Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) is a public service approach to planning and implementing urban sanitation systems to achieve outcomes summarized by Sustainable Development Goal 6: safe, equitable, and sustainable sanitation for everyone in an urban area, paying special attention to the needs of the poor, the marginalized, and women and girls.

To advance and sustain SDG outcomes at a meaningful scale, all CWIS systems must demonstrate three core functions:
• A responsible authority(ies) is executing a public mandate for inclusive urban service delivery;
• The authority(ies) is accountable for performance against its mandate;
• Resource management and planning reflect authority mandates, priorities, and performance accountability.

A public service approach to urban sanitation acknowledges the market failures inherent to urban sanitation systems. This approach does not preclude, but rather improves private sector incentives to expand investments and stimulate innovations along all stages of the sanitation value chain.

CWIS focuses on outcomes and system functions rather than specific system designs. So, sanitation authorities may and must consider the range of possible technologies, service and business models. Clear roles, responsibilities, and relationships and data-driven management information systems are required for meaningful collaborations among relevant stakeholders including national- and city-level leaders, the private sector, development professionals and donors, communities, and of course, customers.

Formalizing service delivery systems helps stakeholders share responsibilities and accountability at all levels in pursuit of SDG 6 outcomes.

Source: BMGFCWISFactsheet.pdf