Lao PDR

The development challenges thrown up by the Millennium Development Goal targets are causing water supply and sanitation interventions to be increasingly seen as an important... Show More + part of the large poverty reduction agenda, increasingly incorporated into broader multi-dimension interventions for poverty reduction and growth, in rural, urban and small town settings. WSS Sector professionals are faced with the need to move out of sectoral boundaries and be proactive in engaging with other communities of development practice, to effectively influence the way water and sanitation interventions are designed and implemented through projects for rural development, urban development, agriculture, public health, Social Investment Funds, and multi-sectoral infrastructure development. Over the past decades there is much that the WSS sector has learned about how to make water supply and sanitation services sustainable and efficient and better serve the poor. It is imperative that these lessons be transferred effectively when WSS interventions are delivered through non-sectoral channels and institutions. However, the learning required is not a one-way process. WSS sector professionals need to continuously learn how to work effectively across sectors as they share what they know about water and sanitation. A growing perception among partners of the issue led to WSP-EAP's choice of "working across boundaries to serve the poor sustainably" as the theme for its annual learning event in February 2002. The event, which has now become a valued yearly tradition in WSP-EAP, brought together key personnel in the East Asia region from government ministries, External Support Agencies, NGO partners, World Bank colleagues and all Water and Sanitation Program, East Asia and the Pacific (WSP-EAP) professionals. Show Less -