Water and Development Indicator Handbook

New version coming soon.

The Water and Development Indicator Handbook presents the set of performance monitoring indicators used to measure progress against the United States (U.S.) Government Global Water Strategy and United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Water and Development Plan. 

This handbook includes all current standard performance indicators. The handbook also provides guidance on how to measure specific indicators for a variety of programming types, including when results can be plausibly attributed to USAID activities. The indicators and monitoring guidance in this handbook provide a basis for demonstrating how activities can be linked to the achievement of water and sanitation objectives.   

This handbook is intended to be used by USAID staff and implementing partners involved in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming in order to ensure correct use of USAID’s standard indicators. 

November 2021 Updates

The updated handbook reflects the following changes to the indicators:

• HL.8.6-1 (Percentage of households in target areas practicing correct use of recommended household water treatment technologies) was removed as a standard indicator.
• The definitions of HL.8.3-3 (Number of  water and sanitation sector institutions strengthened to manage water resources or improve water supply and sanitation services as a result of USG assistance) and HL.8.4-1 (Value of new funding mobilized to the water and sanitation sectors as a result of USG assistance) were updated for clarity. 

Additional details on updates are available in the FAQ section of the handbook.

Related Resources

WASH Indicator Reference Sheet