An empirical exploration of relationships between official development assistance (ODA) and advances in water and sanitation subsectors

This paper explores aid effectiveness by studying the effect of aid, aid volatility, and key development indicators, focusing on safe access to water and sanitation (W&S) in both urban and rural areas. Despite the importance of official development assistance (ODA) for these two subsectors, little global attention is given to its importance and its connectivity with different socio economic factors. In this study, we focus on the countries that receive aid for water and sanitation. We find that aid does have a discernible impact on access to W&S, particularly in rural areas, but that this impact is reduced by aid volatility, there is a clear evidence that ODA for water and sanitation lacks the appropriate orientation, and is not targeting most of the areas that are really in need.