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How Universal Health Coverage Can Increase Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Sub-Saharan Africa

July 1, 2023

KEY POINTSIn recent years, governments across Africa have sought to shield theirpopulations from the high financial cost of health care by implementinguniversal health coverage schemes.Universal health coverage cannot be achieved unless comprehensive sexualand reproductive health (SRH) care is included in national health plans.Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and Benin offer examples of how to integrate SRHinto broader health coverage plans.Recommendations are offered to inform stakeholders' approach tointegrating sexual and reproductive health care into national healthcoverage plans.

Unlocking Early-Stage Financing for SDG Partnerships

September 9, 2022

This report aims to help commercially driven partnerships, grant funders and investors more effectively drive transformative Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) action by highlighting new approaches to finance. It is a follow-on publication to A Time for Transformative Partnerships, a World Resources Institute (WRI) report that identified the key success factors of transformative partnerships.As the world confronts challenges like urban growth, reliance on fossil fuels, water scarcity and more, a timely new report from WRI examines how innovative approaches to investing can support partnerships and the transition to a more sustainable economy. The report identifies gaps in financing and key recommendations intended to help achieve the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals through commercially-driven partnerships. While there has been immense growth in the number of multi-stakeholder partnerships that are commercially-focused, this report focuses on how to ensure partnerships with real transformation potential are long-lasting and well-funded to make a positive impact. It outlines four key recommendations for partnerships and funders to overcome these barriers and unlock environmental, social and financial rewards.

Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2021

June 22, 2021

The Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2021 provides detailed analysis of the crisis financing landscape. Development Initiatives found that humanitarian funding failed to grow despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tackling Slippage

September 19, 2019

This issue of Frontiers of CLTS explores current thinking and practice on the topic of tackling slippage of open defecation free (ODF) status. It looks at how slippage is defined and identified, and at different patterns of slippage that are seen after ODF is declared. Although a considerable amount has been written on how to establish strong Community-Led Total sanitation (CLTS) programmes that prevent slippage from happening, this issue looks at how to reverse slippage that has already taken place. Note however, that at a certain level, strategies used to reverse slippage and those used in advance to set a programme up for success to prevent slippage occurring overlap.From the literature, there is little documented evidence on how slippage can be reversed; evidence and guidance tend to focus on prevention. This review begins to address this gap. Implementers are encouraged to use the proposed patterns of slippage framework and slippage factors section to understand the type and extent of slippage experienced, then use the examples in the section on tackling slippage to identify potential slippage responses.In addition to a review of current literature, in depth interviews were carried out with key informants at global, regional and country level. Key informants were selected purposively to identify experiences and innovations in tackling slippage from across the sector.Issue 14, September 2019

Safely Managed Sanitation in High-Density Rural Areas : Turning Fecal Sludge into a Resource Through Innovative Waste Management

September 1, 2019

Safely managed sanitation is a focus of the SDGs and central to stunting reduction and early childhood survival, both identified by the World Bank's Human Capital Index as critical for humans to develop their full potential. In 2015, 4.5 billion people lacked access to safely managed sanitation. This paper finds that hundreds of millions more people are exposed to significant health risks due to unsafely managed sanitation. This report explores the challenges of fecal sludge management (FSM) in densely populated rural areas and it presents some typical current practices, examples of financially sustainable FSM services, and global innovations in waste management with potential replicability for FSM. Its aim is to promote dialogue on how to move from the Millennium Development Goals' approach to rural sanitation—effectively, building toilets—to the Sustainable Development Goals' approach: safely managed sanitation systems. The paper concludes that the sanitation service chain spans both private and public goods, and market mechanisms are not always adequate to mitigate the safety risks. Public funding will be needed to cover the affordability gap and address safely managed sanitation, requiring a clear and long-term commitment and support from government. The case is similar to that for networked sanitation: without public support, improving the safety of existing FSM services is likely to decrease profit margins and potentially render businesses unviable.

Frontiers 13: Support mechanisms to strengthen equality and non-discrimination (EQND) in rural sanitation (Part 2 of 2)

July 3, 2019

Achievement of adequate and equitable access to sanitation for all, and an end to open defecation, requires that special attention is given toward disadvantaged groups. It has become apparent that the benefits of conventional rural sanitation programming and service delivery are often not spread equally, and risk leaving disadvantaged groups behind. This issue of Frontiers of CLTS (the second in a two-part series) examines the potential of support mechanisms designed to help disadvantaged groups access and use hygienic toilets in driving more equitable rural sanitation outcomes. It covers the latest thinking on the opportunities and challenges of support mechanisms, and explores what works remains to be done.In this issue, we use a broad definition of 'support' for creating equitable outcomes. Although financial and physical subsidies often quickly come to mind, a broader practical understanding of support needs to encompass both 'hardware' mechanisms and 'software' approaches, as well as various combinations of the two (Myers et al. 2017; ISF-UTS and SNV 2018).

