Assessing access to safe water and monitoring progress on MDG7 target 10 (access to safe water and basic sanitation): Lessons from Kazakhstan

Water Policy ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah O'Hara ◽  
Tim Hannan ◽  
Maria Genina
Keyword(s):  
Specific Information ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
General Relevance ◽  
Basic Sanitation ◽  
Improved Sanitation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Base Data ◽  
Improve Health

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), designed to combat global poverty and hunger, protect the environment, improve health and sanitation and promote education and gender equality, were agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. The importance of access to clean water in the overall MDG process has been highlighted and shown to contribute to all other goals and targets. Goal 7 target 10 aims to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation”, compared with 1990. The aim of this MDG is clear and considered to be achievable in most countries. However, it is argued that the base data upon which the targets are set and against which progress will be measured can be problematic, partly because of reliance on poor government information and also on the apparent need of the UN to have a consistent base year and set of definitions across the world. In this paper, we report the findings of a major water and sanitation survey conducted in Kazakhstan designed specifically to quantify the current level of access, providing the base upon which to determine implementation priorities and against which to measure progress. As well as providing country-specific information the survey highlighted several important issues that have more general relevance. We raise three major questions associated with Target 10: how to define “access”, how to define “improved source” or “improved sanitation” and whether 1990 is always an appropriate base year. Moreover, we argue that there is need to reconsider the way progress is monitored and that the focus on global comparisons is detrimental to making real progress. In conclusion we argue that improving water supply and sanitation can be done in a way that is (1) appropriate for the country, (2) feasible (and fairly easy) to monitor progress and (3) more likely to be accepted by government as there is a sense of relevance.

scholarly journals Global challenges in water, sanitation and health

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (S1) ◽  
pp. 41-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine L. Moe ◽  
Richard D. Rheingans
Keyword(s):  
Water Reuse ◽  
Distribution Systems ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Basic Sanitation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sanitation Systems

The year 2005 marks the beginning of the “International Decade for Action: Water for Life” and renewed effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce by half the proportion of the world's population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. Currently, UNICEF and WHO estimate that 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supplies and 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Providing safe water and basic sanitation to meet the MDGs will require substantial economic resources, sustainable technological solutions and courageous political will. We review five major challenges to providing safe water and sanitation on a global basis: (1) contamination of water in distribution systems, (2) growing water scarcity and the potential for water reuse and conservation, (3) implementing innovative low-cost sanitation systems, (4) providing sustainable water supplies and sanitation for megacities, and (5) reducing global and regional disparities in access to water and sanitation and developing financially sustainable water and sanitation services.

Prevalence and clustering of diarrhoea within households in India: some evidence from NFHS-4, 2015–16

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bevin Vijayan ◽  
Mala Ramanathan
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Diarrhoeal Disease ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
Improved Sanitation ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Water Supply And Sanitation

AbstractDiarrhoeal disease is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in children and is usually measured at individual level. Shared household attributes, such as improved water supply and sanitation, expose those living in the same household to these same risk factors for diarrhoea. The occurrence of diarrhoea in two or more children in the same household is termed ‘diarrhoea clustering’. The aim of this study was to examine the role of improved water supply and sanitation in the occurrence of diarrhoea, and the clustering of diarrhoea in households, among under-five children in India. Data were taken from the fourth round of the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-4), a nationally representative survey which interviewed 699,686 women from 601,509 households in the country. If any child was reported to have diarrhoea in a household in the 2 weeks preceding the survey, the household was designated a diarrhoeal household. Household clustering of diarrhoea was defined the occurrence of diarrhoea in more than one child in households with two or more children. The analysis was done at the household level separately for diarrhoeal households and clustering of diarrhoea in households. The presence of clustering was tested using a chi-squared test. The overall prevalences of diarrhoea and clustering of diarrhoea were examined using exogenous variables. Odds ratios, standardized to allow comparison across categories, were computed. The household prevalence of diarrhoea was 12% and that of clustering of diarrhoea was 2.4%. About 6.5% of households contributed 12.6% of the total diarrhoeal cases. Access to safe water and sanitation was shown to have a great impact on reducing diarrhoeal prevalence and clustering across different household groups. Safe water alone had a greater impact on reducing the prevalence in the absence of improved sanitation when compared with the presence of improved sanitation. It may be possible to reduce the prevalence of diarrhoea in households by targeting those households with more than one child in the under-five age group with the provision of safe water and improved sanitation.

