with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) defined in the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (United Nations
2015). The project indicators are assigned by project category. This shift allows us to
report uniformly on the level of impact we are having across the organization and
also provides reliable evidence for the contribution our efforts make toward both our
mission and the global goals expressed in the SDGs.
EWB-USA strives to learn from past mistakes, big and small, to constantly
improve our efficiency and effectiveness in delivering community-driven projects.
Each project team is asked to contribute to this effort by writing helpful lessons
learned, both technical and nontechnical, for future teams to utilize. In addition, it
provides insight to improve our project process and identify gaps.
4.2 Methodology
EWB-USA tracks projects on three high-level metrics, each with specific indicators.
These performance and quality indicators look broadly at the project design and
determine if the project is meeting the relevant local and global standards, as well as
best practices for quality.
1. Functionality. These indicators will document that the project functions as
designed.
2. Maintenance. These indicators will document that the project is being maintained
in a way to foster a sustainable improvement into the future.
3. Community Capacity. These indicators will document that the community can
sustain the project into the future without outside assistance and that the community members have the knowledge, financial capacity, and interest to keep the
system operational. As of this writing, there are a total of 37 active latrine
projects, from which this research is drawn.
Table 2.1. summarizes the five sanitation project categories that EWB-USA
delivers and the number of active (not closed) projects in each category.
Baseline data are documented during the initial assessment. Monitoring on all
indicators is done on every trip into the community throughout the entire project
process. A final evaluation trip is conducted at least 1 year after implementation has
been completed. These data are reported within a database platform and are used to
provide transparency to our work, share lessons learned through our membership
and staff, and provide regular reporting on our organizational impact and overall
contributions to the SDGs.
50
J. Knight et al.