Publication: Measuring What Works in Rural Water: Toward a Set of Global Indicators
Loading...
Date
2019-10
ISSN
Published
2019-10
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Creating a global core set of indicators that can be integrated into existing monitoring efforts or harnessed as a foundation for new monitoring efforts will improve the efficiency of the sector and still enable collection of locally-relevant information. Following a World Bank review of 40 different existing rural water indicator frameworks from national and development partner project systems, a set of 24 existing indicators was identified as a potential set of global core metrics for rural water supply. This knowledge note describes challenges, opportunities, implementation, and next steps for measuring what works in rural water.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2019. Measuring What Works in Rural Water: Toward a Set of Global Indicators. Water Knowledge Note;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32607 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Toward a Universal Measure of What Works on Rural Water Supply(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-08-23)One of the most pervasive development issues related to the provision of rural water supply and sanitation services (RWSS) is their lack of sustainability. Assessing and measuring sustainability is a difficult task for which there has not emerged a consensus on which indicators to use. Unlike in the urban water supply and sanitation where there exist universally recognized indicators, the rural water supply and sanitation sub-sector still lacks a universal metrics global framework. This is because the rural water sector has a wide variety of service levels (water points and piped systems) as well as type of service providers (communities, governments and private sector). The adoption of such universal framework by adapting country monitoring systems will facilitate improved national and global reporting and analysis. This publication summarizes the methodology and conclusions of a study aimed at proposing a Rural Water Metrics Framework that was based on the findings of analyzing 40 RWSS frameworks. The proposed Global Framework contains minimum, basic, and advanced indicators to be tailored according to each country context. The study finalizes presenting a total of 24 indicators as being key to monitoring RWSS and proposes further validation and dissemination with regional and global partners in the short term, as well as engagement with regional platforms working on water issues for their framework adoption in the long-term to support data sharing and analysis.Publication What Works at Scale? Distilling the Critical Success Factors for Scaling Up Rural Sanitation(Washington, DC, 2014-05-27)In February 2014, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India, in collaboration with the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) of the World Bank, brought together policy makers, scholars and practitioners in Jaipur, India, for the Knowledge Sharing Forum entitled what works at scale? Distilling critical success factors for scaling up rural sanitation. The forum participants reviewed the conditions required for successful sanitation programs and strategies that could lead to sound implementation of such programs and strategies in their own states and/or countries. Participants from within India came from State and District sanitation programs, international organizations, NGOs and the private sector. The forum also benefited from international experience, with strategic inputs provided by key resource people from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Tanzania, Thailand and Uganda. Prior to the formal sessions, international participants were able to visit two districts in Rajasthan to observe sanitation campaigns which had resulted in open defecation-free status. The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), Clean India Campaign, focuses on a comprehensive program to ensure the sustained use of safe sanitation facilities in rural areas, eliminating the practice of open defecation and ensuring a clean environment. The NBA experience has shown that without the motivation for safe sanitation, facilities will not be used with any degree of consistency. Demand creation must therefore take precedence over physical implementation and new practices must be sustained after construction. The focus is not on individual households but on groups of people at the habitation, village, community (Panchayat) levels who can work together, supporting each other to achieve long term open defecation-free status. Once the demand is created, a strong supply chain must be in place to ensure a rapid response.Publication Nigeria : Expanding Access to Rural Infrastructure Issues and Options for Rural Electrification, Water Supply and Telecommunications(Washington, DC, 2005-12)Over two thirds of Nigeria's population resides in rural areas. Increasingly, poverty in the country is wearing a rural face. From 28.3 percent in 1980, poverty among the rural population grew to 51.4 percent in 1985, has since risen to 69.8 percent in 1996. Poverty tends to affect men and women differently. Women are generally less educated, more vulnerable, deprived and powerless than their male counterparts. 