Pro-poor water and sanitation: operationalising inclusive discourses to benefit the poor

The ‘pro-poor’ concept, prominent in development studies, was later incorporated into technical disciplines and policy development, and is a precursor to the inclusive development concept. This article reviews the scholarly literature on the pro-poor concept and its operationalisation in water and sanitation (WatSan) discourses and practices. It shows that such operationalisation has improved WatSan provision to the poor through the adoption of instruments, assessments and outcomes. However, the ‘pro-poor’ approach introduced a simplified notion of social inclusiveness into multi and inter-disciplinary debates and policy processes. Although outcomes are positive and offer some lessons for the social inclusiveness component of inclusive development, ‘pro-poor’ WatSan discourses have neither addressed the related environmental issues nor taken a relational approach to empowering the poor.