Strategic Thinking to Achieve Water MDGs

Abstract

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have set the global agenda for fighting poverty, and have put water and sanitation at the center of that discussion. Target 10 of the MDGs calls for halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The Asian Development Bank is committed to helping establish the enabling environment needed to achieve the MDGs. Part of its efforts is to harness and promote critical knowledge that enables its developing member countries to make decisions, formulate policies, and undertake actions. In September 2005, ADB helped prepare the MDG II report entitled "A Future Within Reach," which was presented at the UN General Assembly in New York. In February 2006, ADB - together with partners UNESCAP, UNDP, and WHO - completed a study on the progress and price tag of achieving Target 10 among the different countries in the Asia and Pacific region, dubbed "Asia Water Watch 2015." ADB has again embarked on a study focusing on the water supply and sanitation costs and pricing practices that influence the attainment of the MDG Target 10. Development economist Bhanoji Rao, Professor Emeritus at GITAM Institute of Foreign Trade in Visakhapatnam, India, was commissioned to undertake this study.