1.2 Poor people experience insecurity and vulnerability (drought, desertification, flooding, deforestation, diseases, volatile commodity markets etc.); lack of empowerment to influence public policies according to their priorities; and lack of opportunities for income generation and benefits from markets. Access to education, safe water supply, sanitation, health, modern energy, telecommunications and roads are important in reducing vulnerability and increasing prosperity.Publication Private Sector Delivery of Rural Piped Water Services in Bangladesh(Washington, DC, 2015-08)This note explores the Bangladesh experience in implementing the widespread use of a private operator model for building and operating rural piped water schemes. Since the early 1990s, the World Bank has, through a series of development projects, designed, piloted, and attempted to scale up use of the model as a mechanisms to address the very real issues of arsenic contamination and delivery at scale. The latest of these projects is still in implementation. The experience with these projects to date has been disappointing, and while a limited number of schemes are still in operation, the model has not been replicated in a large number of communities as intended and has not proved to be particularly sustainable. Over this same period, the government and other development partners also have been using alternative methods to deliver the same kinds of services in rural areas. Some of these efforts seem to have been modestly successful. However, much of the evidence about the performance of these other models is anecdotal and there has been little rigorous analysis to compare the performance of these different models with the private sponsor approach. This paper attempts to do this on the basis of a desk review of existing World Bank literature, including project documents and research reports, coupled with interviews with key stakeholders and World Bank staff. The first section of the paper provides an overview of the rationale and key issues associated with efforts to scale up a private operator model in Bangladesh. The second section reviews government efforts and those of its other development partners, to use a more traditional mode of service provision, involving community management. The third, fourth, and fifth sections review efforts by the government and the World Bank to design, test, and scale up a private operator model for service provision. A sixth section reviews some of the international research that provides insights into the use of such models in other countries and sectors. The paper ends with tentative conclusions about the experience in Bangladesh, lessons learned, and several options for further analysis.Publication Financing Small Piped Water Systems in Rural and Peri-Urban Kenya(Washington, DC, 2011-09)In Kenya, community run small-scale water systems play a critical role in supplying and improving access to water services in peri-urban and rural areas. This is largely because municipally-owned water services providers currently supply only 25 per cent of the country's population and 39 per cent of the population within their service areas. Historically, under a centralized institutional structure, a large number of communities were tasked with managing and recovering the operating costs of small piped water supply systems installed by government. The importance of these community providers has been recognized in recent reforms of the sector. These provide for a legal and regulatory framework for community based organizations to engage in water service provision outside major towns and cities. However, a host of problems complicate efforts to support these community organizations to become reliable service providers, including their limited management capacity, low operating revenues and lack of access to finance. Efforts to license and regulate the operations of community water projects have been hampered by the slow implementation of policies aimed at decentralizing water service delivery to communities in areas not covered by municipal water services providers. In spite of considerable liquidity within the Kenyan financial sector, domestic banks do not typically finance investments in water infrastructure because of the long term nature of infrastructure finance and the perceived lack of creditworthiness of rural and peri-urban small scale water providers. Efforts to license and regulate the operations of community water projects (CWPs) have been hampered by the slow implementation of policies aimed at decentralizing water service delivery to communities in areas not covered by municipal water services providers. With the considerable public financial resources available in the water sector, the size of the market for a loan linked product is likely to be limited over the medium term. However, public funds are not sufficient to build the infrastructure required to effectively meet the demand for water services: hence the increasing focus on cost recovery tariffs and the considerable initiatives underway to access supplementary financial resources from the private sector.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication The Journey Ahead(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31)The Journey Ahead: Supporting Successful Migration in Europe and Central Asia provides an in-depth analysis of international migration in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and the implications for policy making. By identifying challenges and opportunities associated with migration in the region, it aims to inform a more nuanced, evidencebased debate on the costs and benefits of cross-border mobility. Using data-driven insights and new analysis, the report shows that migration has been an engine of prosperity and has helped address some of ECA’s demographic and socioeconomic disparities. Yet, migration’s full economic potential remains untapped. The report identifies multiple barriers keeping migration from achieving its full potential. Crucially, it argues that policies in both origin and destination countries can help maximize the development impacts of migration and effectively manage the economic, social, and political costs. Drawing from a wide range of literature, country experiences, and novel analysis, The Journey Ahead presents actionable policy options to enhance the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries and migrants themselves. Some measures can be taken unilaterally by countries, whereas others require close bilateral or regional coordination. The recommendations are tailored to different types of migration— forced displacement as well as high-skilled and low-skilled economic migration—and from the perspectives of both sending and receiving countries. This report serves as a comprehensive resource for governments, development partners, and other stakeholders throughout Europe and Central Asia, where the richness and diversity of migration experiences provide valuable insights for policy makers in other regions of the world.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.