ABSTRACT
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by the UN member states in September 2015. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replace the Millennium Development Goals. SDG 6 for WASH calls for universal and equitable access to these services by 2030. In this chapter we review the potential of the SDG framework to promote equality through WASH initiatives. We outline two key principles for action – universality and interconnectedness – before illustrating how these can be applied in the context of three challenges to accelerating progress: inequalities, urbanisation and climate change. We make an assessment of what is needed to put this rhetoric into practice, through national plans, policy changes, data, financing, and political will. The design, implementation, and monitoring of WASH programmes can be an entry point to attaining a range of SDG targets – on reducing inequalities within and between countries; for the sustainable services in small towns and informal settlements; and in adapting to climate change. We argue that WASH interventions can and do successfully contribute to equality outcomes and that the 2030 Agenda has the potential to further amplify this through its focus on universality and interconnectedness. Achieving this requires that WASH practitioners develop their capacity to work in an integrated way in support of government leadership, strengthened institutional arrangements (coordination, service delivery arrangements, accountability and regulation), sustainable WASH budgeting and financing, planning, monitoring and review.
