Aligning Policies and Strategies to Achieve MDG goals:

Aligning Policies and Strategies to Achieve MDG goals:
Recommendations from Sanitation and Water Sub-group
First Sub-regional Forum for South Asia
Aligning Policies and Strategies to Achieve MDG goals
Kathmandu, November 04-06 2009

Summary of Proceedings:

Country Presentations

1. Bangladesh
2. Afghanistan
3. India
4. Maldives
5. Nepal
6. Pakistan
7. Sri Lanka

Thematic Presentations

1. Sanitation in South Asia and challenges of social inclusion

2. Economics of Sanitation Initiative: emerging findings from East Asia and South Asia

3. Status of sanitation and financing options

4. Water re-use and options for urban water supply

5. Evaluation Lessons from ADB WS & S Operations

6. Institutional Changes to meet the MDG sanitation targets

Recommendations

1. Prioritize sanitation as evident in specific increase in allocation of financial resources to sanitation commensurate with achieving the MDGs:
a) Compute investments to meet MDG (e.g. Nepal WaterAid Gap Study 2004)
b) Make budgetary allocations and monitor investments

2. Accord a substantial push to demand-generation activities in both rural and urban areas, focussed on addressing key barriers to adoption of safe sanitation options and hygiene practices:
a) SACOSAN III (New Delhi 2008, item 4.l) committed on this but needs actual deployment of resources to this end

3. Adopt a differentiated and targetted approach to accelerate access to sanitation and water, for disadvantaged and hitherto excluded groups and geographical regions:
a) Considerable in-country variations that need to be addressed in off-track countries (as well as in pockets of on-track countries)
b) May require extra budgetary resources, deployment of additional personnel, arrangements for materials, and special monitoring (e.g. special approaches for hardcore poor (Ban); TSC in MP tribal areas in India); Urban Slums (e.g. Mumbai SSP)

4. Focussed efforts to involve non-state players (incl. private sector, NGOs, etc.) in provision and management of sanitation and water projects in urban and rural areas:
a) Considerable untapped potential
b) Demonstrations available in South Asia e.g. the Maldives Water Contract

5. Ensure sustainability of outcomes and impacts through:
a) Appropriate Technologies
b) Financing for O&M management – and to increasingly move toward user-tariff financed systems
c) Appropriate water resources management
d) Institutional Arrangements and Management Systems
e) Capacity building (incl. personnel and organizational capacities)
f) Promoting accountability and transparency through mechanisms such as ring-fencing revenues and expenditures
g) Gender mainstreaming
h) Other aspects (inter-sectoral coordination)

6. Invest in the development of technologies, practices and delivery mechanisms for application in areas prone to natural disasters and recurrent flooding, etc:


7. Strengthen monitoring through:
a) Attention to quality of service delivery
b) Collecting disaggregated data by socio-economic groups (incl disaggregated wealth quintiles) and regions
c) Completely feedback loops timely
d) Reconciling/detailing the globally accepted definitions and norms (e.g. JMP definition) with country-specific definitions and systems
e) Focussing on measuring outcomes