Poverty-reduction approach to water, sanitation and hygiene.pdfVIP

A WaterAid Briefing Paper A Poverty-Reduction Approach to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programmes Alan Nicol, ODI July 1999 IntroductionIntroduction IntroductionIntroduction The key questions this paper addresses are: 1) What is a specific poverty-reduction approach to water supply, sanitation provision and hygiene promotion and 2) What is the best way to make this approach work? Immediate answers would seem to be: 1) An approach which raises the living standards of the poor and 2) By identifying and addressing the principal reasons for poverty. In both cases the solution in the water and sanitation sector require an adaptation of past practice. Selecting the right solution is complicated by the different approaches to poverty and poverty reduction, and the changing conditions within which the approaches are to be implemented. These include social, economic and physical environments. Changing ideas and environments ensure that no one approach remains universally valid for long. Therefore an approach that specifically seeks to address poverty reduction needs to be both responsive to changing external environments and be targeted at different facets of poverty: in short it needs to be multidimensional. This paper suggests a three-tiered approach and the main aim is to address more coherently and effectively the global agendas of poverty reduction and water and sanitation development in the next century without losing sight of past experience. 1.11.1 Global poverty levelsGlobal poverty levels 1.11.1 Global poverty levelsGlobal poverty levels Global poverty levels are falling in absolute terms1, but the poorest are getting poorer and the gap between rich and poor regions, countries and communities is widening. Internationally some 1.3 billion people are in absolute poverty (living on