New Publications
mWASH: mobile phone applications for the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector
18 May 12
This report reviews the potential of mobile phones to improve governance in the development sector with a special emphasis on the water, sanitation, and hygiene or WASH sector. It reviews ten selected organisations and their mobile phone projects in depth to determine whether there are broad-based lessons to be drawn from their experiences of system development and implementation.
Meeting the water reform challenge
18 May 12
This OECD report examines three fundamental areas that need to be addressed whatever reform agendas are pursued by governments: financing of the water sector; the governance and institutional arrangements that are in place; and coherence between water policies and policies in place in other sectors of the economy.
Guidelines for planning and providing multiple-use water services
18 May 12
This manual synthesises various existing guidelines on the multiple-use water services (MUS) approach into one concise set of generic guidelines on ‘how to do MUS’. It provides guidelines on planning, developing and providing MUS based on the experiences of members of the MUS Group, which was established in 2006. The guidelines are targeted towards people and organisations already interested in applying or adapting the MUS approach in their specific context.
Aid effectiveness in the water and sanitation sector
14 Feb 12
This IRC thematic overview paper examines the aid effectiveness agenda and reviews its implementation at international and various regional and county levels. The writers offer a preliminary insight into how the contours of the aid effectiveness agenda may be redefined to better suit the developmental needs of countries.
Sanitation financing models for the urban poor
05 Jan 12
This thematic overview paper catalogues existing financing models that can help the urban poor get access to complete sanitation services. It examines each model based on an analytical framework that comprises six criteria: applicability, simplicity, sustainability, scalability, pro-poor, and equity.
A practical guide for building a simple pit latrine
05 Jan 12
This technical do-it-yourself guide provides step-by-step instruction on building simple pit latrines. It was designed for use at the individual household level to assist families in West Africa who have already decided to build their own latrines.
Documenting change : an introduction to process documentation
27 Dec 11
In this Occasional Paper, IRC consolidates lessons learned across a range of IRC projects and describes the resultant and emerging understanding of how process documentation can promote learning and action through joint reflection and analysis. This Occasional Paper also offers tools for collecting and presenting observations that stimulate reflection, learning and sharing.
Arrangements and cost of providing support to rural water service providers
29 Nov 11
This joint WASHCost and Triple-S paper is about the costs of providing direct and indirect support to rural water service provision. It provides an overview of the features such support entails, how those features can be organised, what they cost and how they can be financed. It also provides recommendations to countries for strengthening support.
Ladders for assessing and costing water service delivery
29 Nov 11
This working paper introduces the concept of service levels, grouped as sequential rungs on a ladder, as a way of differentiating between broad and recognisable types (levels) of service.This second edition reflects the experiences of applying this methodology in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mozambique and India (Andhra Pradesh).
Life-cycle costs approach: costing sustainable services
29 Nov 11
This WASHCost project briefing note describes the life-cycle costs approach and why it was developed. It explains the main cost components for water and sanitation in rural and peri-urban areas
