Rationale:

Sanitation off-track to meet the MDGs: Globally, an estimated 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation, and current efforts to improve access are not adequate to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of people without access to improved sanitation by 2015.  At the current rate of progress, the world will miss the MDG target by 13 percentage points and by 2015 there will be 2.7 billion people without access to basic sanitation.  Even if we were able to meet the MDG target, there would still be 1.7 billion people without access to basic sanitation.

 Importance of sanitation investment: Cost-benefit studies show that direct and indirect costs of poor sanitation access in developing countries can account for up to 7% of GDP.  On the other hand, investments in sanitation are cost effective and provide value for money: every $1 invested in sanitation is estimated to achieve a $9 return.

Lack of leadership and institutional coherence and size of the investment gap:  Despite its importance, the sanitation sector is characterized by neglect.  Only in times of crises, such as cholera outbreaks, does sanitation get prioritized.  Few developing governments have strong leadership in sanitation and institutional mandates are fragmented between health, water, local government or other sector portfolios.  The unmet demand for sanitation services is estimated at $80 billion over 10 years to meet the MDG.

Lack of comprehensive planning:  Whilst most countries have some overall water and sanitation plan, few sanitation plans are comprehensive and fully integrated, internally or with other sectors.  

Sanitation settlement types need different solutions: The nature of sanitation problems vary from country to country and within settlement types. For some poor countries the immediate problem is moving from open defecation; in others it is moving neglected populations up the sanitation ladder; for some the central problem maintaining an expensive sanitation infrastructure.  Urban, peri-urban, small town and rural areas have different parameters and issues and require different solutions.  

Sanitation strategies rarely address whole supply chain: Financing priorities for sanitation in developing countries are skewed towards capital construction, with little regard for the whole supply chain .  A holistic approach to sanitation needs to be adopted, incorporating capture, storage, transport, treatment, disposal or reuse.

Progress is needed in three strategic areas of comprehensive sanitation planning:
1.    National sanitation plans:  National sanitation plans need to be developed, especially for countries off-track to meet the MDGs, based on an analysis of existing sanitation status and why current strategies are not achieving national goals.  Once key problems are identified, national sanitation plans and strategies can be developed.
2.    Specific settlement-type plans:  National plans need to incorporate specific strategies for different settlement types.  Special attention is needed to address the complex issues of city-wide planning in the large conurbations in developing countries.
3.    Monitoring systems:  As essential element to developing plans is a process for monitoring and reporting on their implementation.

Current Advances

Several related global sector initiatives have recently made progress in these strategic areas:
1.    Country preparations: Country Status Overviews are a sector assessment process, and key tool towards developing sanitation national plans developed by WSP/World Bank and being applied in Africa, South and East Asia and Latin America.  The Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) initiative is developing mechanisms to stimulate country processes in off-track countries.  Tools include a fund National Planning for Results Initiative.  Regional Sanitation Conferences, such as AFRICASAN and SACOSAN, have developed processes to assist countries prepare sanitation and hygiene national plans and to monitor their implementation.  Sanitation a nd hygiene  which have specific components on rural and urban sanitation. The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) implemented by WHO gathers information on national sanitation planning and financing processes.  The second annual report is due out at the time of the 6th World Water Forum.

2.    Integrated urban planning: Several recent initiatives have specifically sought to address the technical and planning challenges of urban sanitation, providing new insights and ideas.  The EU-financed SWITCH program has sought to develop new paradigms for thinking about urban water and waste management, including city strategic plans addressing the whole urban water and waste cycle.  The International Water Association (IWA) has sought to give strategic leadership to its partners to identify urban sanitation solutions building on initiatives such as Sanitation 21  and the Vienna Urban Sanitation Charter.  

Purpose of Target 1.2.5
The purpose of the target 1.2.5 is to build further momentum for the development of comprehensive national sanitation plans, including specific urban sanitation strategies and monitoring systems. During the 6th World Water Forum itself, the session 1.2.5 will further deepen the discussion on the extent to which IWA , SWA, GLAAS and other initiatives can strengthen country sanitation planning.