TrackFin: Tracking financing to sanitation, hygiene and drinking-water

Effective financing for drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is essential to deliver and sustain services. The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) results indicate that there are substantial gaps in our understanding and tracking of financing to the WASH sector. Financial reporting is often insufficient to make sound and evidence-based planning and budgeting decisions.

To help address the issue, WHO is leading the TrackFin initiative under the UN-Water GLAAS project. Its objectives are to define and test a globally accepted methodology to track financing to WASH at national level. This methodology enables countries to track financing to the sector based on standard classifications and develop a set of WASH-Accounts and indicators presented in a comparable format to help answer four basic questions:

• What is the total expenditure in the WASH sector?
• How are funds distributed between different WASH services and types of expenditure?
• Who pays for WASH services and how much do they pay?
• Which entities are the main funding channels for the WASH sector?

TrackFin has been initiated in 15 countries with the support of a number of development partners, and countries around the world continue to show interest. As more countries and development partners continue to show interest in and implement TrackFin, the evidence base for WASH financing decisions will continue to grow.

For more information about TrackFin or if you would like to implement TrackFin in your country, please visit the Trackfin website.