Topic outline

  • General

    • Description

      This course is the open version of the Online Course Governance of Decentralized Sanitation offered by UNESCO-IHE. To follow the complete course including full lectures, plenty of additional materials, practical cases, exercises, interaction with other course participants as well as support from lecturers please register here. The online course is part of the UNESCO-IHE Graduate Professional Diploma Programme on Sanitation and sanitary engineering.

      Course Rationale: 50% of the world population lives in urban areas (UN, 2008). Most of this growth occurs in slums and informal settlements. It is estimated that slum areas encompass approximately 70% of the urban population (UN-Habitat, 2010). The trends indicate that future urban development will mostly occur in these areas. In Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa "slums are virtually synonymous with urbanization" (UN-HABITAT, 2007:22). Policy makers, municipalities and local authorities face the challenge of providing sanitation services to the growing urban population. A greater part of the present 30% s MDG's gap is as a result of the low basic sanitation coverage in urban slums (WHO/UNICEF, 2008).

      For whom?

      Mid-career professionals involved in planning, management, decision-making, policy formulation, implementation, and operation and maintenance of sanitation services in slum areas; Academics engaged in development studies and in the field of governance of WASH services.

      Learning Objectives

      Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to analyse policy and management challenges of decentralized (peri-)urban sanitation services, and to select and apply instruments and management approaches to address these challenges. In particular, upon completion of the module, participants will be able to:

      • Critically reflect on current debates in sanitation service delivery governance in the context of urban and peri-urban areas

      • Analyze the main social, technical and institutional challenges for the provision of sanitation in peri-urban contexts

      • Apply practical methodologies to achieve inclusive and sustainable sanitation services planning and management

      References

      Software

      • N/A

      Books

      • Peri-urban Water and Sanitation Services: Policy, Planning and Method. Editors: Kurian, Mathew, McCarney, Patricia (2010). Springer, ISBN 978-90-481-9425-4. pp.300 (this book supported the first version of the online course, before the course went through a review process)

      Lecturer

      Course materials were organized by Mireia Tutusaus Luque (MSc), Lecturer/Researcher in Water Services Management, Integrated Water Systems and Governance, UNESCO-IHE (assisted by Cecilia Alda Vidal, MSc).

      Acknowledgements

      Dr Maria Rusca, UNESCO-IHE staff members and project/lecturing partners who contributed for developing this course (including Dr Mathew Kurian who developed the first version of this online course).

      Reference Course

      This set of course materials is provided as OpenCourseWare without support and interaction with lecturers. For full lectures and support from lecturers, please register online for one of the related courses:

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  • Module 1: Introduction to sanitation governance: theories and concepts

    This module provides participants with an overview of the urban sanitation challenge and situates the discussion within a broader framework of urbanization processes. It focuses on the key concepts and theories that contribute to explain urban developments in the Global South, rural-urban links, and the implications of these developments on delivery of decentralized sanitation. Participants will be exposed to theories from urban planning, economics, and critical and policy literature on small scale sanitation provision modalities and development studies.

  • Module 2: Tools and approaches: challenges for the provision of sanitation

    This module introduces participants to practical tools that can be applied to analyse and address challenges they face in their work environment. Participants will be exposed to state of the art experience with regard to benchmarking, participatory approaches, and strategic planning for sanitation delivery in cities.