Corporate Social Responsibility and Universal Access to Water and Sanitation Cecilia Ugaz Human Development Report Office UNDP New York

Human Development and Corporate Social Responsibility

Why water?

Where do we stand? What is the size of the deficit? MDG 7 target 10: Halve the proportion of the population without access to safe water The gloomy arithmetic also for Latin America What about Brazil?

The nature of the water market Network provision Water sector is non competitive Who are the other providers?

Is water an unfriendly commodity? The limits to market discipline

The role of the private sector Some background on failed attempts... –Concessions entailed too much risk for the private sector –Articulation with municipal providers is not clear –Failure to invest, failure to connect, failure to diminish tariffs –In sum, the model exhibits structural failures...

But, we need the private sector

Regulation

Regulation + CSR = Articulated Regulation The potential to reduce efficiency and equity trade-offs

Help to institutionalize stakeholder participation, in particular consumer participation Transparency and disclosure of information which is needed for the regulator to perform its mandate Engage further with small scale providers Invest and engage with new technologies