On June 27, 2018, the USAID Water Communications and Knowledge Management (CKM) Project, implemented by ECODIT, and USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment’s (E3) Water Office hosted a webinar entitled “Sustaining Urban Water Utility Services: A Look Back at USAID’s Indonesia Environmental Services Program (ESP) Activity.” 

The webinar featured a presentation by Leslie Green Hodel, Senior Technical Specialist at Social Impact and Senior Advisor for the Water CKM Project, on findings from an ex-post evaluation of ESP, implemented from 2004 to 2010. ESP partnered with the Government of Indonesia, NGOs, the private sector, and other stakeholders to increase access to clean water and strengthen the responsible management of water resources in Indonesia. The ESP evaluation is the second in a series of six independent evaluations of closed USAID-funded water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activities, conducted by the Water CKM Project. The series of evaluations will help inform future development programming, sustainable project design, and implementation.

The webinar discussed the evaluation’s findings regarding the sustainability of the water utility capacity building, microcredit, and financial stability initiatives supported by ESP in eight former intervention areas. The evaluation used a mixed-methods design, integrating qualitative interviews and quantitative data collection and analysis to assess which interventions were maintained since 2010.  Seven years after the close of ESP, findings show water utility access progressed in most areas, however, financial and microcredit outcomes were generally mixed. The findings also reveal that financing local water utilities remains a challenge. 

Webinar attendees, who consisted of USAID staff and other water and development practitioners, found the evaluation and associated webinar helpful for informing and boosting the sustainability of future programming. "The completed webinar marked an end to a very good process of ex-post ESP evaluation,” said USAID/Indonesia Senior WASH Program Specialist Trigeany Linggoatmodjo. “USAID/Indonesia is learning from ESP to design and implement follow-on WASH projects in urban areas in Indonesia. We are hopeful that the results from this evaluation will be useful for colleagues at USAID and other development partners to design and implement more sustainable WASH activities.”

ECODIT has implemented the USAID Water CKM Project since 2015. The five-year project supports USAID’s E3 Water Office to enhance data collection and information sharing on water-related programs. The project works to increase awareness of USAID water programs and strengthen research and analysis to improve development interventions and outcomes. (Photo Credit: USAID ESP Project)