Financing Water in Africa

Main author: Bayliss, Kate
Format: Monographs and Working Papers           
Online access: Click here to view record


Summary: Despite repeated policy initiatives from donors and governments, the human and economic cost of continued lack of access to safe water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa remains high. Progress is in large part constrained by a persistent ‘financing gap’. This paper shows that a radical reorientation of policy is needed to achieve a significant increase in investment finance in order to raise access levels. Rather than continuing to pursue policies that have failed for the past two decades, such as attempting to attract the private sector and raising prices to cost recovery levels, attention needs to shift to wider aspects of domestic revenue mobilization to support public investment.
Language: English
Published: No. 182, SOAS Department of Economics Working Paper Series. 2013