The HCF-WISE Consortium

The HCF-WISE Scales are being developed collaboratively by WASH researchers and practitioners from a range of sectors. The Executive Committee oversees the operation of the consortium and sets consistent methodological guidance; site leads carry the work into health care facilities and ensure data integrity.

Members of the consortium at the UNC Water and Health Conference, standing together in front of a presentation screen

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee establishes the study protocol, maintains the harmonized database, and coordinates analysis and publication across sites.

  • Co-principal investigator

    Joshua Miller

    Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University at Buffalo; Center for Climate Change and Health Equity

  • Co-principal investigator

    Sera Young

    Professor, Northwestern University

  • Co-investigator

    Christina Barstow

    Helvetas

  • Co-investigator

    John Brogan

    Helvetas

Site leads

Site leads adapt the instruments to local language and context, direct data collection, and oversee data integrity.

Data collection complete

In preparation

Participating institutions

How the consortium works

Partners agree to collect data using the standardized HCF-WISE methodology and to contribute de-identified survey, cognitive interview, and facility assessment data to a harmonized database managed by the Executive Committee, for the purposes of scale development and equivalence testing. Contributing sites hold sole ownership of the data they contribute, unless a different agreement is reached.

Sites retain the right to publish their own analyses of the data they contributed, including summary statistics and predictive analyses, without seeking permission. The one request is that sites do not publish site-specific WASH insecurity scales.

Authorship follows ICMJE criteria. Every site lead is offered at least consortium authorship on the primary scale development paper, and funders and contributors at each site are acknowledged in every publication and presentation that uses their data.

Read the data sharing and consortium guidelines

With support from

Parts of this work have been supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation through the Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium. Site-level data collection is supported by a range of funders across the consortium.

Join the consortium

We are looking for partners working in health care facilities, in any income setting and in urban or rural areas, who are willing to add the HCF-WISE survey to monitoring or evaluation work they already have planned.

Talk to us about joining Read the FAQ