Effective decision-making support systems help decision makers in identifying, evaluating and choosing a technology that best suits context/conditions of a city/area/ward. In order to develop a tool which is of use to decision-makers, an evaluation of the existing support resources was considered necessary to identify challenges/gaps pertaining to content, design and usefulness of the resource in question.
CSTEP evaluated existing support resources for decision making, which include the following:
Benchmarks: Benchmarks allow cities to understand and assess their performance. Through the use of sanitation indicators, cities are able to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses, shedding light on what can be improved, thereby allowing informed decision making.
Case Studies: Case studies are important sources of information that cover various aspects of a technology during implementation, such as the community willingness to accept technology, socio-economic aspects that need to be considered and also adaptation/improvisation of a technology suited for local needs. These provide examples which can influence the decision-making process. This is mostly India specific.
Guidebooks and Manuals: These documents provide guidance on advantages of sanitation technology design, construction, implementation and evaluation, either covering specific parts or the entire sanitation value chain.
