Oxfam defines an accountable humanitarian programme as one in which the people affected by it are the most influential decision-makers throughout the lifetime of the project and the most important judges of its impact. 

To ensure accountability in WASH activities in all humanitarian responses (including first-phase emergency relief), WASH staff should put in place mechanisms for:

• Community participation: Ensure that affected communities are enabled and supported to participate as much as possible.
• Information sharing: Share information with the affected communities about what services can be provided by whom, how and when. If there are delays in procurement or delivery tell the community. 
• Feedback: Have a range of simple and appropriate feedback and complaints mechanisms in place. WASH staff should respond to feedback in a systematic manner.
• Positive staff attitudes and behaviour: Encourage staff to be open and transparent and to analyse the situation from the point of view of the affected community. Treat community members as partners and not as helpless victims.

Accountability mechanisms should be integrated with other programme teams; there is no need to duplicate structures/methods, particularly when working in the same communities.

Monitoring is the systematic and continuous process of collecting and using information throughout the programme cycle for the purpose of management and decision-making. WASH programmes should include:

• Process monitoring that looks at how the project is being developed.
• Impact monitoring that looks at whether the project is having the intended impact.

WASH teams (PHE and PHP) should work together in Monitoring and Evaluation activities. A joint M&E monitoring plan should detail:

• Who is responsible for different parts of the monitoring process,
• The tools and techniques to be used (quantitative and qualitative), including monitoring forms.
• How affected communities can be involved in monitoring activities.
• What methods will be used for analysis of the monitoring data,
• How data will be used (fed back into programme activities, shared with partners/donors/beneficiaries etc.).
• A timeframe for different monitoring activities.

WASH programmes should plan and budget for a WASH Learning Review towards the end of the programme, involving programme and support staff, which considers what the programme did well, what could have been improved and how we could do things differently.