Draft workshop report examining the issues surrounding local management of water and sanitation amongst the urban poor. The numbers are well known – too many poor people still lack access to basic water and sanitation services throughout the world. Factors that influence access are numerous. Financial and economic factors relate to connection charges and tariffs; technological issues include standards that are often challenging to introduce in poor communities; political barriers include the lack of priority that is placed on services in poor communities; and institutional factors relate to the question of who makes decisions, who co-ordinates action, and who implements projects. Partnership approaches for implementation and stakeholder engagement over wider sector reform present progressively important pieces in an increasingly complex puzzle. Existing technical and financial approaches have proven time and again to be insufficient to meeting the challenge of providing sustainable water and sanitation services in poor communities. Multi-sector partnerships between relevant stakeholders – be they from public, private, civil society and donor spheres – provide one tool to overcome these failures. Such partnerships promote innovation and greater accountability whilst improving the understanding and capacity that make projects more appropriate and effective. Understanding more concretely the impact of sector reforms (be they on institutional arrangements, tariff setting, community responsibility or on other issues) contributes to this analysis and to the development of new implementation models.

Bibliographic information

Brocklehurst, C. (2004). Local Management Models for Water Supply and Sanitation for the Urban Poor Building Partnerships for Development (BPD), Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), UK

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Politicians and local decision makersEnglish

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