Strengthening Tanzania’s sanitation and hygiene data system

As part of the global Programme Cooperation Agreement between Akvo and UNICEF, a strategic initiative was launched in Tanzania to strengthen the National Sanitation MIS (NSMIS), established in 2017 as the central repository for sanitation and hygiene data. Working with the Ministry of Health (MoH), the collaboration aims to move the system beyond a mere technical installation, upgrading it to align national data collection with global standards while building the institutional capacity to use that data for strategic planning and international reporting obligations.


Partners

UNICEF Tanzania

Ministry of Health


Location

Tanzania


Sector

WASH


Services

Data system assessment

Stakeholder assessment

Data strategy

Capacity building

Data management

MIS improvement

Data analysis & insights

Challenge: MDG-era legacy and data misalignment

Prior to this intervention, Tanzania’s WASH monitoring faced several critical hurdles:

  • Outdated frameworks: Many indicators were still aligned with MDG-era definitions, creating gaps in reporting against modern SDG standards.
  • Manual inefficiencies: Data collection and aggregation remained largely manual, leading to significant data quality risks and reporting delays.
  • Lack of consensus: Initial assessments revealed a lack of shared understanding regarding core definitions and concepts across various ministry teams, which hindered the internal consistency of the data.

Together, these gaps meant Tanzania's sanitation data couldn't reliably inform national strategy or meet international reporting standards, leaving the Ministry without the clear, comparable evidence needed to track progress and direct resources where they were most needed.

From indicators to action

To support the Ministry of Health, Akvo and UNICEF focused on:

  • Indicator harmonisation: Reviewed and aligned national WASH indicators for Households, Schools, and Health Care Facilities with global Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) standards.
  • System configuration: Re-designed the surveys to automatically calculate scores for JMP indicators from mobile data collection.
  • Collaborative alignment: Facilitated intensive workshops and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure all ministry departments agree on the content and logic of the data collection tools.
  • Capacity building: Trained MoH officials on information chains, mapping data to specific decision moments like annual sector planning and budget allocation.

The Akvo methodology: Institutional ownership for sustainable data systems

Institutional ownership is the cornerstone of this collaboration. Akvo began by working directly within the Ministry’s existing DHIS2-based system (NSMIS) - configuring and strengthening its modules rather than replacing them -  recognising it as the essential foundation for all further enhancements and honouring the Ministry's established leadership in this space. 

To ensure lasting sustainability, the programme includes a phased administrative handover to the Ministry’s ICT team, supported by the development of technical "runbooks" and targeted training sessions. This transition ensures that the Ministry of Health can independently maintain, update, and scale the system as national policy questions continue to evolve.

Beyond strengthening institutional systems, this work is ultimately about people: trustworthy sanitation data means health and education officials can act faster on emerging hygiene risks and ensure investment reaches the households, schools, and clinics that need it most.