ABSTRACT
Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), significant progress was made with 2.6 billion people gaining access to an improved drinking water source and 2.1 billion gaining access to improved sanitation facilities between 1990 and 2015. However, improvements in monitoring over the same period have highlighted disparities in rates of progress between regions and countries, and among population groups. This chapter describes the progress made in tracking inequalities in both access and service levels. It characterises the main types of inequality identified during the MDG era and the challenges associated with the collection and analysis of related data. The chapter includes data and analysis drawn from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme and other relevant sources. It shows that while our understanding of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) inequalities has greatly improved, much remains to be done to track their progressive elimination under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Future efforts to enhance national and subnational capacity for monitoring and reporting on inequalities in WASH will need to focus on further harmonising indicators and measurement techniques, especially for the new SDG indicators, to better integrate data on WASH and other dimensions of inequality, and to present data in a format that is easier for policy makers and practitioners to understand and use.
