Eighth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Water-related diseases are a leading cause of child death in developing countries. This paper tries to assess the impact of development assistance on access to water supply and sanitation (WSS) services. We use panel data models as empirical strategy, and we rest on data provided by the OECD Creditor Reporting System, ranging from 2002 to 2014, for 126 countries. We contribute to the existing literature by introducing in the analysis the aid for health education. We identify an additional positive impact of infrastructure expenditure on access when it is combined with health education programs. Health education also seems to have an isolated impact when we study separately urban and rural areas. The impact of health education on access to sanitation is greater than that on access to water supply, and it is also greater in rural areas than in urban settlements. These results suggest that demand-side interventions such as health education, combined with traditionally considered supply-side investments, can help to maximize the impact of public WSS services delivery on health. However, our findings should be taken with the appropriate caution, since they may vary according to the model specification or the estimation method used.