Financing sanitation for cities and towns: learning paper, 2014. Institute for Sustainable Futures; SNV.
The aim of this paper is to provide a starting point for such planning for the service chain and life cycle to occur. It is a synthesis of key literature on financing for the water services sector seeking to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) and its post-2015 successor, the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The findings from the literature review are complemented by key insights from an online ‘DGroup’ discussion organised by SNV on the topic of ‘financing for urban sanitation investment’.
The focus of this paper is on access to the upfront finance and other ‘lumpy’ finance needs, for initial investment and for rehabilitation/replacement as physical systems approach their end of life. The upfront investment is the main determinant as to whether there is service at all, and the decisions made upfront have a profound influence on the performance of the entire service chain.
This focus is not a denial of the utmost importance of the relatively smaller and ongoingfunding required on a day-to-day and short-term basis, but rather, a recognition that theirfinancing is qualitatively different. Regular sources of revenue might be more readily available forthe smaller ongoing requirements, whereas the ‘lumpy’ investments require finance upfront.
