A Thillai Rajan

This article synthesizes the evidence on the effectiveness of top-down and bottom-up approaches in providing basic services in slums in developing countries. The findings indicate that: (1) government-led top-down approaches focus predominantly on connectivity, but approaches led by community-based organizations (CBOs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) improve many additional dimensions of access; (2) legal recognition of slums improves access to services in both approaches; and (3) NGO and CBO involvement results in the right balance between the technical, social and financial resources required for effective service delivery.

Despite several years of concentrated efforts to provide safe and improved water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, progress towards universal access to WASH has been uneven. The problem is more acute in developing countries. Identification of target segments and proper understanding of barriers faced by these segments would have an important role to play in achieving universal access to WASH facilities. There are multiple ways of segmenting WASH beneficiaries: The conventional approach has been through geographical and social segmentation (such as urban, rural, poor and so on), however there is increasing advocacy for a life-cycle based approach that targets beneficiaries based on their gender, age and so on. This systematic review compares the trends in Life-Cycle Segmentation (LCS) vis-a-vis the Geographic and Social Segmentation (GSS) with the hypothesis that such an understanding would be helpful in achieving universal access to WASH. Drawing on policies, programmes and projects from 11 countries in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, it was found that in general, GSS has been the dominant approach to targeting population in WASH policy making and programming, though there were variations across regions and sectors. Incorporation of LCS would complement the GSS in improving effectiveness and equity of access to WASH interventions.

In the provision of basic infrastructure services to the urban poor, limited rigorous evidence on the most effective service delivery approaches is available. This meta-analysis synthesises the evidence on the effectiveness of bottom-up approaches that is characterized by the strong involvement of alternate service providers such as NGO's and CBO's in improving access to electricity, water supply, and sanitation services for the urban poor. Although bottom-up approaches are espoused, we find that they do not have a statistically significant effect. This trend was consistent for all dimensions of access: connectivity, affordability, adequacy, and effort and time. However, our findings also show that bottom-up approaches may be more effective in the water and sanitation sectors than in the electricity sector. When bottom-up approaches involve active participation from the community, the results are significantly positive. Our study suggests that innovations to bottom-up approaches that facilitate active community participation can be an effective way to increase access to basic services among the urban poor.