Assessments

• An assessment of WASH priority risks and needs should be undertaken before any humanitarian intervention using a systematic assessment process.
• In an emergency, a rapid assessment will provide information as to whether to intervene and if so, the type and scale of activities and priorities for resource allocation. Balance the need for detailed assessment with the humanitarian imperative of saving lives. Often Oxfam will need to start WASH activities immediately, based on rapid assessment results that can be substantiated later. 
• For acute emergencies WASH staff should carry out an initial rapid assessment and develop a basic concept note within 72 hours.

Health Data

WASH staff should access and interpret data on key disease trends, whether collected directly from affected communities, through co-ordination activities and/or from medical professionals. This epidemiological data should be used to guide WASH activities.

WASH programmes cannot be planned or monitored without a clear understanding of the health of the affected community.

Oxfam WASH programmes should use the following sources to gather and analyse health data: 

• Community-level monitoring – collection of data on health trends during regular programme monitoring is straightforward and can be done through focus group discussions, household surveys etc. 
• Clinics – WASH staff should establish contacts with local Ministry of Health (MoH) and/or NGO staff working in local clinics (including mobile clinics, cholera treatment centres etc.) to facilitate sharing of health data.
• National health data – official health data is usually available on a weekly basis from the MoH/WHO/Health Cluster and can be useful for monitoring general trends and for citing in donor reports or proposals. Note that this data can be unreliable, or issued at too large a geographic scale for useful analysis.
• Co-ordination activities – basic updates on health trends can be obtained through WASH Cluster meetings and other general humanitarian co-ordination (e.g. OCHA meetings, sitreps).

Health data should be disaggregated by sex and age, and collected at a sufficiently detailed geographic scale to allow for analysis within Oxfam WASH programmes.