Water and Sanitation
Based on the progress on maintaining political momentum and increasing funding for this sector, the rating attributed to this area is good. In 2011, the G8 contributed $4.7 billion to water and sanitation programmes and increased the number of partnerships with developing countries. This represents a 16% increase in aid compared to 2010, and ¾ of the total OECD donations for this type on intervention.
But big problems remain to be solved, and much needs to be done for the 2.5 billion people-nearly half the population in developing regions, and over a third of the world's population - who do not have access to improved sanitation facilities, and in particular for the 1.1 billion (15% of the global population) who have no sanitation facilities at all.
The Overseas Development Institute claims that the poor progress towards the Millennium Development Goal shows that the G8 have paid little attention to this area. DevEx stresses that the majority of the money in this area seems to go into building large infrastructure, and not into basic systems; and on countries which are political allies and strategic partners of the G8, instead of on the countries in the most need.