SNV Burkina Faso developed a participative tool for monitoring sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in 5 of its communes.

The system is currently being improved with the use of mobile phones, through a partnership between Akvo and SNV.

The software that SNV uses for data collection on rural water systems in Burkina Faso is called Akvo FLOW (Field Level Operational Watch), a mobile online service that uses Android smartphones as field monitoring tools.  Akvo FLOW is particularly meant for use in remote and diverse locations, and seeks to improve upon traditional data collection methods, which can be cumbersome and time consuming in developing contexts.  Having this more accurate data can help monitor and evaluate the functionality of rural water supplies, inform decision makers on more sustainable investments, and make it faster and easier to share the results.

This enables the communes to plan and make better decision in the sector so as to improve their delivery as clients and contracting authorities.