City Sanitation planning through a political economy lens

© 2019 Water Alternatives Association. While citywide sanitation planning is perceived to be an enabler of coordinated improvements in sanitation services for developing countries, intended outcomes have often been elusive. In order to illustrate how political economy, chosen planning approaches, and ideas about change and development have acted as determinants of outcomes, this paper draws on three case study countries that took qualitatively different approaches to sanitation planning - Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. The analysis found that the assumptions informing the planning methods were often not valid, which then undermined the potential for successful implementation. Based on the analysis, the paper argues that urban sanitation planning and implementation in developing countries needs to be transformed to reduce the emphasis on comprehensiveness and instead emphasise flexibility, a learning orientation and strategically chosen incentives. This approach demands tighter cycles of planning and action, direct testing of assumptions, and an in-depth understanding of the local- and national-level political economy and the links between them. It requires innovation to be enabled, with funding mechanisms that focus on outcome rather than input. In this way it would be possible to shift away from the typical emphasis on prescriptive procedural planning steps and towards delivery of the much-needed improved sanitation outcomes

Are we doing the right thing? Critical questioning for city sanitation planning

Our aim is to provoke practitioners, policy makers and development agencies to reflect on their approaches to city sanitation planning and the assumptions that underlie them. The document is not intended as a critique, and it does not recommend a particular planning approach. Nor does it add to existing stocks of guidance materials on how to develop sanitation plans (e.g. Sanitation 21, WHO Sanitation Safety Planning Guide 2015, Community-Led Urban Environmental Sanitation Planning (CLUES), guidance for City Sanitation Strategies (SSK) in Indonesia and City Sanitation Plans (CSPs) in India etc). Rather, our premise is that raising awareness of underlying assumptions in sanitation planning may lead to better targeted approaches to sanitation planning, if and when those assumptions are shown not to match realities

Exploring legal and policy aspects of urban sanitation and hygiene

During 2012-2014, SNV did four country reviews of legal arrangements for urban sanitation and hygiene (Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Indonesia). Based on this experience, this document was developed to provide guidance on how to undertake a legal scan for urban sanitation. Over time, the ultimate objective of this work and related activities is that WASH professionals will be able to undertake a high-level assessment of legal arrangements for urban sanitation in order to both: 1. use the frameworks and tools offered by legal and policy arrangements to improve urban sanitation and hygiene outcomes; and 2. advocate for improvements in legal, policy and institutional arrangements to facilitate sustainable sanitation and hygiene outcomes for all

Climate change, water, sanitation and hygiene and resilience: a briefing paper from SWA Research and Learning Constituency

Water and sanitation are basic human needs and essential for functional societies but are threatened by climate change. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted societal risks, uncertainties and inequalities, while also highlighting the critical role of access to safe water and sanitation services to ensure recovery and resilience. However, climate change is a threat to the delivery of sustainable water and sanitation services. The water cycle is a primary way that climate change impacts society. According to the IPCC AR6 2021 report, “continued global warming is projected to further intensify the global water cycle, including its variability, global monsoon precipitation and the severity of wet and dry events.” These changes are already affecting water and sanitation services, such as disrupted water supply, and sewers and pit latrines overflowing, requiring increased attention to strengthen their climate resilience. This brief was prepared by the SWA Research and Learning constituency in support of the 2022 Sector Ministers’ Meeting (SMM) ‘Building Forward Better for Recovery and Resilience.’ It seeks to make available the latest research evidence on climate change, resilience and water, sanitation and hygiene for the preparatory processes leading up to the SMM and to support evidence-based follow-up action

Indicators to complement global monitoring of safely managed on-site sanitation to understand health risks

Halfway through the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) period, there has been little research on the criteria for monitoring safely managed sanitation under SDG target 6.2. For reporting against SDGs, global indicators are necessarily limited and exclude many safety aspects from a public health perspective. Primary survey data from 31,784 households in seven countries in Asia and Africa were analysed, comparing estimates of safely managed on-site sanitation based on global indicators with five complementary indicators of safety: animal access to excreta, groundwater contamination, overdue emptying, entering containments to empty and inadequate protection during emptying. Application of additional criteria reduced the population with safely managed sanitation by 0.4–35% for specific indicators, with the largest impact due to the risk of groundwater contamination, animal access, and containments overdue for emptying. Combining these indicators across the service chain, excluding transport and treatment, found almost three-quarters of on-site systems currently assessed as safely managed with global indicators were considered unsafe based on complementary indicators. A more comprehensive assessment of safety of on-site sanitation can be achieved through these indicators, which could be integrated into national monitoring systems and used to inform sanitation investments that address local health-related risks