scholarly journals Women Centred Development Initiatives: Facilitating or Hindering Empowerment

2016 ◽  
pp. 153-167
Author(s):  
Kamleshwer Lohana Et al.,
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Gender Power ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

Organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), USAID, DFID, are the leading organizations in social development. Others indicate that organizations like WB and other transnational agencies are not supposed to support any change and they fail to embrace the political process and social movements which can be sensitization forces in communities. Some authors have often identified that the concepts and achievements of gender struggles are sidelined by neo-liberal institutions. In this article, it will be argued that women may be being used as instruments in the process of their own disempowerment and this situation is caused by the neo-liberal economic reform and religious fundamentalism. A case study of the Indian women-centered development project of micro-credit, initiated by government and implemented by local NGOs is also discussed. Through a critical analysis of feminism and realities of the development project which promotes it, penetrating insights of its inequalities will be discerned. Further, it will be argued that under a flourishing patriarchal society, it will also draw attention to the rebellion by elected women representatives which have led to a flourishing new concept of women’s citizenship under a burgeoning neo-liberalism and fundamentalism. In this article, how international organizations can report and misrepresent the facts and figures, and set development goals which are beyond expectations, will be identified. In addition, ethnographic aspects such as gender-power relations and existing pathways to women’s empowerment in India will be highlighted. Additionally, initiatives will be recommended that may help to achieve equitable gender goals and gender mainstreaming.

Features of pulmonary thromboembolism in women

Kardiologiia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (11) ◽  
pp. 89-97
Author(s):  
O. Ya. Vasiltseva ◽  
K. N. Vitt ◽  
A. M. Cherniavsky
Keyword(s):  
Time Window ◽  
Uterine Fibroids ◽  
Diagnostic Process ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Computed Tomographic ◽  
Artery Embolism ◽  
Pregnancy And Delivery ◽  
Oncological Diseases ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Pulmonary Artery Embolism

Pulmonary artery embolism (PAE) is usually a diagnosis of exclusion. Verification of a more common pathology takes time, which may become critical for treatment of pulmonary embolism and saving the patient’s life. Since PAE is an acute disease, the time window for medical care largely determines the prognosis. Therefore, the differential diagnostic process should include thromboembolism already at the first visit. It is important to determine risk factors for PAE taking into account the patient’s personality and gender. Obtained data may help the physician to determine quickly the expedience of visualizing studies, such as ventilation/perfusion scintigraphy, angiopulmonography, computed tomographic angiopulmonography. For women, it is important to collect specific information, such as the presence of large uterine fibroids, use of combined oral contraceptives or hormonal replacement therapy; to ask how long ago the patient had pregnancy and delivery, whether she has thrombophilia or oncological diseases.

The Role of Information Institutions in Promoting Information Literacy and Access to Information for Sustainable Development in the Post-Truth Era

2021 ◽  
pp. 78-99
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Open Government ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Right ◽  
Role Of Information

The right to access government information has been a key element of sustainable development since the 1992 Rio Declaration. It is further recognized in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, governments are through open government initiatives making information available to the citizens. This is based on a supposition that everyone is information literate and yet this is not the case. Information literacy is defined as the ability to be able to act on the information that is provided to us citizens. Being able to locate, evaluate, and ethically use information is an ability that is crucial to the citizens' participation in society. It requires individuals to be in possession of a set of skills that can enable them to recognize when information is needed to be able to locate, evaluate, and use it effectively. Information institutions have been the gateways to knowledge, and hence, their resources and services have been crucial to the development of information literate, creative, and innovative societies. This study sought to establish how the information institutions in Sweden were promoting information literacy in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 16 amidst the post-truth era. The author has applied a qualitative research methodology where interviews have been used as a data collecting technique.

