Pro-poor strategies for urban water supply and sanitation services delivery in Africa
Cross, P.; Morel, A.
Water Science and Technology a Journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research 51(8): 51-57
2005
ISSN/ISBN: 0273-1223 PMID: 16007927 Document Number: 208688
Water utilities in Africa find it increasingly difficult to provide adequate services to the needy areas: their core business operations are often stagnant, compounded by a dramatic rise in peri-urban and poor settlements. To address these challenges, the Water and Sanitation Program Africa has designed a work program to disseminate the best practice in pro-poor service development and to help utilities and municipal authorities to develop roadmaps to the MDGs for their service areas. Activities will primarily be directed at: (i) helping utilities and municipal authorities to include pro-poor objectives in their reform; and, (ii) working jointly with local partners, CBOs and NGOs, and SSPs to develop strategies and actions specifically targeting informal settlements. WSP-AF will focus on utilities that are engaged in reform or planning to do so. This program builds on support developed for Water Utility Partnership (WUP#5). Key entry points for pro-poor strategies: (i) pro-poor tariffs and financing mechanisms for service improvement, (ii) institutional arrangements to improve services to the urban poor, (iii) pro-poor transaction design (including regulation and monitoring), (iv) advocacy and communications regarding the urban poor, and (v) consumer voice and civil society engagement.