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The report argues that South Africa's municipal service delivery model has failed, transforming basic services from tools for socioeconomic development into instruments of impoverishment. It finds a massive gap between the number of households funded for free basic services and those actually receiving them, while tariffs for low-income households have risen far above inflation. The author contends that the 'win-win' assumption—that tariffs can be simultaneously affordable for the poor and sufficient for municipal financial viability—is a fallacy. This failure exacerbates food insecurity, as poor households sacrifice nutrition to pay municipal bills, and undermines other national poverty-reduction efforts. The report advocates for a 'Food First' approach to affordability and a fundamental rethink of the local government fiscal framework.

The report advocates for a paradigm shift in sanitation and wastewater management, moving from a 'waste disposal' model to a 'resource recovery' model. It details how the safe recovery of water, nutrients, organic matter, and energy from human excreta and wastewater can improve public health, enhance agricultural productivity, and mitigate climate change. The text provides a comprehensive framework for sustainable systems, covering technical design, health risk management, environmental protection, institutional governance, and financial models. It emphasizes that sustainability depends on adapting technologies to local geographic, social, and economic contexts rather than applying universal solutions. The report includes diverse global case studies—ranging from potable water reuse in Namibia to biogas production in China and fuel briquettes in Kenya—to demonstrate the practical viability of these systems.

The document highlights a significant gap in climate action and finance regarding sanitation, noting that while the IPCC identifies sanitation as a key measure for reducing climate vulnerability, it is largely absent from Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate funding. It examines how sanitation systems contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane from anaerobic decomposition, and suggests that shifting from pit latrines to composting toilets or biogas systems can mitigate these impacts. The brief recommends improving research on climate-sanitation links, adapting planning frameworks like the WHO Sanitation Safety Planning approach, and increasing the capacity of sector stakeholders to mobilize climate finance.

The document highlights the overlooked role of sanitation systems in climate mitigation and adaptation, noting that the sector is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions while offering opportunities for resource recovery and resilience. It calls for the development of planning frameworks to bridge the gap between sanitation services and global climate policy and financing.

The report advocates for a paradigm shift in sanitation and wastewater management, moving from a focus on waste disposal to one of resource recovery. It details how recovering water, nutrients, and energy from waste streams can improve public health, food security, and climate mitigation while creating economic opportunities. The document provides technical guidance on system design, risk management for human and environmental health, and the institutional and financial frameworks necessary to implement sustainable, context-specific sanitation systems.

XacBank LLC is seeking USD 914,425 from the Green Climate Fund to prepare a comprehensive funding proposal for a mini-grid system in Ulaanbaatar's ger areas. The project aims to address air pollution and utility inadequacies caused by coal-based heating and lack of sanitation. The requested PPF funding will support technical feasibility studies, financial and legal structuring, environmental and social impact assessments, and market analysis over a 14-month period.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) proposes the 'Village propre–Village productif' framework to address the lack of integrated risk and resource management in rural sanitation. The framework uses a dual-axis certification system: a 'clean' axis focused on health and hygiene (e.g., eliminating open defecation and managing greywater) and a 'productive' axis focused on the safe recovery of nutrients and energy from waste (e.g., human excreta, animal waste, and ash). By linking sanitation to agricultural productivity and economic benefits, the framework aims to overcome the sustainability and scaling challenges of previous approaches like Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS). It is particularly targeted at smallholder farmers in developing regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, to support multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The document examines the proliferation of slums in Ghana, identifying drivers such as rapid urbanization, poverty, and the failure to implement national housing and environmental policies. Based on research in Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi, it highlights the severe lack of sanitation, healthcare, and secure housing, as well as the negative impacts on children and the environment. It argues that current housing policies are deficient because they ignore the needs of the poor and the role of social networks. The brief recommends against forced evictions, calling instead for slum upgrading, strategic private-sector partnerships for affordable housing, and the integration of slum dwellers' perspectives into urban planning.

The report examines the development of slums in Ghana, specifically within the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA). It identifies key drivers such as rural-urban migration, poverty, and systemic policy failures in housing. The study highlights the negative impacts of slums on child development, public health, and urban security, while also noting the potential for economic contributions through informal recycling and food services. It argues that the Ghana National Housing Policy is weak and fails to specifically address slums or cultural norms. The report recommends against forced evictions, calling instead for coordinated stakeholder collaboration, the upgrading of existing settlements, and a comprehensive revision of national housing policy to foster urban resilience.

The document examines sanitation governance in Rwanda and Uganda, arguing that top-down policies often fail because they ignore the socio-cultural drivers of household behaviour and lack adequate national funding. It highlights a significant 'implementation gap' where international targets drive policy, but households—who provide approximately 60% of sector investment—face cultural and emotional barriers to adoption. The brief advocates for 'backward mapping' to include ground-level stakeholders in design and a deeper understanding of behavioural drivers to ensure sustainability.

