Outputs from landscaping study for Gates Foundation downloadable

"Developing national capacity to bring about change is crucial. This needs to include not only the transfer of knowledge and skills, but also changes to organizational culture, the promotion of nationally-owned policies, systems of positive incentives, and better resources allocation". This is one of the key messages from the mapping and landscaping study carried out on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by a consortium of Cranfield University, Aguaconsult, and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

Three PDF files from this study: Landscaping and Review of Approaches and Technologies for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Opportunities for Action, can now be downloaded free of charge from below.

Global conclusions and recommendations

• The problems associated with inadequate WS&H services are huge, but there are real opportunities to make a difference.

• Action in the WS&H sector creates new opportunities and freedoms for the poor, including better health, time and energy saving; privacy, dignity and safety; and improved livelihoods and education.

• When all actors cooperate together and there is ownership, real change can take place.

• There are no silver bullets, but plenty of opportunity for the scaled-up application of best practice which has been proven at pilot scale.

• Many barriers to progress in WS&H lie outside the sector. Weak institutions and poor governance affect the ability to “do business” effectively, to bring about beneficial change, and to focus on poverty reduction.

The views expressed here and in the reports are those of Cranfield University, Aguaconsult Ltd., and the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC), and may not reflect the views of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.