The Water and Sanitation Program - Environmental Health at USAID

DRAFTo Mobilization of rural electricity consumers by the Consumer Unity and TrustSociety to get them involved in the power reform process in the state ofRajasthan;o The online complaint monitoring system of the Brihan-Mumbai MunicipalCorporation;o Public Interest Litigation, which permits litigants to file cases on issues that affectthe public at large; the most famous example being the Delhi Vehicular PollutionCase;o Citizen Report Cards, which was started in Bangalore and has been nowreplicated in numerous countries, including the most recent WSP experience inKenya.WSP is currently undertaking a global review of experience on the political economy ofsanitation, as part of this key theme of sanitation governance. Political economy in thisstudy is understood as referring to interdisciplinary studies that draw upon social andpolitical theory in addition to economic principles in order to understand how politicalactors, institutions and economic processes influence each other. The political economyof sanitation therefore refers to the political and economic processes and players whichdetermine the extent and nature of investment in sanitation. This systematic assessmentwill identify and evaluate the political constraints to improved sanitation for the poor;specifically, it is critical to identify which stakeholders support or oppose sanitationinvestments, why they take this stance, and how best to address this process. The role thatsocial and cultural aspects play in regard to sanitation will also be assessed. The workwill collect primary and secondary data to analyze stakeholder interests, incentives,influences, institutions, impacts, and risks in selected case studies to draw commonlessons. The work will support evidence-based decisions in sanitation investment whichhave a stronger pro-poor focus and thus will improve health and hygiene outcomes on theground.• Programmatic Approaches in Sanitation. Under this key area of work, WSP willsupport in its focus countries the development of sanitation MDG roadmaps, sectordevelopment plans, and scaling-up programs including SWAPs. Two important areas offocus will be the incorporation of sanitation in PRSPs and the harmonization of sanitationpolicies and initiatives among donor and technical agencies in line with the principles ofthe Paris Declaration.WSP has supported a variety of MDG roadmaps (combined water and sanitation, as wellas sanitation only). The sanitation MDG roadmaps have three basic objectives: (i) todevelop a participatory and consensual national planning framework to achieve thesanitation MDG; (ii) to compile and analyze existing data (at the national and subnationallevel, disaggregated spatially and by income levels) to better define the actionsneeded and to monitor progress in the path of the MDG roadmap; and (iii) to develop along-term plan, with short- and medium-term specific targets along the way.22