When evidence sparks action

Published on: 31/03/2026

For years, Liberia's water, sanitation and hygiene sector has operated with a common challenge: fragmented data, scattered responsibilities, and limited visibility across institutions. Everyone knew it. Yet this reality had not been collectively acknowledged, nor addressed in a structured way. That changed with Liberia's first Sector-Wide Sustainability Check (SWSC).

This article reflects on the process and outcomes of the SWSC, based on an interview with two consultants who guided the process: Johnson T. Hinneh, Lecturer/Executive Director at HIRE Consultant, Liberia and Nicolas Dickinson, Independent researcher and consultant to WASHNote, IRC, and JMP.

Background: a sector with ambition, but fragmented foundations

Liberia's WASH sector operates in a complex institutional and data environment. Despite progress in access, particularly for drinking water, major challenges persist in sanitation, service quality, and long-term sustainability, especially in rural areas. According to the latest WHO/UNICEF JMP data, around 75% of Liberians have access to at least basic drinking water, but only about 17–18% have basic sanitation, fewer than 5% have basic hygiene facilities, safely managed services are rare, and roughly 38–40% of the population still practices open defecation, underscoring a starkly uneven WASH situation. These numbers highlight significant challenges with delivering sustainable services.

Multiple institutions, including the National WASH Commission, line ministries, utilities, and the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) play key roles in data collection and service delivery. Yet coordination and data management have remained highly fragmented, with parallel systems and limited harmonisation.

As reflected by Johnson T. Hinneh "We've been struggling with fragmentation for years but never reached a point where everyone acknowledged it."

In this context of fragmented systems and limited visibility, the Government of Liberia, with support from UNICEF and IRC, initiated a light Sector-Wide Sustainability Check (SWSC) to consolidate knowledge, identify gaps, and provide a practical basis for action.

What is a light SWSC, and why is that adaptation helpful?

A Sector-Wide Sustainability Check (SWSC) asks a simple question: Are WASH systems delivering services that last?

In Liberia, applying the full methodology, highly comprehensive and data-intensive, was not realistic. Instead, the process was adapted into a "light" version, designed to be usable within existing constraints. Rather than starting from a predefined framework, the process began with questions raised by sector actors themselves, grounding the analysis in real priorities.

"We start with the questions that are pertinent in the country..."

The methodology was also simplified, reducing the number of indicators from more than 300 to 140 and focusing on available data sources and identifying gaps.

This meant working with imperfect information, but it also made the process more practical, inclusive, and actionable. Rather than aiming for completeness, the light SWSC enabled the sector to start from its realities and build from there.

As Nicolas Dickinson explained, this work shows how learning from earlier sustainability checks could be distilled into a genuinely workable, lightweight process for Liberia, while still producing meaningful outcomes.

What the SWSC found and changed...

When the available evidence was brought together, three issues became impossible to ignore.

• Fragmented data systems, fragmented understanding: WASH data are collected through multiple systems using different methodologies, resulting in inconsistencies, parallel reporting, and limited comparability. More critically, key dimensions of sustainability, such as functionality and durability, are not routinely captured, while much of the available data is outdated.
• A persistent financing blind spot: The analysis confirmed that WASH financing remains highly donor-dependent, fragmented, and poorly documented. Financial data is rarely accessible or consolidated, limiting the sector's ability to assess sustainability and investment gaps.
• Climate resilience: A growing but under-documented risk: Although climate risks are widely recognised, there is little systematic data on infrastructure resilience. Design standards and adaptation measures are inconsistently applied and rarely monitored.

These findings were not new, but their scale, interconnection, and implications became apparent.

A validation workshop brought together stakeholders from across government, development partners, and civil society, and created a space to collectively review and validate the findings. Participants confirmed that the findings reflected the sector's reality: fragmented, project-driven data systems that fall short of supporting long-term sustainability planning. For many, this moment was long overdue.

Stakeholders moved from fragmented perspectives to collective alignment: agreeing to prioritise and harmonise indicators, clarify mutual responsibilities, and outline next steps towards a coordinated response. Climate-related indicators are now explicitly recognised as necessary for future planning, for example.

The National WASH Commission and Technical Working Group – which includes the national statistical authority, LISGIS - began discussing how the new indicators could be embedded into regular sector monitoring frameworks. If this happens, it means that the SWSC directly led to institutionalisation of more regular and rigorous monitoring processes in the sector. This also opens an opportunity to clarify and strengthen LISGIS' role - aligned with its national statistics mandate - in integrating agreed WASH indicators into surveys and routine data systems, helping to reduce fragmentation and improve the quality and credibility of sector data over time.

What comes next, and what others can learn

The next phase in Liberia will focus on translating the findings into a practical response plan, grounded in existing systems, institutions, and available resources. This plan, in addition to outlining recommendations, should also generate commitment and encourage institutions to carry out specific actions that can be tracked over time. In fact, this is critical as it creates a basis for accountability and sustained action across the sector.

Liberia's experience also offers broader lessons.

First, recognition precedes reform. When actors collectively acknowledge fragmentation in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, it creates the foundation for meaningful reform. Second, progress depends on building on what exists; institutions, mandates, and resources already in place, rather than designing ideal systems from scratch.

The real test now lies ahead: turning alignment into sustained and coordinated action.

What would it take in other countries to move from fragmented knowledge to collective commitment?

Editor's notes: Technical assistance for this work was facilitated via the UNICEF-IRC Partnership Supporting Sector Wide Sustainability Checks - funded by the UNICEF-EU Action Beyond pipes and toilets: promoting the human rights to water and sanitation. All partners involved in this work express gratitude to the European Union for supporting this valuable work.