Water supply and sanitation sector policies and strategies of international development cooperation organizations

This study covers water supply and sanitation sector policies of 13 bilateral development organizations (Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, USA plus the UNDP - World Bank Water and Sanitation Program) and 6 multilateral organizations (UNDP, World Bank, EU / DG VIII, UNICEF, WHO, and the Asian Development Bank). The purpose of the study was to analyze water supply and sanitation objectives and policies and strategies and their derivation from the general principles of the above organizations. The policies had a lot of similarities and the international consensus is strong in certain areas. The common features of the policies are discussed in part two and include: benefits, gender, human resources development, cost recovery, private and public sector, human rights, democracy and good governance, interlinkages with health, water resources management and other relevant sectors, and references to international meetings. It was observed that no clear derivation of the policies from the general goals could be found. In section three some links to overall goals and two examples of the relationship between the water supply and sanitation sector and the general strategy level are shown. A separate analysis of each policy can be found in the annexes of the document.