Who uses a 3W matrix?

Coordination groups, country offices and project teams use it. It helps partners see who works where, helps local authorities understand coverage, and helps your own staff avoid planning on top of someone else's work.

Is a 3W the same as a 4W or 5W?

They are extensions. A 4W adds a fourth item, often the status or the dates, and a 5W adds another, such as the donor or beneficiaries reached. Use only the columns you will keep current.

How often should a 3W be updated?

Set a fixed rhythm, often monthly in a fast-changing response and quarterly in a steady program. Choose what you can sustain.

What is a 3W matrix, and how do you keep it current?

What is a 3W matrix?

A 3W matrix answers three questions: who is working, on what, and where. It is a shared table. One row describes one activity by one organization in one location.

Who	What	Where	Status
Organization A	Hygiene promotion	Village 1	Active
Organization A	Water point repair	Village 2	Planned
Organization B	Cash assistance	Village 1	Completed

Read down the “Where” column and you see which villages have many partners. Read across and you see what each organization does.

Why does it matter?

Gaps. A village with no row may have no help at all.
Overlaps. Two organizations running the same activity in one place may be wasting resources or confusing the community.
Planning. A new project can choose where to work with the real picture in hand.
Referrals. Staff can send someone to the right service nearby.
Reporting. It gives you one view of coverage for coordination meetings and your own reports.

What columns should it have?

Start small. These are enough for most teams:

Organization (who)
Activity type (what), from a fixed list
Location (where), at the level you can keep accurate, such as district or village
Start date
End date
Status: planned, active or completed
Contact person, so others can ask questions

Optional columns include sector, donor, number of people targeted, and number reached. Each extra column is a new thing to keep current, so add one only if someone will use it. A column on people reached brings the double counting issue described in why reach totals may count the same person twice.

How do you make the data consistent?

Messy entries make the matrix hard to use. Fix these three things.

Activity types. Agree one list, such as “water point repair”, “cash assistance”, “hygiene promotion”. Do not allow free text.
Place names. Use one spelling and one list of places. “Kyauk Se”, “Kyaukse” and “Kyauk-se” are three places to a spreadsheet.
Dates. Use one date format everywhere.

How do you keep it current?

A 3W goes stale fast. Build a routine.

Name an owner. One role is responsible for the matrix, not “everyone”.
Set an update rhythm. Put a monthly or quarterly deadline on the calendar.
Ask each project to confirm. A short message to each project lead: “Is this still right? What changed?”
Show the last update date. Everyone should see how fresh the data is.
Close old rows. Mark finished activities as completed rather than deleting them, so you keep history.
Review it in meetings. If the 3W is looked at in the coordination meeting, people will keep it accurate.

Sharing a 3W outside your organization means sharing where you work. Check whether any location is sensitive for safety reasons, and check your data sharing rules first.

What problems should you watch for?

Entries that mix planned and actual work.
Locations at different levels in the same column (a country in one row, a village in another).
Activities listed with no end date, which never close.
No one owning the file, so no one updates it.

A 3W matrix pays off most when people use it to decide something. Here are three common uses.

Choosing a new site. Before you propose a project, filter the matrix by sector and location. If two other organizations already run the same activity in a village, consider another village, or agree a split with them.
Spotting a gap. Filter by location and list the activities. A village with a school but no water activity may need a conversation with partners.
Handing over. When a project ends, mark its rows as completed and note who will continue the work, so the community is not left without a contact.

The matrix also supports honest discussion in coordination meetings. When partners see the same picture, debates about who covers what become shorter and more factual. Keep the sheet simple enough that a new staff member can read it in a few minutes.

Finally, think about who can see the matrix. A 3W is most useful when partners share it, but sharing has limits. Some activities or locations may be sensitive, for example work with people at risk. Agree with partners which columns are shared openly, which are shared only with coordination members, and which stay internal. Write the rule down at the top of the file. Review it when the security situation changes, and ask partners before you show their rows to anyone outside the group.

Where EMPOBase fits

EMPOBase’s MEAL module includes 3W Coverage (Who does What Where), so your project locations and activities sit alongside your indicators and results in the same workspace. Your team still has to keep the entries current; the software does not collect updates from partner organizations by itself. See the platform overview for how MEAL connects with Programs and projects.