Guidance note on the development of action plans to ensure equitable access to water and sanitation

Overview

The Protocol on Water and Health specifies that in pursuing the aims of access to drinking water and provision of sanitation for everyone, special consideration should be paid to ensure equitable access to these services for all members of the population. The publication No one left behind: good practices to ensure equitable access to water and sanitation identified three critical factors in ensuring equitable access to water and sanitation: reducing geographical disparities; overcoming the barriers faced by vulnerable and marginalized groups; and addressing affordability concerns. The Equitable Access Score-card was built upon these three policy concerns. It is an analytical tool designed to help Governments and other stakeholders to establish a baseline measure of the equity of access to water and sanitation, identify related priorities, discuss further actions to be taken and evaluate progress through a process of self-assessment. The Guidance Note on the development of action plans aims to help countries in translating the priorities identified through the self-assessment into actions. Specific Equitable Access Action Plans are needed to guide country (‎or sub-national entity)‎ efforts to achieve equitable access to water and sanitation by identifying priority actions to be implemented and ways of implementing them. The Note describes the content of Action Plans and their process of development.