Today we are here to look at the issues of financing of services in the light of new models such as the use of social funds. The solution lies in getting all of the different components together. Occasionally one needs to step back from one's own work and from the sector as a whole and take a good look at what has really been achieved. I believe a great deal has been achieved and that a great many people have worked very hard but yet the goal remains very elusive. I would propose that the problem lies with the overriding conditions of poverty which has become a defining characteristic of developing nations.
Developed nations are rich and developing nations, by definition, are poor.
One of the problems in the water supply and sanitation sector is the tendency to work in isolation both from other sectors and from the broad economic, political and social realities which exist in the countries where we work. The first element of the nature of poverty which needs to be understood is that poverty effects all aspects of society. An understanding of the all pervasive nature of poverty is important when assessing its impact on any particular individual sector. Public to individual Poverty effects the whole range of institutional life from the public institutions of government to the individual level. Public sector conditions of service are therefore very poor with extremely low salaries and inadequate working conditions, public spending on basic necessities such as education and health care are very low, it is difficult to attract and keep good calibre public servants and capacity building programs are often tickets to leave public service for more attractive opportunities, the capacity and experience of officials is consequently often inadequate, fertile grounds are laid for corruption and graft, systems of patronage and nepotism often result in political interference, mounting foreign debt is accompanied with an inability to compete on international markets, and the gap of technological advancement, particularly in information technology, is ever widening.