The Sustainable Development Goal on Water and Sanitation

Target 7c of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 7c) aimed to halve the population that had no sustainable access to water and basic sanitation before 2015. According to the data collected by the Joint Monitoring Programme in charge of measuring progress towards MDG 7c, 2.6 billion people gained access to safe water and 2.3 billion people to basic sanitation. Despite these optimistic figures, many academics have criticised MDG 7c. We provide an overview of this critique by performing a systematic literature review of 61 studies conducted over the MDG implementation period (2002-2015) and shortly after. Our objective is to contribute to the debate on the operationalisation of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation (SDG 6). The academic debate on MDG 7c mainly focused on the effectiveness of the indicators for safe water and sanitation and on the political dynamics underlying the selection of these indicators. SDG 6 addresses some of the concerns raised on the indicators for safe water and sanitation but fails to acknowledge the politics of indicator setting. We are proposing additional indicators and reflect on the limitations of using only quantitative indicators to measure progress towards SDG 6

The Sustainable Development Goal on Water and Sanitation

Target 7c of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 7c) aimed to halve the population that had no sustainable access to water and basic sanitation before 2015. According to the data collected by the Joint Monitoring Programme in charge of measuring progress towards MDG 7c, 2.6 billion people gained access to safe water and 2.3 billion people to basic sanitation. Despite these optimistic figures, many academics have criticised MDG 7c. We provide an overview of this critique by performing a systematic literature review of 62 studies conducted over the MDG implementation period (2002–2015) and shortly after. Our objective is to contribute to the debate on the operationalisation of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation (SDG 6). The academic debate on MDG 7c mainly focused on the effectiveness of the indicators for safe water and sanitation and on the political dynamics underlying the selection of these indicators. SDG 6 addresses some of the concerns raised on the indicators for safe water and sanitation but fails to acknowledge the politics of indicator setting. We are proposing additional indicators and reflect on the limitations of using only quantitative indicators to measure progress towards SDG 6

Research Protocol

Target 7c of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 7c) aimed to halve the population that had no sustainable access to water and basic sanitation before 2015. According to the data collected by the Joint Monitoring Programme in charge of measuring progress towards MDG 7c, 2.6 billion people gained access to safe water and 2.3 billion people to basic sanitation. Despite these optimistic figures, many academics have criticised MDG 7c. We provide an overview of this critique by performing a systematic literature review of 62 studies conducted over the MDG implementation period (2002-2015) and shortly after. Our objective is to contribute to the debate on the operationalisation of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation (SDG 6). The academic debate on MDG 7c mainly focused on the effectiveness of the indicators for safe water and sanitation and on the political dynamics underlying the selection of these indicators. SDG 6 addresses some of the concerns raised on the indicators for safe water and sanitation but fails to acknowledge the politics of indicator setting. We are proposing additional indicators and reflect on the limitations of using only quantitative indicators to measure progress towards SDG 6

Human Rights Accountability Through Treaty Bodies: Examining Human Rights Treaty Monitoring for Water and Sanitation

Framing scholarship on human rights accountability through treaty bodies, this article examines the water and sanitation content of state human rights reporting to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In this novel application of analytic coding methods to state human rights reports, the authors trace the relationship between human rights advancements on water and sanitation and treaty body monitoring of water and sanitation systems. These results raise an imperative for universal human rights indicators on the rights to water and sanitation, providing an empirical basis to develop universal indicators that would streamline reporting to human rights treaty bodies, facilitate monitoring of state reports, and ensure accountability for human rights implementation

The Go-Betweens : The Role of 'Technical Assistance' in International Development Cooperation

Billions of Euros are spent each year on the highly contested subject of development cooperation. Is it the right thing to do, and is it doing any good? It is assumed that carefully crafted policies from donors will be implemented worldwide, regardless of the cultural setting. There is an assumed flow from rational aid policies, to financing aid practice, to aid consequences and impacts, yet none of these steps are certain and uncontested. Little attention is given to the go-betweens, the people and organisations responsible for the practice of development policy. The key question asked within this dissertation is what are the roles, motivations and contribution of individuals and organisations in development cooperation? The overall research questions are grouped into three parts: a) What are the roles and motivations of individuals and the consulting companies working in development cooperation?; b) What contribution can (or should?) these individuals and companies make to translating norms, regulatory frameworks and values into practice in complex operating environments?; and c) What is the role of technical assistance in achieving sustainable and equitable water governance in Nepal? My contention is that the development complex (and development interventions specifically) depends on human agency and capabilities in the form of individuals and organisations – rather than only the transfer of money or technology. This includes the attitudes and motivations of the beneficiaries themselves, the local governments, donor government staff, NGOs and researchers, and the persons involved in the provision of technical assistance. All these groups have the chance to contribute to, or to impede development. These articles drill down particularly to the role of the latter group. These individuals providing technical assistance need to operate within the norms and regulations of the donor and recipient governments, and the local cultures and realities of the countries, local governments and communities they work with. The individuals both influence the group they work with, and in turn are influenced by the group habitus. In this thesis I contend that people at all levels have an important role in the implementation of development cooperation. Staff working in donor and recipient governments, and community level actors are all critical for facilitating or blocking development activities; just as are the technical advisors themselves. All bring in their own motivations, values and incentives. However, I cannot rule out the role of modalities, institutions or cultures as well, as clearly in the case studies the local cultures and institutions (both project imposed and community-based) are constantly interacting with each other and with the individuals involved. In addition, evidence of a habitus among development workers suggests that there is also a significant role for the development ‘culture’. Hence, I operate between methodological individualism and collectivism, with a constructivist approach. In particular, my study is focused on Finnish development cooperation, including Finns working in a variety of roles and modalities, and Nepalese co-workers in my two case study projects. The major approaches and themes regarding technical assistance and development cooperation that emerged in my research included: motivations; habitus; brokerage, translation and bricolage; gender equality and human rights; and principal-agent theory. The research approaches different concepts of technical assistance from many directions. It covers the different individual motivations for working in development, from students of development studies, through people working in many types of role – what I have referred to as the spectrum of technical cooperation. It also analyses the role of consulting companies working in development – a topic rarely studied. Using two Finnish funded rural water management projects in Nepal as case studies, I considered the role of technical assistance in transferring the values and policies of donors and recipient governments into practice. I examine the way that the international and Nepali experts translate the policies into practice, and feed practices and learning back up to the policy setters and donors. This is supported with discussion on operationalising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and human rights in Nepal. And finally, I consider the role of the TA in supporting development of the nascent local governments in Nepal, building their capacities to secure safe water for all. The methodology includes questionnaires, interviews, and two case studies. Development cooperation does not function simply as a financial transfer mechanism. Yet the role of individuals to facilitate implementation is often ignored. Acknowledging the role of individuals in coordination with other stakeholders, in implementing policies and strategies, and adapting them to local realities, would be a critical step in development cooperation in general, and specifically, in water governance and human rights. This is important both for decision-makers and for researchers. Keywords: Technical assistance; development cooperation; water governance; Nepal; gender equality and social inclusion; human rights-based approach; motivations; translation; brokeringFinnish language abstract sent by emai