The UrbanCircle project, an initiative by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), focuses on transforming urban waste streams—including wastewater, excreta, and food waste—into valuable products like fertilisers, biogas, and dry fuels. Using the Naivasha sub-county in Kenya as an initial study site, the project employs a three-step process: inventorying waste and demand, co-developing future scenarios with stakeholders, and using the REVAMP (Resource Value Mapping) tool to estimate economic costs and benefits. The initiative argues that shifting from a linear to a circular economy can reduce environmental degradation, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and create new business opportunities for local entrepreneurs.

The report identifies a gap between Namibia's strong economic growth and its poor human development indicators, particularly in sanitation, electricity access, and nutrition. Using the International Futures (IFs) system, it models various policy interventions to determine their impact on GDP, extreme poverty, and infant mortality. Key findings suggest that while individual sectoral pushes like 'Health Extension' or 'Infrastructure Push' provide specific gains, an 'Integrated Development Push' combined with household transfers offers the most comprehensive path to reducing poverty and inequality, though it involves trade-offs in funding and specific health outcomes.

The Simiyu Climate Resilience Project is a proposed adaptation initiative in Tanzania's Simiyu Region. It seeks 102.7 million EUR in grant funding from the GCF, with a total investment of 143.4 million EUR, to address water scarcity and food insecurity caused by climate change. The project focuses on constructing a bulk water supply system from Lake Victoria, improving sanitation, and implementing climate-smart agriculture for approximately 495,000 beneficiaries.

The document argues that urban water and sanitation systems in Alberta face significant risks from increasing temperatures, precipitation shifts, and extreme weather events. To build resilience, it advocates for a 'multi-barrier' approach to robustness, the integration of redundancy through source water diversity and decentralized treatment, and the promotion of resourcefulness via low-impact development (LID) and green infrastructure. Specific recommendations for Calgary and Edmonton include conducting stochastic hydrology analysis on source watersheds, reviewing regulatory obstacles to decentralized water technologies, and exploring economic instruments like stormwater levies and water trading systems.

The document analyzes Ethiopia's rapid economic growth and human development progress since 1991, while highlighting persistent gaps in basic service access and agricultural productivity. Using the International Futures (IFs) forecasting system, it compares a 'Current Path' forecast against various intervention scenarios, concluding that an integrated approach across agriculture, education, health, and governance is necessary to reach lower-middle-income status by 2025.

The paper argues that effective governance is a primary determinant of poverty reduction in Africa. Using the International Futures (IFs) forecasting system, it demonstrates that improving governance effectiveness (aligned with SDG 16.6) would lift more than 60 million people out of poverty by 2050, outperforming other targeted health and sanitation interventions.

The document details the development of the Madurai Action Plan for Blue-Green Infrastructure, a multi-stakeholder initiative designed to mitigate climate-related hazards like flooding and extreme heat. It emphasizes the role of intermediary organisations, such as the DHAN Foundation, in bridging the gap between government authorities and local communities through participatory methods like 'water walks'. The plan consists of 14 projects across six themes, focusing on sanitation, waste management, and the restoration of water bodies. The case study highlights the importance of integrated, long-term planning over sector-specific approaches and suggests that this model can inform the development of 'smart cities' in India by prioritising natural and cultural heritage alongside urban growth.

The paper evaluates sanitation policies in Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania against seven criteria, finding that while frameworks are ambitious and reforms toward decentralization and Sector Wide Approaches (SWAps) are positive, significant gaps remain in funding, technical capacity at the district level, and the translation of policy into functional facilities.

The report provides a comprehensive overview of South Africa's water crisis, highlighting the critical role of 'ecological infrastructure' and the need to transition from a reliance on ageing surface-water dams to sustainable groundwater management and water-sensitive urban design. It details the threats to freshwater biodiversity, the systemic failures in wastewater treatment and sanitation, and the necessity of public-private partnerships in water stewardship to mitigate risks to the economy and public health.

The Stockholm Environment Institute has developed Resource Value Mapping (REVAMP), a tool designed to help urban planners and investors identify the economic and material value of resources recoverable from sewage sludge, faecal sludge, and organic solid waste. Unlike previous tools, REVAMP operates at a city-wide scale and is specifically tailored for the Global South by incorporating on-site sanitation data. A 2016 trial in Kampala, Uganda, demonstrated that 100% collection of the city's organic waste could generate significant daily revenues and substitutes for firewood and chemical fertilizers, with solid combustion fuel offering the highest potential daily revenue of US$225,500.