Towards greater transparency and coherence in funding for sustainable marine fisheries and healthy oceans

May 16, 2019

This final manuscript in the special issue on "Funding for ocean conservation and sustainable fisheries" is the result of a dialogue aimed at connecting lead authors of the special issue manuscripts with relevant policymakers and practitioners. The dialogue took place over the course of a two-day workshop in December 2018, and this "coda" manuscript seeks to distil thinking around a series of key recurring topics raised throughout the workshop. These topics are collected into three broad categories, or "needs": 1) a need for transparency, 2) a need for coherence, and 3) a need for improved monitoring of project impacts. While the special issue sought to collect new research into the latest trends and developments in the rapidly evolving world of funding for ocean conservation and sustainable fisheries, the insights collected during the workshop have helped to highlight remaining knowledge gaps. Therefore, each of the three "needs" identified within this manuscript is followed by a series of questions that the workshop participants identified as warranting further attention as part of a future research agenda. The crosscutting nature of many of the issues raised as well as the rapid pace of change that characterizes this funding landscape both pointed to a broader need for continued dialogue and study that reaches across the communities of research, policy and practice.

West and Central Africa Regional Rural Sanitation Workshop

September 17, 2018

The CLTS Knowledge Hub, based at the Institute of Development Studies, WaterAid, WSSCC and UNICEF co-convened a regional workshop in Saly, Senegal, 25th-28th June 2018 with support from AGETIP. The event brought together those engaged in rural WASH programming from 14 countries across the region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo) alongside experts working at regional and global levels. Over the course of four days participants shared latest experiences, innovations, challenges and research, mapped knowledge gaps and discussed ways forward with the aim of improving capacity and knowledge.This learning brief presents the common challenges identified across the region, summarises some of the discussions held, highlights some promising practices and considers priority actions moving forward.Headline recommendations from the brief include:Urgently advocate to increase domestic resource allocationCreate specific country-level strategies for reaching the 'last mile'Use of evidence on last mile demographics and practices to encourage inclusionAvoid rigid policies and practices and be less dogmatic about what approaches are usedUse area-wide approachesSystematise post-ODF interventionsIdentify, strengthen and promote local technological solutionsConduct formative research on the 'last mile', sustainable local solutions and long-term behaviour changeStrengthen knowledge management initiatives to better support the region, especially Francophone region.Collect, make publically available and respond to data

Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights: Engaging Men and Boys in Sanitation and Hygiene Programmes

August 16, 2018

Discussions of gender in sanitation and hygiene often focus on the roles, positions or impacts on women and girls. Such a focus is critical to improving the gendered outcomes in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), as women and girls bear the greatest burden of WASH work yet are often excluded from planning, delivery and monitoring community WASH activities as a result of having less power, resources, time and status than their male peers. However, current efforts to improve sanitation and change social norms may not always actively engage men and boys in the most effective way. There is more to learn about how the roles men and boys actually play out in improving use of safe sanitation and improved hygiene practices and – if necessary – how the engagement strategies can be modified to make efforts more successful.This issue of Frontiers of CLTS shares and builds on the learning from a desk study that explores examples of men's and boys' behaviours and gender roles in sanitation and hygiene. Of particular interest is the extent to which the engagement of men and boys in S&H processes is leading to sustainable and transformative change in households and communities and reducing gendered inequality.The review focuses on men and boys: how to engage them (or not), how to mobilise them as allies in the transformation of S&H outcomes and the problems they contribute to and experience.

Equality and Non-discrimination (EQND) in Sanitation Programmes at Scale (Part 1)

September 3, 2017

A well-facilitated Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme that pro-actively considers and involves people who might be disadvantaged has been shown to have many benefits. A lack of this can and will often have negative impacts and make programmes and ODF unsustainable.This issue of Frontiers of CLTS looks at who should be considered potentially disadvantaged, how they can effectively participate and what may be needed to address diverse needs in order to make processes and outcomes sustainable and inclusive. Using a range of examples from GSF programmes that were part of a recent study on Equality and Non-Discrimination, it explores the challenges that may occur and concludes with suggested good practices that will strengthen the processes to the benefit of all.

Reducing Inequalities in Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene in the Era of the Sustainable Development Goals

August 15, 2017

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Bank's corporate goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity call for specific attention to the poor and vulnerable. The overarching objective of the SDGs is to end poverty in all its forms, but their key difference from the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is the integration of social, economic, and environmental goals (UN 2015). This has significant implications for reforms aimed at improving service delivery. With this understanding as its guiding compass, the Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Poverty Diagnostic Initiative focuses on what it would take to reduce existing inequalities in WASH services worldwide. This report, a synthesis of that global initiative, offers new insights on how data can be used to inform allocation decisions to reduce inequalities and prioritize investment in WASH to boost human capital. It also offers a fresh perspective on service delivery that considers how institutional arrangements affect the incentives of a range of actors.

What Potential is There for Container Based Sanitation and the Social Enterprise in Urban Emergencies?

December 1, 2016

Sanitation response for urban emergencies continues to present serious challenges to humanitarian agencies. Urban environments present their own unique setting and often add multiple constraints which can confound response strategies. In most emergency situations, for both first phase and second phase response, the default sanitation option, where suitable, is the simple pit latrine. But where certain constraints exist, such as the ground conditions or risk of flooding, alternative sanitation technologies to the pit latrine need to be selected. This report looks at the different technology options.