Sanitation Markets: Using economics to improve the delivery of services along the sanitation value chain, 2012.
Sophie Trémolet. SHARE.
Conclusions
In summary, a number of actions could be undertaken based on these findings:
- Make the case for investment in sanitation;
- Channel financing more effectively and increase the effectiveness of public funding;
- Foster demand for sanitation at all levels of the value chain;
- Influence the restructuring of the provision of transport services for on-site sanitation, particularly by formalising small-scale private providers,
- Estimate the value of the various sanitation by-products and identify ways of monetizing such value in a sustainable manner through reuse.
In order to support future actions, key areas of research should be explored, including:
- Improve the estimates of the benefits of investing in sanitation and compare the benefits with the costs of sanitation in a broader range of countries and local contexts, as well as evaluate the cost-effectiveness of alternative investments;
- Identify the most effective financing mechanisms, including ways of attracting new resources into the sector (e.g. from beneficiaries) and via re-use and overcoming the affordability constraint;
- Identify ways of stimulating demand and overcome information asymmetry for households, entrepreneurs or even the government;
- Identify ways of organising service provision and scaling-up of small-scale entrepreneurs.
Sanitation economics research has a critical role to play and should be fostered. On this basis, budding and ineffective sanitation markets can be transformed into thriving markets where the full value of sanitation by-products is fully realised and reinvested into the system so as to foster increased investments and generate efficiency gains.
