The World Bank has a fantastic database with reams of data. After seeing how successful World Water Day was this year, I wanted to look at how LDCs in Africa are progressing towards the targets for water and sanitation set under Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the MDGs provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. As we have had 11 years to reach these goals, I investigated how "well" we are doing in achieving them. More info on the MDGs here.
The MDG in question is number 7: Ensure environmental sustainability, and more specifically Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
The World Bank database contains data on the % of population, by country, who have access to water and sanitation for the years 2000, 2005 and 2008. I calculated what the % in 2000 needs to reduce to in order to meet the MDG by 2015. Then, knowing what this target % needs to be, I calculated how far the countries have come towards meeting that target.
For example, if in a country 40% of its population didn't have access to clean water, this figure would have to fall to 20% by 2015 to reach the MDG. If it currently has only fallen 10% (to 30%), then that country is 50% of the way to meeting the target.
Average of LDCs in Africa (weighted by population):
As you can see, LDCs in Africa are only 10% towards achieving the goal for sanitation and 22% for water - not good.
This gives a high level picture, now I wanted to investigate how each individual country is doing in terms of its water and sanitation MDGs using motion charts. The google doc with the chart is saved here. The motion chart is on the "Motion Chart" sheet. Set it up as follows:
Looking at water 1st, the below chart shows the % towards the water MDG each country has achieved from 2000 to 2008:
On a positive note, Angola (the highlighted country above) has made decent progress towards its sanitation MDG achieving 57% of it by 2008. This is valuable information, as whatever policies they are enacting in Angola are significantly improving the access to sanitation. It would be great to hear from someone who has experience of working on sanitation in Angola. Please, tell us how they're doing it so other countries can enact similar policies!
Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the MDGs provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. As we have had 11 years to reach these goals, I investigated how "well" we are doing in achieving them. More info on the MDGs here.
The MDG in question is number 7: Ensure environmental sustainability, and more specifically Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
The World Bank database contains data on the % of population, by country, who have access to water and sanitation for the years 2000, 2005 and 2008. I calculated what the % in 2000 needs to reduce to in order to meet the MDG by 2015. Then, knowing what this target % needs to be, I calculated how far the countries have come towards meeting that target.
For example, if in a country 40% of its population didn't have access to clean water, this figure would have to fall to 20% by 2015 to reach the MDG. If it currently has only fallen 10% (to 30%), then that country is 50% of the way to meeting the target.
Average of LDCs in Africa (weighted by population):
| 2000 | Target by 2015 | 2008 | % Complete | |
| Without Access to Sanitation | 77% | 39% | 73% | 10% |
| Without Access to Water | 52% | 26% | 46% | 22% |
As you can see, LDCs in Africa are only 10% towards achieving the goal for sanitation and 22% for water - not good.
This gives a high level picture, now I wanted to investigate how each individual country is doing in terms of its water and sanitation MDGs using motion charts. The google doc with the chart is saved here. The motion chart is on the "Motion Chart" sheet. Set it up as follows:
- Y-axis set to "Water - Progress to MDG"
- X-axis set to "Country Code"
- Colour set to "Country Code"
- Size set to "Population"
Looking at water 1st, the below chart shows the % towards the water MDG each country has achieved from 2000 to 2008:
As you can see, small nations such as Malawi, Lesotho and Gambia are doing excellently. Malawi, which is the highlighted country above, is 92% of the way towards reaching its MDG for water. On the other hand, conflict nations such as Rwanda and Sierra Leone have actually gotten worse when it comes to access to water. The small orange bubble at the bottom of the chart is Sierra Leone, where the access to water has decreased by 27%.
Sanitation, unfortunately, shows an even bleaker picture:
Here you can see that the majority of countries have made little progress towards reaching their sanitation MDG, with the vast majority lying around the 10-20% mark. Populous countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Tanzania achieve scores of 9%, 0% and 0%, which bring down the average mark to 10%.
Sanitation, unfortunately, shows an even bleaker picture:
Here you can see that the majority of countries have made little progress towards reaching their sanitation MDG, with the vast majority lying around the 10-20% mark. Populous countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Tanzania achieve scores of 9%, 0% and 0%, which bring down the average mark to 10%.
On a positive note, Angola (the highlighted country above) has made decent progress towards its sanitation MDG achieving 57% of it by 2008. This is valuable information, as whatever policies they are enacting in Angola are significantly improving the access to sanitation. It would be great to hear from someone who has experience of working on sanitation in Angola. Please, tell us how they're doing it so other countries can enact similar policies!
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