Articuler protection des ressources et accès à l'eau potable‎ : quel cadre théorique, quels enjeux empiriques ?‎ Le cas de l'Indonésie

La thèse part du constat d’une difficulté à articuler des objectifs de protection des ressources en eau avec ceux visant l’accès à une eau potable pour tous. Dans un contexte de pressions anthropiques et climatiques sur les ressources en eau, ces objectifs ne peuvent plus être appréhendés de façon déconnectée dans le cadre de politiques publiques comme sur le plan théorique. Pourtant, leur articulation est rarement étudiée comme objet d’étude à part entière en sciences humaines et sociales. La thèse vise donc à discuter cette articulation, en élaborant un cadre d’analyse original. Elle combine des approches institutionnalistes pour étudier la construction des règles de gouvernance des eaux (ressources, eau potable) avec les recherches conduites en political ecology qui prennent en compte les rapports de pouvoir dans la coordination des acteurs. Ce cadre permet aussi d’analyser les diverses qualifications de l’eau utilisées par les acteurs pour justifier un mode de gouvernance de l’eau spécifique. La thèse s’appuie sur deux études de cas complémentaires dans le contexte indonésien, fondée sur une méthodologie qualitative. En Indonésie, cette question de l’articulation apparaît comme centrale. Ce pays est en effet marqué par de forts enjeux de répartition des eaux entre les usagers et de pollution des ressources qui constituent une entrave à l’accès à l’eau potable. La première étude de cas porte sur le processus de construction d’une règle controversée, la loi sur l’eau, qui encadre le secteur (ressource et eau potable). Nous analysons ce processus à travers les discours de justification des acteurs qui oscillent entre accès équitable à l’eau potable et protection des ressources. La seconde étudie une ville indonésienne, Surakarta, qui concentre des enjeux portant à la fois sur la durabilité des ressources et l’accès à l’eau potable :pollutions aux points de captage, densité, ou encore conflits relatifs à l’allocation des ressources pour l’accès à l’eau potable. Dans les deux cas, une lecture sur le long terme des dynamiques institutionnelles permet d’identifier les moments de changements, caractérisés par de nouvelles hiérarchisations des finalités entre protection des ressources et accès à l’eau potable. Nous montrons aussi l’importance des rapports de pouvoir entre acteurs pour privilégier une finalité plutôt qu’une autre, en lien avec le processus de qualification de l’eau. Nous mettons enfin en évidence des différences dans la façon d’appréhender l’articulation dans des contextes locaux urbains et dans d'autres aterritorialisés,lors de la négociation de règles.The difficulty to link together both water resources protection and drinking water access for all is the starting point of the PhD thesis. In a context of anthropic and climatic pressures on water resources, these two objectives can no longer be disconnected from a theoretical and empirical point of view. However the issue of this articulation is rarely studied in social sciences. Therefore the thesis aims to fill this gap by developing an original analytical framework. This framework merges institutionalist approaches and political ecology. The first one discusses the elaboration of water governance rules while the second one takes into account power relations in the coordination of actors. This is analyzed through the water qualifications the actors refer to in order to justify the legitimacy of a water governance mode in a specific context. The thesis analyzes two complementary Indonesian case studies, based on a qualitative methodology. In Indonesia the issue of articulation is a key issue: water resources pollution is a constraint to drinking water access and the country is affected by water allocation conflicts involving drinking water consumers. The first case study examines the elaboration of a controversy rule the main law regulating the water sector (water as a resource and water as a service). This process is analyzed through the justification discourses of actors who oscillate between objectives of equitable drinking water access and other of the protection of water resources. The second one studies an Indonesian town, Surakarka, which concentrates issues related to both resource sustainability and drinking water access: pollution at water catchment points, population density or conflicts over the allocation of water resources. In both cases, a long-term analysis of institutional dynamics shows the moments of change, characterized by new hierarchies of the objectives of water resource protection and of drinking water access. This thesis also shows the importance of power relations between actors to prioritize one objective over another, in relation to the water qualification process