The Role of Information Institutions in Promoting Information Literacy and Access to Information for Sustainable Development in the Post-Truth Era

2022 ◽  
pp. 1179-1200
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Open Government ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Development Goal ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Right ◽  
Role Of Information

The right to access government information has been a key element of sustainable development since the 1992 Rio Declaration. It is further recognized in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, governments are through open government initiatives making information available to the citizens. This is based on a supposition that everyone is information literate and yet this is not the case. Information literacy is defined as the ability to be able to act on the information that is provided to us citizens. Being able to locate, evaluate, and ethically use information is an ability that is crucial to the citizens' participation in society. It requires individuals to be in possession of a set of skills that can enable them to recognize when information is needed to be able to locate, evaluate, and use it effectively. Information institutions have been the gateways to knowledge, and hence, their resources and services have been crucial to the development of information literate, creative, and innovative societies. This study sought to establish how the information institutions in Sweden were promoting information literacy in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 16 amidst the post-truth era. The author has applied a qualitative research methodology where interviews have been used as a data collecting technique.

Gender Equality and Sustainable Development Within the Scope of Peace as a Global Public Good

2022 ◽  
pp. 530-544
Author(s):  
Gamze Yıldız Şeren Kurular
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Global Public Good ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Post War ◽  
A Chain

In this chapter, it aimed to bring a multidimensional approach to the “peace” process. The elements of this multiple approach are gender equality and global public policies. It is thought that the mobilization of these two elements in the peace process will be the cornerstone of sustainable development in the world. In this context, gender equality (Goal 5) and peace, justice and strong insights (Goal 16), which is one of the United Nations' sustainable development goals, are engaged in the global public policies. Accordingly, public policies and the peace process involving women will lead to a chain impact that will support sustainable development. While ensuring gender equality provides a solution in the peace process, peace building, and gender equality contribute to sustainable development together. Because the empowerment of the most damaged society in the post-war period will undoubtedly contribute to sustainable development.

scholarly journals From Transition to Domains of Transformation: Getting to Sustainable and Just Food Systems through Agroecology

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Ray Anderson ◽  
Janneke Bruil ◽  
Michael Jahi Chappell ◽  
Csilla Kiss ◽  
Michel Patrick Pimbert
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
And Gender

The acceleration of ecological crises has driven a growing body of thinking on sustainability transitions. Agroecology is being promoted as an approach that can address multiple crises in the food system while addressing climate change and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Beyond the more technical definition as, “the ecology of food systems”, agroecology has a fundamentally political dimension. It is based on an aspiration towards autonomy or the agency of networks of producers and citizens to self-organize for sustainability and social justice. In this article, we use the multi-level perspective (MLP) to examine agroecology transformations. Although the MLP has been helpful in conceptualizing historic transitions, there is a need to better understand: (a) the role of and potential to self-organize in the context of power in the dominant regime, and (b) how to shift to bottom-up forms of governance—a weak point in the literature. Our review analyzes the enabling and disabling conditions that shape agroecology transformations and the ability of communities to self-organize. We develop the notion of ‘domains of transformation’ as overlapping and interconnected interfaces between agroecology and the incumbent dominant regime. We present six critical domains that are important in agroecological transformations: access to natural ecosystems; knowledge and culture; systems of exchange; networks; discourse; and gender and equity. The article focuses on the dynamics of power and governance, arguing that a shift from top down technocratic approaches to bottom up forms of governance based on community-self organization across these domains has the most potential for enabling transformation for sustainability and social justice.

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