Published on: 25/04/2012
Financing water and sanitation improvements for the very poor remains a major challenge over large areas of the globe. IRC and WSUP show that effective solutions to this challenge do exist. See discussion paper: Financing water and sanitation for the poor: six key solutions (below).
Which of the following six key solutions do you think has the greatest potential to overcome this challenge?
These questions were posted to an audience of 150 participants at the session in 6th World Water Forum in Marseille, 2012. The dynamic session stimulated a very mixed group of participants to discuss the key solutions proposed. Some discussion points: Shouldn’t we call the life-cycle costs approach the life-cycle financing approach? What about having cross-subsidized systems for a life time? Wouldn’t the PLF require too much capacity building?
Based on these discussions participants were asked to vote which of the 6 solutions had the greatest potential to overcome the challenge of financing water and sanitation improvements for the very poor. Progress-linked finance approaches had the most votes followed by life-cycle costing approaches.
At IRC we have strong opinions and we value honest and frank discussion, so you won't be surprised to hear that not all the opinions on this site represent our official policy.