Analysing the governance and political economy of water and sanitation service delivery

This Overseas Development Institute (ODI) research project looks at how best to analyse the governance and political economy of water and sanitation service delivery in developing countries, in order to inform policy, programming and influencing work.

It examines the variety of approaches which exist or are emerging from different stakeholders for analysing the governance and political economy of sectors; draw lessons from case studies of such analysis within the water and sanitation sectors, including recent work by DFID; and develop recommendations and guidance for improved future analysis.

The overall goal is to enable more effective support to water and sanitation service delivery, in order to make faster progress towards reaching the MDG targets.

The purpose of the research is to improve understanding among policy makers and practitioners of how to analyse the governance and political economy of water and sanitation in a given country context, in order to inform policy, programming and influencing work. It should be of interest to donors, multilateral agencies, developing country governments and civil society.

The objectives include advancing knowledge on three levels:

• how governance and political economy can be analysed effectively in the water and sanitation sectors;
• what governance and political economy constraints and opportunities commonly emerge from such analyses; and
• what the implications are for policy, programming, and influencing.

Project duration:  October 2010 – June 2011

Project leader: Michelle Kooy
Project team: Lindsey Jones, Daniel Harris, Roger Calow, Marta Foresti, David Booth, Anu Liisanantti

Funder: UK Department for International Development (DFID),  £100,000

DFID project profile  | ODI project profile

Adaptation H2O: IDRC’s Graduate Research Awards on Climate Change and Water

Call for proposals 2011-2012 – Deadline: 01 September 2011

Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) supports research in developing countries to promote growth and development.

IDRC’s Climate Change and Water Program (CCW) helps developing country researchers understand how climate change affects water resources and find ways to improve the ability of citizens and governments to adapt to the changing environment.

CCW’s Adaptation H2O Graduate Research Awards aim to build research capacity by providing funding to graduate students working on subjects related to climate change and water.

Number, value, and duration of awards

IDRC offers two types of awards:

1) For developing country graduate students: A maximum of seven awards, each with a maximum value of CA$15,000, are available in 2011-2012. The award covers field work expenses for graduate students who are citizens of a developing country and who are enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program at a Canadian or developing-country university.

2) For Canadian doctoral students: Up to two awards, each worth a maximum of CA$15,000, are also available to cover field work expenses of Canadian citizens (or permanent residents of Canada) enrolled in a doctoral program at a Canadian university.

These awards cover the field work period, which must be 3 to 12 months in duration. The awards are only meant to cover research expenses and not university tuition or affiliated fees.

Announcement of results

Only candidates recommended for an award will be contacted. Their names will also be added to the list of Candidates Recommended for an Award at the latest on December 1, 2011.

For more information, visit the competitions page.

Please do not send requests for information or applications to this blog.

SPLASH Sanitation Research Programme approves 5 projects

In November 2010, SPLASH, the European Union Water Initiative Research Area Network (EUWI ERA-net), selected the following 5 projects to be funded under the € 2.2 million SPLASH Sanitation Research Programme:

1. Catalysing self-­‐sustaining sanitation chains in informal settlements
Coordinated by the University of Surrey, the Robens Centre for Public and Environmental Health, United Kingdom, and including partners from France, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda

2. Economic constraints and demand-led solutions for sustainable sanitation services in poor urban settlements
Coordinated by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the Centre for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland, and including partners from Uganda and Switzerland

3. FaME (Faecal Management Enterprise): Providing sanitation solutions through value chain management of faecal sludge
Coordinated by the Swiss Aquatic Research Institute, the Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries (SANDEC), Switzerland, and including partners from Austria, Ghana, Senegal, and Uganda

4. Maîtrise de la filière assainissement dans un écosystème côtier à Douala et les quartier populaires de Yaoundé au Cameroun
Coordinated by the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique de Yaoundé, Cameroon, and including partners from Cameroon and France.

5. Sustainable and resilient sanitation service chains in Maputo province, Mozambique – action research and piloting for benefit of the urban poor
Coordinated by the International Water Association (IWA), the Netherlands, and including partners from France, Mozambique and the United Kingdom.

To see the full information on the composition of the selected consortia go to:
http://www.splash-­‐era.net/news_ssp.php

The Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), Loughborough University, UK, has been selected to manage the SPLASH Sanitation Research Programme.

Source: SPLASH newletter, no. 12, Dec 2011

Master’s in Development Practice (MDP): global higher education network for sustainable development

A global cross-disciplinary degree programme aims to equip a new breed of students with skills to address global challenges from climate change to water management and poverty, writes John McArthur in Seed Magazine.

On one side is the fact that these issues are all complex and often interrelated. On the other side is a mismatch between tasks and skills.

McArthur uses the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to illustrate some of these interrelationships.

Progress on the goal for safe drinking water and sanitation is needed to cut diarrheal disease, a major hurdle en route to the child-mortality goal. Likewise, the education goal is directly influenced by progress in disease control. For example, reducing malaria infections allows more healthy children to stay in school, and antiretroviral medicines allow more HIV-infected teachers to stay alive.

