Review of Results-Based Financing (RBF) schemes in WASH: A report to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2015.
Results-Based Financing (RBF) is an alternative to conventional funding mechanisms for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) projects. As the name suggests, Results Based Financing (RBF) provides funding for an initiative after results have been delivered. This is in contrast to the conventional approach of providing the finance upfront. RBF was developed in an attempt to improve aid effectiveness by increasing accountability, efficiency, and private participation.
Given the massive need to improve WASH services globally, donors have been trying RBF in WASH since at least the mid-1990s. However, until now, there have been no comprehensive evaluations of RBF in WASH. This report summarizes findings from an investigation into whether RBF works in WASH, in what circumstances, how, and why.
The report was prepared by Castalia Advisers, on behalf of a group of WASH donors interested in better understanding RBF in WASH (including DGIS, DfID, USAID, GPOBA, SIDA and others). The study was managed and financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
What is CityLinks
The CityLinks™ model was designed by ICMA as a way to enable municipal officials in developing and decentralizing countries to draw on the resources of their U.S. counterparts to find sustainable solutions tailored to the real needs of their cities. It was formalized in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1997 with the launch of a funded program, known at the time as Resource Cities.
Based on the success of Resource Cities, USAID awarded ICMA a new program with the CityLinks name in 2003 and the current five-year City-to-City Partnerships cooperative agreement—now known as CityLinks—in 2011.
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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.
Toilets on Credit, 2015. Trémolet Consulting.
Can microfinance help increase access to sanitation? Today, 2.5 billion people do not use proper sanitation facilities. Essential services for maintaining latrines and treating faecal sludge are also underdeveloped. In many places, toilets can cost up to one year of income for poor households. Private operators of sanitation services do not have enough capital to acquire more equipment and respond to growing demand.
Since 2010, Trémolet Consulting and research partners based in Kenya MicroSave have been exploring the potential of microfinance for helping sanitation markets to develop. The research, funded by SHARE/DFID, culminated with an action-research in Tanzania in which financial institutions were trained to provide financial services for sanitation.
This film explains why microfinance should be explored further, and potentially, included in sanitation programmes. The film also presents what has been done in Tanzania under the action-research and takes the views of households, sanitation entrepreneurs, microfinance institutions and researchers.
Stand-Alone Unit or Mainstreamed Responsibility: How Can Water Utilities Serve Low-Income Communities, 2015. Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor.
Urban utilities throughout the developing world face the challenge of extending services to low-income communities (LICs). This paper draws on current best practice to explore a question that is core to addressing this challenge: how can utilities effectively structure their organisation to extend services to LICs?
Our review of ten utilities reveals three candidate approaches:
- Dedicated, stand-alone LIC unit with operational function;
- Dedicated, stand-alone LIC unit with advisory function;
- ‘Mainstreaming’ approach in which responsibilities for serving LICs are distributed throughout the utility’s operational units.
Urban Opportunities: Perspectives on Climate Change, Resilience, Inclusion, and the Informal Economy, 2015. Wilson Center; USAID.
To encourage a new generation of urban scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, and to disseminate their innovative ideas, the Wilson Center’s Urban Sustainability Laboratory, together with Cities Alliance, the International Housing Coalition, USAID, and the World Bank, sponsors an annual paper competition for advanced graduate students working on issues related to urban poverty. The competition is designed to promote the early career development of young urban researchers as well as to strengthen ties between urban policymaking and academia.
This publication marks the fifth year of the “Reducing Urban Poverty” competition and includes a range of perspectives on urban challenges and policy solutions. The 2014 competition called for papers linked to one of the following subtopics: cities and climate change; urban resiliency; inclusive
cities; and the impacts of the informal economy. Each chapter in this volume critically examines existing urban policies and projects, offering original, solutions-oriented research and strategies.
USAID/Ethiopia – Urban Gardens Help Women with HIV, 2015.
USAID supports an Urban Gardens program in Ethiopia to provide vulnerable and HIV-infected women with the tools, land, and knowledge to plant vegetable gardens, feed their families, and sell the produce to increase household income. The program trains women in nutrition, composting, vegetable growing, irrigation, proper hygiene, and HIV/AIDS awareness, and workers with degrees in agriculture assist the women in planting and maintaining their gardens.
The 20-year sanitation partnership of Mumbai and the Indian Alliance. Environment & Urbanization, Feb 2015.
Author: Sheela Patel, The Sparc Team. e-mail: sparcssns@gmail.com
Mumbai is well-known for the scale of the community toilet programme supported by local government, much of it undertaken in partnership with community-based organizations, including the National Slum Dwellers Federation, Mahila Milan (a federation of women’s savings groups) and SPARC (a local NGO), together known as the Alliance.
After describing how this community toilet programme developed over the last 20 years and sought city-wide scale, this paper focuses on the Alliance’s co-development with the municipal corporation of a system to monitor conditions in the hundreds of community toilet blocks built. This monitoring system supports government officials in each ward and the communities served by the toilet blocks in identifying and addressing faults. It also helps develop good working relationships between communities and ward and municipal officials, which can allow other key issues to be addressed.
HDSS Profile: The Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS). Int. J. Epidemiol. (2015)
doi: 10.1093/ije/dyu251
Authors: Donatien Beguy, Patricia Elung’ata, et al.
The Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS) was the first urban-based longitudinal health and demographic surveillance platform in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The NUHDSS was established in 2002 to provide a platform to investigate the long-term social, economic and health consequences of urban residence, and to serve as a primary research tool for intervention and impact evaluation studies focusing on the needs of the urban poor in SSA. Since its inception, the NUHDSS has successfully followed every year a population of about 65 000 individuals in 24 000 households in two slum communities—Korogocho and Viwandani—in Nairobi, Kenya.
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CityLinks WASH App2Action Challenge to develop phone or web based tools
Housed under the USAID-funded, ICMA CityLinks program, the App2Action Challenge brings together software developers, designers, and subject-matter experts to develop phone- or web- based tools that help address WASH challenges in a local community.
CityLinks is releasing a Call for Interest for Missions who would be interested in an App2Action Challenge in their communities either to enhance an existing water/sanitation projects or serve as a stand-alone event in support of local development and improved services.
It is fully funded by the CityLinks Leader, and therefore comes at no cost to the field missions. Rather, the Mission’s role can include
a) identifying a sub-national entity (city, province, department, etc.) that would be interested in and benefit from the App2Action Challenge;
b) assistance in defining the WASH challenge;
c) participating on the judge’s panel; and
d) connecting CityLinks with in-country resources and knowledge.
We really envision this model to drive civic engagement and innovation. In the past, there have been international projects similar to this, but on a larger scale. Because we are working with one Mission and a specific sub-national entity , this project structure can be very flexible to their needs and capacity. We ask for an email indicating interest by February 25, 2015.
