Effectiveness, Scale and Sustainability in WASH Programmes – A Review, 2013.
Dr. Ben Taylor, The Springfield Centre for Business in Development
btaylor@springfieldcentre.com
This paper provides a review of current WASH programmes together with a new framework for their analysis. This framework focuses on effectiveness, sustainability and scale; approaches to intervention will therefore be assessed against these criteria. Using this, the paper finds a predominance of direct delivery approaches to
WASH sector interventions, and a systematic bias against the inclusion of failed and of less direct forms of intervention in their analysis.
The paper presents some emerging data from interventions that have implemented elements of systemic change in the WASH sector. It demonstrates their successes but also their failures in the context of broader politicaland economic constraints within a system. Ultimately, the paper argues for the adoption of systemic approaches to
development programming in the WASH sector with a view to providing sustainable and large-scale change for poor people.
