Reporting aid flows for water supply and sanitation: official development assistance

This article was accepted for publication in the Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development [© IWA Publishing].Current resource allocations for water supply and sanitation are far below those required to meet\udbasic needs, particularly in low income countries. Many organisations supporting advocacy and\udarguing for change make use of the primary statistical data for Official Development Assistance (ODA)\udwhich measures donor aid flows to the sector. Important changes have taken place to the way ODA\udis reported including disaggregation between aid flows for water supply and aid flows for sanitation\udfrom 2010 onwards. This paper reports findings from a consultative group regarding issues requiring\udclarification for the revised codes to be applied consistently. These include: disaggregation of water\udand sanitation from within integrated water sector projects; disaggregation of water and sanitation\udcomponents from projects in other sectors; clarity on working definitions of ‘large and basic’ when\udreporting water and sanitation projects; capacity development that directly supports\udimplementation; and recording the transition from projects to programme-based aid. Case studies\uddrawn from donors’ reporting of ODA are used to illustrate key issues for users of ODA statistical\udinformation who aim to capture data on aid flows to the water sector