The provision of basic services to the urban poor requires a new paradigm!

The primary challenge for improving these services is in the hands of the local and municipal authorities. They can not solve this on their own but need effective partnerships with the poor, the NGOs and CBOs, and the local private sector. Therefore new innovative strategies and approaches in planning, implementation and management of the services are needed. Only then the water and sanitation services may become effective and sustainable and they will then contribute to poverty reduction and environmental health improvement.

The Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) and the Local Agenda 21 Programme (LA21) intend to build up capacities in urban planning and management in its municipal partners through the decentralisation of efforts at regional and national levels. Over a period of five years (2003-2007), IRC will lead the Basic Urban Services (BUS) initiative to strengthen the abilities of local governments and their partners in the water and sanitation sectors. The BUS project flyer gives more details.

IRC's outputs will be:

• Effective public private partnerships to improve the provision of basic urban services to the poor. Emphasis will be on the development, testing and dissemination of effective strategies and approaches in planning, implementation and management. With a focus on poverty reduction, IRC will provide technical advice for the implementation of demonstration projects in six SCP partner cities and will promote alternative approaches such as the Household Centred Environmental Sanitation. The demonstration projects will be followed by a scaling-up process with capacity building, advocacy, improved leveraging of resources and gender responsiveness as main elements of action. Read more in the BUS Concept Paper.
• Regional anchoring strategies will ensure the connection between the local activities and global support of SCP, and ensure local sustainability and continuity. Regional and national capacity building organisations will receive support to strengthen their role as information clearing houses, to develop BUS-focused training activities and programmes, and to facilitate advocacy efforts.
• Information and Documentation Strategy to ensure the production of appropriate capacity- building tools, the adequate documentation of the lessons learned, regular exchange of ideas and the promotion of alternative channels of information exchange.
• A handbook will be produced to support the implementation of the demonstration projects. This is a technical tool that will compile approaches and methodologies proposed by IRC.
• Six demonstration projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, to demonstrate BUS strategies and approaches, to develop capacities and have regional/national anchors.