The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)

The Water and Sanitation Program, set up within the World Bank with joint funding from the Bank and UNDP, is an international partnership that began with pilot initiatives in the late 1970s. Its purpose, together with partners in government donor agencies, the private sector, and NGOs, is to promote innovative solutions tailored to local needs and conditions. In other words it is an advocacy organisation, targeting its own parent organisation, the World Bank, as well as other donors.

The program's current approach emphasises demand-responsiveness in which:

A balance is struck between the economic value of water to users, the cost of providing services to users, and the prices charged for these services;
Management decisions about service levels location and cost sharing should generally be made with public consultation and user involvement in the planning and implementation of water and sanitation projects.

The Program works in three major strategic objectives which provide the framework for activities that strengthen sector policies; support sustainable investments and in learning and communicating lessons.

Demand Responsive Approaches (DRAs) in water supply management have given positive results in isolated cases around the world where Civil society and NGOs were heavily involved. But it is civil society that still struggles to get the voice of the people, mainly the poor, heard when management decisions are being implemented by governments and private sector with the support of international financial institutions.

WSP website