The international human rights-based commitment to the provision of basic services for all has yet to be realized in practice for a large percentage of the urban poor, especially in relation to access to safe and appropriate sanitation. This research assumed that underlying the reason for this disparity is the lack of clarity on ‘who’ constitutes the urban poor, what determines ‘appropriate sanitation’, and how access can be equitable and appropriate in relation to gender. This report is an outcome of a two-year research study undertaken in India, Bangladesh, and Kenya to analyze the above questions.

The purpose of this report is to establish broad guidelines as a foundation for effective interventions in sanitation improvements for those living in urban poverty. Several assessments have been made of people’s sanitation needs and demands and quantitative data exist, in most cases, of the percentages of the urban (poor) population who lack access to safe sanitation. What is delivered as safe sanitation to a group of urban poor communities that is assumed to be homogeneous, is often based on the top down opinions of expert others, who draw their perceptions mostly from an environmental health perspective, balanced by what is feasible to deliver within specific programme budgets and timeframes as well as in adherence to official norms relating to service delivery. There is little evidence that ‘safe sanitation’, as delivered, reflects the perceptions and needs of what is appropriate to those living in urban poverty.