Vote for the most important socio-econ indicators!

[joe]

In your opinion, what are the 5 most important and useful socio-economic indicators in understanding the link between sanitation and development?

Feel free to give your own opinion and advise any other indicators that you think will be helpful to our research, that aren't included above

[davidvick]

aren't we trying to find the socioeconomic factors which affect sanitation? surely having sanitation indicators in poll kind of defeats the object, of course the variable '% with improved sanitation' will affect the development of sanitation in a country!?
Similarly, the mortality indicators would surely be more affected by the level of sanitation, rather than the level of mortality affecting the quality of sanitation in a country? Is the quality of sanitation included in the calculation of the human poverty index? if so making correlations between it and sanitation isn't very good science!

[claudia]

When providing a sanitation system, what do we look at?
- How much it will cost
- Who is going to plan it, build it and maintain it
- Where we are going to put it
- How many people/area it will supply
- How effective it will be
- ?

So, Socio-economically speaking, where is your input in the process/decision making?

[davidvick]

hmmm, I think obviously all of these things will depend on the situation, and so now we need to consider all of these in the context of Pakistan and more precisely Kashmir.
- the cost probably depends on what the goal of the project is, are we targetting 'open defecation free' status, or increasing access to 'improved' sanitation facilities (which is presumably more expensive?). A few articles have highlighted the importance of affordability in order for the project to be sustainable. If it is too expensive, and only affordable to the middle-classes or through subsidies, this has a number of problems. The middle-class are not the core people the project should target; and if subsidies are required it means the scope of the sanitation improvement is limited by the budget of the government to subsidise the project. Instead the article argued that latrines need to be designed, marketed and sold like a consumer product. If a design is too expensive, an innovative way of reducing cost or a small compromise should be found in order to design something which is a significant improvement, but which the poor can afford to buy and maintain. If the target population can afford it themselves, they will likely have a greater 'sense of ownership' over it, and maintain it better....sustainable! Hopefully demand for the product would then spread over time as people see that other people have adopted it. The article suggested schools would be a good place to start, as sanitation in schools is important for education of kids, who consequently learn more about hygiene, but are also likely to try and bring that knowledge back home to their parents.....
Obviously the problem with cheaper products would be, are they effective enough?! Also, we would have to discover if people are willing to invest in any type of latrine in the first place, and if not, hygiene and sanitation education would be required