Evaluating the effectiveness of public finance for sanitation: a synthesis report
This synthesis report, based on a series of case studies (rural Thailand, Bihar in India and Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania) identifies the challenges relating to equity and sustainability of public financing for sanitation and draws emerging lessons on how to improve the allocation of public funds for sanitation. The case studies made clear the importance of allocating public funding to support the development of the underlying sector systems in order that both demand and supply are strengthened. Public financing effectiveness also relies on careful choice of timing of intervention, ensuring for example that hardware subsidies are supplied when demand has been firmly established. Government should also be able to adapt sanitation policies to address emerging challenges. The potential of credit mechanisms should be explored to leverage household investment and enable cross-subsidy at local level. Finally, key to the success of any sanitation campaign is to make sanitation a political priority and clearly define institutional responsibilities and accountability for progress.