“Sanitation” in the Top Development Journals: A Review

Abstract

The top 12 development journals published a total of 18,329 papers during the period 2000-2020. Out of these, just 51 focused on sanitation and related issues, which are the focus of this review. Results were mixed on the efficiency of sanitation delivery since political factors and administrative characteristics vary across locations. Accountability and leadership, especially at the local level, appear to be important driving forces. There is a need for more case studies that analyze what works, and what does not, in specific locations. Also, further studies will have to investigate how to influence the norms, traditions, and beliefs towards favorably supporting household sanitation decisions. Additionally, governments should enhance their social welfare programs to address socioeconomic inequalities (i.e., income, gender, and rural-urban disparities), which also critically affect individual and household sanitation investments. Efforts at national and international levels are needed to encourage research on the various dimensions of sanitation.

Food Inflation and Child Health in Africa: Evidence From Countries With High Misery Index

“…The result was significant for all the variables indicating that access to safe sanitation plays an important role in child health. Our findings supported the outcome by Prüss-Ustün et al ( 2019), and Revilla & Ram (2021).…”

Sanitation management knowledge value chain

“…Translating Sani-K into valuable resource transits from an understanding and identification of what constitutes Sani-K and the ability to manage this resource (i.e., Sani-KM); and is crucial for making up a sanitation management knowledge value chain (SaniM-KVC) that will support the IFSVC. Although sanitation is such a prevalent topic for discourse in development quarters, according to Revilla et al (2021), only 51 (out of 18,329) academic papers in the top development journals globally focused on sanitation and related issues. Sanitation is the different ways that excreta and urine (i.e., faecal sludge) as well as menstrual blood (UNICEF/WHO, 2020) and wastewater is collected and treated to prevent human exposure and environmental contamination (Naughton & Mihelcic, 2017; UNICEF/WHO, 2020) while sanitation management (SaniM) is the process (which could include facilities, products, services, and systems) for safely managing the collection, transportation, disposal, treatment and conversion of sanitation matter to protect the socioecological integrity of contextual locations and sanitation management knowledge (SaniM-K) is the knowledge about all of these.…”

Sanitation conditions and education outcomes in Brazilian municipalities

“…Bad sanitation conditions affect the population's welfare in several ways, but its effects on children's education have not received enough attention in the literature. The review of over 18,000 papers published in the 12 top development journals in the period 2000–2020 presented by Revilla et al (2021) has only one mention of education. Diep et al (2020) present an attempt to associate sanitation with the SDGs, but does not include education outcomes in their study.…”