In RAWDP monitoring is relevant not only to progress in the field, but also to managerial, administrative and financial processes within the organization as the project implementer. 

We achieve it by establishing a monitoring system that both collects relevant information on progress and communicates it to relevant parties. Evaluation enables us to compare actual project outcomes with those intended, and from this draws lessons to guide future projects or subsequent phases of the same project. Evaluation in RAWDP was used to guide strategy; measure performance; correct errors; and verify cost benefit analysis.                                                                      

To make the assessment effective we used suitable methods to investigate the existing situation within the communities.

Baseline information enables us to:

• Prioritize communities, or identifying target audiences within a particular community, for the promotion of our programs.
• Providing the baseline for planning and measuring the success of the intervention.  We need to know the proportion of people using each risky practice before our program starts, so at a later stage we can measure this again to see if there has been a reduction.
• Identifying the issues to be addressed, and the resources available or required for resolving them.
• Understanding the WATSAN situation of a community and the issues surrounding those practices.

Participatory Methods

In doing this, we used a coterie of participatory tools that were part of one methodology, The Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST). As defined in the original publication on PHAST (WHO, 1996:1): ‘’PHAST builds on people’s innate ability to address and resolve their problems. It aims to empower communities to manage their water and control sanitation- related diseases, and it does so by promoting health awareness and understanding which, in turn, lead to environmental and behavioral improvements’’.

RAWDP adopted PHAST as a work approach since 2006. In doing this, we use a series of methods and materials to stimulate community participation in our activities/development process. On hand to assist us achieve these are our trained team members, community volunteers and vital tool kits. Such tool kits are modified and adapted to suit local preferences and characteristics of each of our project communities.

These tools included exploratory walk, Structured and unstructured observations, Key informant interviewing, Community mapping, three pile sorting, Pocket chart voting and Focus Group Discussion. Other included Community drama, Puppet shows games, stories, songs and dances, Group discussions, One-to-one discussions and home visits, Posters, Slides, film or video/audio visual presentations, Radio and Television broadcasts, Social Marketing, and School sanitation and Hygiene Education etc.