DEXIS International – USAID/Jordan – 2023
Awar Water Executive Director, Dr. Faraj El Awar, was contracted by DEXIS International Consultants as water sector reform expert of the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Verification Team tasked with measuring and verifying the progress of water and public sector reform by the Government of Jordan (GOJ) against benchmarks for specific indicators. Dr. El Awar led the assessment and verification of Government of Jordan’s fulfilment of the benchmark targets of non-revenue water (NRW) reduction and water tariff reform.
Project Scope of Work:
As a member of the third-party assessment team contracted by DEXIS, Dr. El Awar assessed the progress of GOJ in the implementation of reforms in the water sector and in meeting set benchmarks and targets. Specifically, Dr. El Awar assignment included:
- Contributing to the development and design of the verification methodology including stakeholder identification, data collection, analysis and verification, and reporting
- Contributing to the coordination process with USAID implementing partners and other stakeholders supporting the GOJ in achieving the water sector reform benchmarks
- Supporting the consultation sessions with relevant USAID/Jordan staff, in addition to consultations with other relevant stakeholders implementing the reform activities; and supporting with the team briefings and presentations
- Collecting, reviewing, and analyzing all background documentation related to the achievement of the water sector reform benchmarks
- Collecting, analyzing, and verifying relevant data on water sector reform benchmarks, such as non-revenue water (NRW) calculations and measurements and recovery of operation and maintenance costs
- Contributing to verification team reporting on the verification process, including inception, progress, and final reports; and contributing to the final analysis of the verification team and reporting on the achievement of the water sector reform benchmarks
Project Results:
Together with the rest of the verification team, Dr. El Awar assessed and verified the progress of the Government of Jordan’s implementation of the planned reforms in the water sector by following the triangulation verification process to maintain high levels of precision and clarity, as well as a shared understanding by all relevant stakeholders. Dr. El Awar collected and reviewed relevant documents, coordinated with USAID implementing partners, and conducted numerous interviews with various GOJ stakeholders concerning the achievement of the water sector benchmarks. Upon completion of the data collection and verification activities, Dr. El Awar concluded that the Government of Jordan has fulfilled all benchmarks of water sector reform.
Dr. El Awar, together with other members of the verification team, tapped on multiple sources of data, including in-depth key informant interviews (KIIs), focus groups, field observations, and an extensive desk review of relevant background documents. This allowed for the verification of the findings through the triangulation approach, which is a standard approach typically used within assessment processes to establish validity of conclusions. This triangulation approach consists of:
- Methodological triangulation: document review, KII and focus group analysis, and field observations.
- Data source triangulation: The team collected data through its own primary and secondary sources, including KIIs and other relevant sources to yield comprehensive and representative data sources.
- Investigator triangulation: The team had three core members with complementary experiences and skill sets, allowing for different perspectives on data analysis.