The Blue Book has been developed by and for all partners in the water and sanitation sector within a region or a country. It provides an independent assessment of the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals regarding water and sanitation and casts a critical eye on sectorial policies and strategies.

The Blue Book contains proposals and provides a platform for action, in order to ensure that all citizens have equitable and sustainable access to water supply and sanitation.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are an important marker in the awareness and commitment of the international community regarding water supply and sanitation, a sector in which speeches and incantations had the unfortunate tendency to replace action and to silence the users' voices.

Increasing the current insufficient level of funding and building new infrastructures are undisputable priorities, but they will remain sufficient for the achievement of the MDGs. It is also important to improve the effectiveness of existing funding mechanisms, and above all to ensure that the infrastructures built between now and 2015 will contriute to equitable and sustainable access to water and sanitation.

On the basis on those observations, a number of ISW partners in the North and South have considered it interesting to create a new, independent, assessment tool, which would be anchored at local level. Such tool would make it possible to assess to what extent the improvements in access to water and sanitation actually benefit all users.

Numerous initiatives to promote access to water and sanitation and to measure the effectiveness of this access already exist at national and global levels. The Blue Book does not seek to replace these initiatives. On the contrary, it builds on this effort and complements it by using an approach that is far more qualitative than quantitative.

Compared to national policies, the Blue Book is a citizen initiative, which measures the progress of these policies in an independent manner and which aims at ensuring that all users have access to services of water and sanitation, regardless of their standards of living, their capacity to pay for the services, their political weight and their distance from the country's decision making centers.

To measure the degree of equity in the access to water and sanitation, the Blue Book bases itself on a critical analysis, which is undertaken by an independant group of individuals. Whenever deemed necessary, the Blue Book develops its own assessment capacity, for example by conducting surveys among users.

The Blue Book lobbies strongly to increase the quantity and, above all, the quality of the funding tools and to ensure that the resources are available at local level. It also claims an intervention right in order to ensure that good intentions expressed by political decision makers and donors are put into practice.

• Independence
• Objectivity
• Participation
• Representation
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Long-term vision
• Added Value

Each Blue Book is drafted under the supervision of a National Blue Book Committee (NBBC), which brings together individuals known for their independence and their competencies and who do not represent any particular institution. The NBBC is responsible for promoting the Blue Book process in each country.

The Blue Book’s interest is to associate the local partners to water management as well as the users.

The whole process can only be credible if the National Steering Committee members of the Blue Book are experienced persons and if the national counselor is the main work force.

The Blue Book’s «label» (vision, principles, conceptual frame, etc.) is guaranteed by an International Steering Committee (ISC). The ISC has a methodology support function, of information and diffusion on the international scene and of fundraising research. It is actually composed by:

• Raymond Jost, President
• Jean Bosco Bazié, ISW Africa Coordinator
• Janique Étienne, AFD
• Stef Lambrecht, Protos
• Roger Lanoue, ISW
• Christophe Le Jallé, pS-Eau
• Marc Lévy, Foreign and European Affairs
• Sophie Tolachides, Eau-Vive
• Bruno Valfrey-Visser, Scientific Adviser
• Maggie White 
• Thierry Umbehr
  
  Two other members are to be confirmed (Latin America and Central Europe).

Three Blue Books were put together in 2004-2005 and published in March 2005. These books cover the following countries: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. A New Blue Book covering Benin came out in 2009 as well as another covering Senegal in 2010. Two other countries are currently working on their Blue Book (Moldova and Peru).

Download the Blue Books and the country reports (The reports are only available in french).

                                               
                                Burkina Faso's Blue Book        Mali's Blue Book              Niger's Blue Book
                                                   Report                                  Report                                 Report

                                                           
                                                               Benin's Blue Book      Senegal's Blue Book
                                                                          Report                           Report

The Blue Book, an evolving concept

Since Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger's Blue Books, the concept has evolved. It integrates matters of right to water and sanitation and takes into account the existing governance level. The economic reality and available financing are also recognized. The Blue Book gave local communities the opportunity to take actions in Niger. New Blue Books are in process in Senegal, Peru and Moldova.