Poverty reduction strategy papers

Credit: WaterAid / Suzanne Porter

"The voices of all those with an interest in water and sanitation provision such as communities, civil society, providers and governments need to be heard so that water and sanitation are prioritised."

In 1999, the IMF and the World Bank agreed to enhance the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative, providing debt relief to 42 countries around the world on the condition that these countries produce a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).

However, despite poor people continually placing water supply as one of their top three concerns water has not been prioritised in the first wave of PRSPs. Sanitation lags even further behind. The fact that water and sanitation are not PRSP priorities is being used by donor governments to decrease the amount of aid they give to these services, despite all governments having signed up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the proportions of people without water and sanitation by 2015.

As water and sanitation are vital for poverty reduction WaterAid has been working towards ensuring these essential services are included within the PRSPs.

The voices of all those with an interest in water and sanitation provision such as communities, civil society, providers and governments need to be heard so that water and sanitation are prioritised in the plans. To make this happen these groups, which are currently fragmented, must work together in a coordinated way.

WaterAid believes that:

• The PRSPs should both reflect poor people's priorities and the targets agreed in the MDGs, and as such should include water and sanitation. Donors, civil society groups and governments should work together to ensure this happens

• Water and sanitation are essential for poverty reduction. This link needs to be recognised nationally and internationally so that water and sanitation are prioritised within the PRSPs

• To assist in this, donors, governments and civil society must investigate and publicise the links between water, sanitation and poverty reduction. Extra attention needs to be given to sanitation to ensure it too becomes a priority issue

• As donors and governments now allocate funding according to the priorities given in the PRSPs, water and sanitation must be included to ensure that they receive adequate resources

• The capacity of those with an interest in water and sanitation provision such as communities, civil society, providers and governments should be developed so that they can input in to the PRSPs in a coordinated and participatory way

• PRSPs should be country-led and there should not be any donor conditions embedded within them that force countries to privatise their water and sanitation services

Read our discussion papers on PRSPs