Sanitation: What's the Real Problem?

The vast number of people without sanitation raises the question why this is so. It cannot be a lack of adequate sanitation technologies as these exist for all situations from dispersed rural communities to high?density low?income urban areas. Nor cannot it be money as development banks will readily fund a well?prepared sanitation proposal. The real sanitation problem must surely lie with those developing?country governments who have shown little commitment in practice to sanitation despite international sanitation advocacy since 1980. Their lack of commitment is clearly shown in the number of ‘open defecators’ in the world today. There are fortunately some countries that have done well: Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, for example, but they are a clear minority

A ZEN Approach to Post-2015: Addressing the Range of Perspectives across Asia and the Pacific

The paper discusses key challenges faced throughout the Asia and the Pacific region as a number of its developing economies graduate from low-income status to middle-income status at the same time as the region remains home to the majority of the world's poor people and a number of fragile states. The region is gaining increased influence in the world economy but is still grappling to overcome interrelated challenges of poverty and sustainable development, so its priorities will be of significant importance in informing the contents of any post- 2015 global development framework. Drawing from the ongoing lessons of the Millennium Development Goal process, this paper suggests a conceptual framework for setting a new generation of goals and, informed by these concepts, proposes an intergovernmental approach to implementation. The "ZEN" framework stresses the distinct challenges of achieving zero extreme poverty (Z), setting country-specific "Epsilon" benchmarks for broader development challenges (E), and promoting environmental sustainability both within and across borders (N)

Determinants of epidemiologic transition in rural Africa: the role of socioeconomic status and drinking water source

Public Health and primary carePrevention, Population and Disease management (PrePoD