It's my pleasure to introduce to you today a grant funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which was carried out by a new grantee in their WSH portfolio, and is nearing completion. If you have any questions about the grant, just put them into this thread.

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Title of grant: World Resources Report: Influencing action on equitable access to core urban services, focusing on urban sanitation in the global South - To provide action-oriented research towards equitable access to urban sanitation services in the global South

- Name of lead organization: World Resources Institute
- Primary contact at lead organization: Victoria Beard
- Grantee location: Washington D.C., USA
- Start and end date: Sep 2017 – Aug 2018
- Grant size: USD $230,000

Short description of the project:

The project will result in a working paper on challenges and actionable solutions to equitable access to sanitation services in struggling and emerging cities in the global South. The paper is part of the World Resources Report (WRR), Towards a More Equal City. The report examines whether equitable access to core urban public services can help achieve a more economically productive and environmentally sustainable city. The report has a set of research papers that examines this question from the perspective of a core urban service, such as this paper on access to equitable access to sanitation services.

This paper first examines urban sanitation from global comparative perspective and then provides a more detailed look at 15 cities. The sanitation analysis examines efforts to address fecal sludge containment, transportation, and treatment. The research considers current realities in informal settlements and the challenges of providing universal, reliable, and affordable sanitation services. It will examine efforts to reduce costs to consumers, efforts to upgrading informal settlements, and the importance of short-, medium- and long-term solutions, while considering governance, finance, and the capacity to plan and manage urban change over time.

Goal(s) and objectives:

There is an emerging global consensus that cities must work towards providing sanitation services for all. Achieving this outcome is not guaranteed. It requires a new vision of how to build and manage cities. The objective of this research is to present actions cities can take to ensure equitable access to sanitation services as the entry point for urban sustainability. It will contribute to the social and political movement of urban change agents and policymakers working towards this outcome.

Links, further readings – results to date:
To follow the latest updates and progress of the World Resources Report, please visit: www.wri.org/wri-citiesforall/cities-all

Current state of affairs:
In development. The sanitation paper is set to launch in the fall of 2018.

Biggest successes so far:
o In July 2017, we held a high-level stakeholder engagement workshop in Washington D.C. More than 15 international sanitation experts joined us for an intensive two-day workshop on the framing and solution sets of the working papers.
o From April 2017 – September 2018, we are working with local sanitation experts and researchers to collect primary data on the level of access, quality of access, and costs of sanitation services in 15 cities across the global South. The list of cities includes: Cochabamba, Bolivia; Nairobi, Kenya; Lagos, Nigeria; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Kampala, Uganda; Mzuzu, Malawi; Cali, Colombia; Bangalore, India; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Caracas, Venezuela; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Mumbai, India; Maputo, Mozambique; Karachi, Pakistan; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Kunming, China.

Main challenges / frustration:
None to report

You can also find this project in the SuSanA project database here: www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/projects/database/details/546
There you will also find the link to download their publication "Towards a More Equal City: Framing the Challenges and Opportunities".

Regards,
Elisabeth