Opinions and voices for change
Navigate the blogs from our experts, water, sanitation and hygiene sector colleagues and guests. Narrow down your search by using the filters.
Lessons from a 'reorganisation' of the Netherlands's police force: a reality check on what it takes to deliver large-scale systemic change for improved public services. Read more...
Eliminating open defecation is not good enough. Real health gains require a bigger step up the sanitation ladder. Read more...
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have the target of reaching universal access to water and sanitation by 2030. But can this target realistically be achieved in the most difficult of settings: fragile states? Read more...
The new Sustainable Development Goals require revolutionary change, as universal access to water and sanitation by 2030 is a revolutionary idea. But what brings us closer in achieving this? Bethel Terefe of IRC Ethiopia looked for answers at the third international conference on Financing For... Read more...
The Conference Financing for Development (13 – 16 July 2015) will make a strong call on the importance of increased domestic public finance towards funding the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Read more...
Over the last 25 years, a unique UN partnership has developed a robust monitoring mechanism that can support the goal of universal access. Read more...
Together the Netherlands and the World Bank can make a substantive contribution to reaching a joint vision; sustainable and equitable water and sanitation services for all by 2030. The World Bank sees the Netherlands as a leading knowledge provider in the water sector. Dutch expertise can... Read more...
The new agenda for the future of water and sanitation, defined by the Sustainable Development Goals, aims at universal access for all by 2030. Achieving this mission will require a radical shift in how the water and sanitation sector operates. The main Dutch water and sanitation stakeholders urge... Read more...
Traditionally we've looked to the three Ts to finance water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, with the focus on transfers and tariffs. But this leaves a large financing gap. One which, if we don't solve, will make us miss the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of universal access. Read more...
A paradigm shift is needed to reach the ambitious new Sustainable Development Goals that propose reaching universal water and sanitation coverage with sustainable services for all by 2030. This implies shifting focus by all actors in the water and sanitation sector from construction of water and... Read more...
We have to spend more and faster than we are doing now if we want everyone to have water and sanitation by 2030. Read more...
Most public agencies are ill-equipped at the moment to make rational investment decisions. They need better metrics to evaluate performance. Read more...
While reviewing experiences with the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water (GLAAS), it is clear that there is a need to strengthen systematic, comprehensive, country-led processes which feed global monitoring. Read more...
USAID's Global Water Coordinator Chris Holmes welcomes the recent passage of the Water for the World act, while confirming his agency's commitment to sustainable service delivery Read more...
Nothing less than universal and equitable access to water and sanitation for all by 2030 is what the world wants. Some 50 Dutch water and development specialists came to The Hague on March 4th, 2015, to discuss what it will take to make this goal a reality. Read more...
In this blog, economist and IRC's head of innovation and international programme Catarina Fonseca argues that taxation is crucial in reaching the post-2015 development agenda. "Tax is a prerequisite for governments to become truly democratically accountable to their people," she says. Read more...
In this blog on the UN-Water meeting that was held in Geneva last month, Joseph Pearce and Ton Schouten give an intriguing insight in the monitoring of the new sustainable development goal (SDG) for water. They argue that the SDGs, as they are now formulated, demand for strengthening national... Read more...
Today there are more people without access to adequate sanitation than in 2000, despite the commitment included in the MDGs to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to basic sanitation. So what are the key challenges to increase the number of people with access to... Read more...
700 FSM fans can't be wrong. Faecal sludge management is hot but we need to collaborate more to see the big picture. Forget pilots, think at scale! Read more...
The growth of inequality is a major threat to prosperity and stability. Government leadership and government investment is needed to provide water and sanitation services to the poor. Read more...