title: Indicators for Monitoring Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: A Systematic Review of Indicator Selection Methods.
abstract: Monitoring water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) is important to track progress, improve accountability, and demonstrate impacts of efforts to improve conditions and services, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Indicator selection methods enable robust monitoring of WaSH projects and conditions. However, selection methods are not always used and there are no commonly-used methods for selecting WaSH indicators. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of indicator selection methods used in WaSH-related fields. We present a summary of indicator selection methods for environment, international development, and water. We identified six methodological stages for selecting indicators for WaSH: define the purpose and scope; select a conceptual framework; search for candidate indicators; determine selection criteria; score indicators against criteria; and select a final suite of indicators. This summary of indicator selection methods provides a foundation for the critical assessment of existing methods. It can be used to inform future efforts to construct indicator sets in WaSH and related fields.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. schwstef@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schwemlein
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. rcronk@live.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cronk
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. jbartram@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bartram
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006920:Hygiene / Q000592:standards*; D012499:Sanitation / Q000592:standards*; D060753:Water Quality / Q000592:standards*; D014881:Water Supply / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Sustainable Development Goals; WaSH; criteria; method; monitoring and evaluation; water