Urban governance and multilateral aid organizations: The case of informal water supply systems |
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Authors: | Luisa Moretto |
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Institution: | (1) School for Advanced Studies in Venice Foundation, San Servolo Island, 30100 Venice, Italy |
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Abstract: | This paper explores the different urban governance models proposed by multilateral aid organizations in accessing water through
informal supply systems, to assess the rationale and the guiding principles at the basis of their different ‘governance approaches’.
There can be no doubt that most developing countries are now experiencing a rapid and unprecedented urban growth, which is
bringing about a rising demand for urban services, especially those concerning water supply. To cope with this pressing issue,
the response of multilateral aid organizations—such as the World Bank, UN-HABITAT and the European Union––has been represented
by the design and implementation of different urban governance and management systems, called to support an equitable and
efficient access to urban water supply services. This paper focuses on the different urban governance approaches through which
multilateral donors support informal networks and small scale providers to provide water supply in cities of developing countries.
It highlights how these different urban governance approaches address the overall issues of poverty reduction whilst in reality,
in certain cases, they also aim to affect and regulate domestic public policies of Third World countries. In particular, it
argues that the governance model proposed––and imposed––by the World Bank continues to belong to a neo-liberal policy agenda,
which considers water and urban services as commodities to be managed through widespread competition and market mechanisms.
On the contrary, UN-HABITAT, and the European Union to a certain extent, highlight the need for an urban governance system
that promotes the ownership of development strategies by local communities and that rests on the principles of inclusiveness
and equity.
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Keywords: | Urban governance Multilateral aid organizations Informal networks and providers Water supply Evaluation models |
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