JMP Core Questions

Through expert consultations, the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) has developed core questions for monitoring water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) at home, schools and health centres.

To support the collection of comparable data between and within countries, the JMP has prepared core and expanded questions for the following settings:

• Core questions for households
• Core questions for schools
• Core questions for health care facilities

The JMP core questions for household surveys document was first developed in 2006 to support monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (2000-2015). To monitor the new Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene at home, additional information can be collected in household surveys including:

• drinking water (water quality, availability of drinking water)
• sanitation (emptying of on-site sanitation facilities)
• hygiene (availability of a handwashing facility with water and soap).

The JMP has collaborated with UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICSs) to develop and pilot new modules and questions for the SDGs. A draft set of updated core questions for household surveys was produced in November 2017 and finalised in 2018. The latest version of the MICS household questionnaire and water quality questionnaire provides an example of a full survey instrument using the questions recommended by the JMP team.

Core questions and indicators have also been developed for monitoring WASH in schools and WASH in health care facilities.