Chambers, R. (2009). Going to scale with community-led total sanitation : reflections on experience, issues and ways forward. (IDS practice paper ; 1). Brighton, UK, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. 50 p. : 3 boxes, 1 fig., 3 tab. ISBN 978-1-85864-579-4
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Summary
Perhaps as many as 2 billion people living in rural areas are adversely affected by open defecation (OD). Those who suffer most from lack of toilets, privacy and hygiene are women, adolescent girls, children and infants. Sanitation and hygiene in rural areas have major potential for enhancing human wellbeing and contributing to the MDGs. Approaches through hardware subsidies to individual households have been ineffective. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is a revolutionary approach in which communities are facilitated to conduct their own appraisal and analysis of open defecation (OD) and take their own action to become ODF (open defecation-free).
In six of the countries where CLTS has been spread – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Kenya – approaches differ organisationally with contrasting combinations of NGOs, projects and governments.
Practical elements in strategies for going to scale have included: training and facilitating; starting in favourable conditions; conducting campaigns and encouraging competition; recruiting and committing teams and full-time facilitators and trainers; organising workshops and cross-visits; supporting and sponsoring Natural Leaders and community consultants; inspiring and empowering children, youth and schools; making use of the market and promoting access to hardware; verifying and certifying ODF status; and finding and supporting champions at all levels.
To spread CLTS well requires continuous learning, adaptation and innovation. It faces challenges. Paradigmatically, it requires major institutional, professional and personal shifts. Opposition at senior levels, pressures to disburse large budgets, demands to go to scale rapidly, and programmes to subsidise hardware for individual rural households, have been and remain threats and obstacles. Issues for review, reflection and research include: diversity, definition and principles; synergies with complementary approaches; scale, speed and quality; creative diversity; and physical, social and policy sustainability. In seeking constructive ways forward, four key themes or thrusts are: methodological development and action learning; creative innovation and critical awareness; learning and action alliances and networks, with fast learning across communities, districts and countries; and seeking to seed self-spreading or light touch movements. A key to good spread is finding, supporting and multiplying champions, at all levels, and then their vision, commitment and courage.
Winpenny, J. (2009). Investing in information, knowledge and monitoring. (The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme. Side publication series. Scientific papers). Paris, France, UNESCO. 16 p. ISBN 978-92-3-104113-6
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Even though information about water is as essential to life as the water itself, this paper argues that not enough information is produced. From both a social viewpoint, insufficient resources are invested in the supply and dissemination of water information. From an economic perspective, water information is undersupplied, due essentially to its characteristic as a public good. This points to the important role of public agencies (and philanthropists) in rectifying this market failure. The generation of information for water management is an economic activity, and therefore economic principles can be used to help orient research towards socially valuable aims.
The paper illustrates the benefits of providing greater information are illustrated in five areas:
information for water resource planning and use
information for water governance
information for citizens
information for improved management of water services
information for business and trade
Finally, reference is made to the new System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW), promoted by UN agencies, which will provide a comprehensive framework for the inclusion of water information into national income accounts.
The new page has sections on the impact of climate at the global level and for India specificially, and an overview of important climate change policies.
Willetts, J.R., Pedi, D., Carrard, N.R., Powell, B., de Lacy, I. (2008). NGO partnerships and capacity development in the water sanitation and hygiene sector. Abridged version for public dissemination. Brisbane, QLD, Australia, The International Water Centre (IWC) ; Ultimo, NSW,Australia, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. v, 102 p.
This report is the output of an AusAID funded research project on NGO partnerships, capacity development and state/local government engagement towards the new AusAID Water and Sanitation Initiative (WSI). It will inform AusAID decisions about funding mechanisms and investment options and the development of a concept paper for NGO or Civil Society engagement in the WSI. Countries included in the study are Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Vanuatu and Vietnam.
The findings of the study are presented in three parts:
Part 1 – Strategic Approach for NGO Engagement: Presents guiding principles to maximise the effectiveness of AusAID’s engagement with NGOs, and includes recommended funding mechanisms.
Part 2 – Review and Analysis by Country: Presents an analysis of the WASH country context, existing AusAID, NGO and WASH activity, opportunities for further NGO engagement and relevant funding mechanisms in the ten focus countries.
Part 3 – Capacity Development and State/Local Government and Utility Partnerships: Presents an argument for why capacity development is a critical investment required in our region with lessons learned and four key recommendations in this area, as well as an analysis and preliminary scoping of how AusAID could support capacity development through state/local government and utility partnerships.
The water and sanitation monitoring platform (WSMP) is the name of an ACP-EU Water facility-funded project managed by UNICEF, which is being implemented in Ghana, Mozambique and Nigeria. The project concerns the establishment and operation of national water and sanitation sector monitoring platforms in these countries.
The WSMP comprises of nationally established platforms, which work with national sector stakeholders to generate and disseminate sector specific data and information.
The WSMP website, managed by WEDC, is primarily a portal to direct users to country-level WSMP websites and blogs. This website gives an overview of the project and will host details of news and accomplishments of the respective WSMP platforms. At present [07 May 2009] the Ghana web site is the only country-level website with content.
This animated short film [5 min, 22 sec] details the travails of a barefoot consultant who promotes sanitation in villages in Pakistan. The barefoot consultant prospers in his work and develops a working sanitation market, he achieves such success that he is soon asked to travel to other villages to help them become Open Defecation Free.
The film was directed by Numair Abbas of Gogimation, a division of Gogi Studios in Islamadad, Pakistan. It was produced for the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) and posted on WSP’s YouTube Channel.
Babel, M.S. and Wahid, S.W. (2008). Freshwater under threat : South Asia : vulnerability assessment of freshwater resources to environmental change : Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin, Helmand River Basin, Indus River Basin. Nairobi, Kenya, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). xv, 29 p. : fig, tab. 27 ref.. Includes glossary. ISBN 978-92-807-2949-8
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This report focuses on three major river basins in South Asia: the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna, the Indus and the Helmand. It is divided into five chapters. The first chapter introduces the study, answering two major questions: Why vulnerability assessment is important? How are we going to assess vulnerability? The second chapter summarizes the specific methodology used in the assessment including calculating the Vulnerability Index (VI). The third chapter describes the important geographic and socioeconomic conditions of South Asia. It also outlines the status of the region’s freshwater attributes. The outline provides the background for the water problems in South Asia, and points to the elements of water vulnerability used in this in depth analysis of the river basins. The fourth chapter contains the findings of the vulnerability assessment for the selected river basins: GBM, Indus and Helmand. The objective is to examine the significance and magnitude of environmental and socioeconomic factors associated with freshwater resources vulnerability. The fifth chapter provides the conclusions of the assessment, based on the relevant findings presented in the previous chapters. General policy directions aimed at minimizing the vulnerability of freshwater in South Asia are suggested. [abstract taken from Worldcat]
This portal was launched in Brazil to help citizens monitor the status of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including water and sanitation, in each of the country’s 5,564 municipalities.
Besides MDG statistics, the portal offers a multimedia library of publications, reports, pictures and videos; news; best practices; and calendar of events and training courses.
The portal was developed by the Observatório de Indicadores de Sustentabilidade (Orbis), SESI programme of Paraná, Sistema Fiep and the Instituto de Promoção do Desenvolvimento (IPD), under the coordination of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Chambers, R. (2009). Going to scale with community-led total sanitation : reflections on experience, issues and ways forward. (IDS practice paper ; 1). Brighton, UK, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. 50 p. : 3 boxes, 1 fig., 3 tab. ISBN 978-1-85864-579-4
