Case Study

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Mapping and landscaping review of the water supply, sanitation and hygiene sector, March to September 2006

In February 2006 Aguaconsult won a contract as part of a consortium including Cranfield University of the UK and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in the Netherlands to work on a review of technologies and approaches to water supply, sanitation and hygiene for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Aguaconsult provided overall project management for a large multi-disciplinary team of sector specialists, as well as contributing to the technical content of the research project itself. The study was undertaken to identify new and emerging technologies and approaches that have significant potential to generate effective, sustainable and scalable solutions to water, sanitation and hygiene problems in the developing world. 

The team worked for nine months in carrying out a mapping and assessment of current technologies and approaches to management, financing and capacity building, looking at interventions which may have the potential to lead to step changes in impact. The various outputs and documentation of the now completed review process were used to inform the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s internal lesson-learning as it determined whether or not to enter into a long-term programme of support to the sector.

Mapping and Landscaping review outputs

Developing national capacity to bring about change is crucial. This needs to include not only the transfer of knowledge and skills, but also changes to organisational culture, the promotion of nationally-owned policies, systems of positive incentives, and better resource allocation. This is the key message from the mapping and landscaping study carried out on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by a consortium of Cranfield University, Aguaconsult, and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

Three PDF files from this study: Landscaping and Review of Approaches and Technologies for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Opportunities for Action, April 2007 can be downloaded below.

The views expressed here and in the reports are those of Cranfield university, Aguaconsult Ltd., and the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC), and may not reflect the views of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Global conclusions and recommendations

• The problems associated with inadequate WS&H services are huge, but there are real opportunities to make a difference.

• Action in the WS&H sector creates new opportunities and freedoms for the poor, including better health, time and energy saving; privacy, dignity and safety; and improved livelihoods and education.

• When all actors cooperate together and there is ownership, real change can take place.

• There are no silver bullets, but plenty of opportunity for the scaled-up application of best practice which has been proven at pilot scale.

• Many barriers to progress in WS&H lie outside the sector. Weak institutions and poor governance affect the ability to “do business” effectively, to bring about beneficial change, and to focus on poverty reduction.

Mapping and Landscaping review documents

Landscaping and Review of Approaches and Technologies for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Opportunities for Action
This document is the principal report produced by the consortium as part of the review commissioned by the foundation, and contains the main findings of a landscaping exercise, including a problem mapping of the water, sanitation and hygiene sector and the identification of approaches and technologies that have the potential to be actionable at scale, providing sustainable services. It should be read in conjunction with the two other documents described below.

Landscaping and Review of Approaches to support service provision for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
This is a supporting document to the main report, which provides an overview and mapping of approaches to the delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene services. The document sets out an analytical framework to assess the various approaches that have been tried in the past, describes the main challenges and opportunities and puts forward a number of innovative and potentially viable solutions that may be considered for future work in the sector.

Landscaping and Review of Technologies to support service provision for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
This is a supporting document to the main report, which provides an overview of technologies that have been employed in the delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene services. The document provides a framework for assessing and appraising technologies and explores the reasons for the past take up, or failure, taking into account requirements for management, operation and maintenance. It provides a number of recommendations.