Observed hand cleanliness and other measures of handwashing behavior in rural Bangladesh

Halder, A.K. … [et al.] (2010). Observed hand cleanliness and other measures of handwashing behavior in rural Bangladesh. BMC Public Health ; vol. 10, no. 545. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-545 [open access]
Published: 9 Sep 2010

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We analyzed data from the baseline assessment of a large intervention project to describe typical handwashing practices in rural Bangladesh, and compare measures of hand cleanliness with household characteristics.

METHODS: We randomly selected 100 villages from 36 districts in rural Bangladesh. Field workers identified 17 eligible households per village using systematic sampling. Field workers conducted 5-hour structured observations in 1000 households, and a cross-sectional assessment in 1692 households that included spot checks, an evaluation of hand cleanliness and a request that residents demonstrate their usual handwashing practices after defecation. RESULTS: Although 47% of caregivers reported and 51% demonstrated washing both hands with soap after defecation, in structured observation, only 33% of caregivers and 14% of all persons observed washed both hands with soap after defecation. Less than 1% used soap and water for handwashing before eating and/or feeding a child. More commonly people washed their hands only with water, 23% after defecation and 5% before eating. Spot checks during the cross sectional survey classified 930 caregivers (55%) and 453children (28%) as having clean appearing hands. In multivariate analysis economic status and water available at handwashing locations were significantly associated with hand cleanliness among both caregivers and children.

CONCLUSIONS: A minority of rural Bangladeshi residents washed both hands with soap at key handwashing times, though rinsing hands with only water was more common. To realize the health benefits of handwashing, efforts to improve handwashing in these communities should target adding soap to current hand rinsing practices.

Contact: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. amalk@icddrb.org

Pro-poor water services: investment scenarios for Kamapala, Uganda

Water service to the urban poor presents challenges to political leaders, regulators and managers. A new study identifies technology mixes of yard taps, public water points (with and without pre-paid meters) to meet alternative constraints, and reflecting populations served and investment requirements.

Three investment scenarios have different implications for improving water access to over 400,000 citizens in Kampala. One component, pre-paid water meters, can promote social equity and institutional sustainability. If procedural justice is given as much weight as distributive justice in the selection of pro-poor programs, pre-paid meters (the ultimate cost recovery tool) can have a place in the investment plan. The study examines how public stand pipes (and a combination of other options) can meet both financial constraints and social objectives. Financial considerations cannot be wished away when seeking effective strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. (author abstract)

Berg, S.V. and Mugishab, S. (2010). Pro-poor water service strategies in developing countries: promoting justice in Uganda’s urban project. Water policy ; vol. 12, no. 4 ; p. 589–601. doi:10.2166/wp.2010.120
Read free PDF version

Contact: Dr. Sanford V. Berg, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, USA, fax: +1-352-3927796, e-mail: sberg@ufl.edu

Bridging the gap: High Science in Low-tech Emergency Settings

A new project sets out to examine and address a fundamental problem in the relationship between academia, industry and the humanitarian sector through the lens of water and sanitation engineering. The project is trying to find out why there is so little progress in bringing the benefits of new innovations in water supply and sanitation technologies to operations in humanitarian emergencies.

Project partners in this collaborative research project, which is funded by the Enhanced Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA) initiative, are the University of Glasgow and Oxfam GB. ELRHA is the first collaborative network dedicated to supporting partnerships between Higher Education institutions in the UK and humanitarian organisations and partners around the world.

Objective and aims

The overall project objective is to examine issues posing barriers to water supply and sanitation technological transfer to relief agencies and provide a strategy towards how to make effective use of scientific developments in humanitarian emergencies.

Specific aims are:

a) Identify and evaluate innovative technologies/processes currently being developed or already commercially available with regards to their potential to effectively contribute to public health engineering humanitarian responses;
b) Assess what universities and industries developing such technologies know about the needs and environmental/resource constraints of emergencies;
c) Explore the potential for use of measures of socio-economic structure and cultural values to aid in matching community preferences with technological needs to increase the chances of long-term water supply and sanitation programme success.

Project activities

The following activities have been undertaken so far:

• case study visit to India (Dec 2009) in collaboration with the relief NGO RedR-India and Aquaplus (manufacturer of emergency water treatment kits).
• a draft publication on “Cost-Effectiveness of Emergency Water and Sanitation Technologies”
• scoping of available and new/promising water and sanitation treatment technologies, as well as the available training courses
• online survey* with questionnaires for
  • practitioners (e.g. humanitarian agencies, NGO’s, etc.): www.surveymonkey.com/s/NGO1
  • academia (e.g. universities, research institutes, etc.): www.surveymonkey.com/s/academic1
  • industry (e.g. manufacturers and suppliers of water and sanitation equipment): www.surveymonkey.com/s/industry1

*The survey is still open and respondents will be entered into a prize draw to win a £ 50 donation to a humanitarian charity of choice.

Read more about the project on the ELRHA web site.