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Evaluating WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) programmes traditionally involves measuring tangible outputs - such as infrastructure delivered - alongside service-level outcomes and long-term health impacts. However, system strengthening programmes pursue a different kind of change: they aim to shift institutional roles, behaviours, and coordination mechanisms across the WASH system. As a result, they require a different evaluative lens - one that can capture complex, systemic transformations over time.
This paper presents the insights from the evaluation of Welthungerhilfe’s Global WASH Programme (GWP2), which applied a systems strengthening approach across four countries.
The GWP evaluation combined process and effect evaluation using longitudinal, largely qualitative methods such as outcome harvesting and building block assessments. It reinterpreted OECD-DAC criteria - especially relevance, coherence, and impact - through a systems lens, focusing on contribution rather than attribution. A clear results chain was essential to track intermediate outcomes. The brief recommends that WASH systems programmes be evaluated based on their influence on structural, behavioural, and normative change - supported by embedded learning, adaptive management, and multi-stakeholder validation.