The Sustainable Development Goal for Urban Sanitation

Africa’s Statistical Tragedy Continues

Bibliographic Data

ID12472864
AuthorsRobert M Buckley (0000-0002-0025-919X, New School, corresponding author), Achilles Kallergis (New School)
Year2018
Volume96
Issue1
Pages123-130
Publication date2018-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Urban Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1099-3460 • E-ISSN: 1468-2869
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11524-018-0267-1
PMID29858977
OpenAlexW2805121430
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

Sanitation delivery in the urban areas of sub-Saharan African countries has been a chronic issue, particularly difficult to tackle. Under the Millennium Development Goals, the sanitation target in urban sub-Saharan Africa was missed by a wide margin and witnessed almost no improvement. After 2 years of review, the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme published a new measure of access to sanitation as a baseline for the Sustainable Development Goals. There are a number of improvements in the new measure. However, despite the improvements, the new measure continues to be characterized by an important flaw: it continues to disregard how shared toilet facilities contribute towards the SDG sanitation target. As a result, the new measure does not indicate whether progress is being made in low-income urban areas where a large number of households rely on shared sanitation; nor does it provide a goal that can be achieved in cities of the poorest countries over the measurement period. But, its most egregious failing is that it directs resources towards investments which will often fail cost/benefit tests. In sum, it is not a surprise that a Working Group recommended that the measure should be changed to include some shared facilities. Following the Working Group's recommendation would have avoided the adverse consequences of continued reliance on a key component of the methodology used for monitoring sanitation improvements under the Millennium Development Goals. The paper discusses the limitations of this methodology in the context of urban sub-Saharan Africa, where current sanitation conditions are seriously lacking, and the significant future urban population growth will add more pressure for the delivery of vital sanitation services

Baseline (sea · Business · Context (archaeology · Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental planning · Geography · Improved sanitation · Millennium Development Goals · Open defecation · Political science · Sanitation · Sustainable development · Toilet · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Engineering · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Environmental Engineering

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